Channel awaits Catalist decision
Government set to reveal list of approved suppliers
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) will this week name the approved suppliers that will now be able to offer technology and services under the Catalist public sector supplier directory.
Catalist was formed through the amalgamation of the OGC’s Govern-ment Catalogue – GCat - and Software Catalogue – SCat, and is designed to act as a single database of approved IT suppliers to the public sector.
The new catalogue is expected to comprise three sections; Total Solutions, Commodities and Specialist Solutions. Each of these will then comprise several additional sub-categories.
The first suppliers to be announced this week will be for the Commodities section, which includes products such as hardware, software and services. This division is thought to contain about 11 further sub-categories.
Under the Commodities section there will be a Reseller sub-category, which is designed to act as a one-stop shop for IT supplies. However, any reseller that is listed in this division is automatically locked out from being an approved supplier in any of Commodities’ other divisions.
Specialist Solutions, which includes bespoke software and is made-up of 13 seperate sub-categories, is expected to be announced later this month and
the names of the suppliers which have made it onto the Total Solutions sub-category list will be announced in April.
Pete Mistry, technical sales consultant at VAR Eclipse Group, said many channel players were concerned with the number of rival suppliers when bidding for public sector contracts.
“There are lots of suppliers currently [in the public sector] and it’s very difficult for smaller resellers to get in. Also the rules of procurement often lock-out VARs before they even begin, such as local councils having to buy from approved supplier lists.”
Steve Reynolds, managing director of Civica, said: “It’s great to get on an inside track with the government and Catalist looks like it has the potential to be a good opportunity for VARs.”