G-Cloud has turned the tanker by a few degrees

Hands up who has heard of these firms: Valtech, BJSS, Equal Experts, Method Advisory, Mastek?

If you're anything like me, few of those names will even ring a bell, and yet these are the five suppliers that have transacted the most sales through G-Cloud to date, according to CRN's analysis of publicly available spending data.

It may be a mark of the extent G-Cloud has shaken up the status quo that only two of the entire top 10 - IBM and Capgemini - are household names (a less generous interpretation being the big boys just aren't interested in it).

Pre-G-Cloud, 80 per cent of government IT spend was controlled by an elite squad of six IT services giants. Although G-Cloud still has its detractors, few would argue that it hasn't been successful in its quest to redistribute some of the wealth to smaller, more fleet-of-foot suppliers that can offer cheaper services on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Four years after its launch, some 53 per cent of the £963m sales transacted through G-Cloud to date have been through SMEs. A whopping 651 suppliers have transacted business through the framework, with median spend standing at £5,130, our analysis of the data found.

Of course, with some public sector buyers still not even aware of it, G-Cloud has a long way to go before it can be considered an out-and-out success.

But £960m - or £1bn if you add in revenues from its sister framework, Digital Services (whose successor has just been delayed until April) - isn't bad going for four years. Due to alleged under-reporting of revenues among some suppliers, the real figure could be significantly higher as well.

G-Cloud's staff talked about 'turning the tanker' of public sector IT spend when the project first arrived on the scene and four years on, it's clear the vessel's course has been successful diverted towards SMEs by at least a few degrees.