G-Cloud sales hit record high in December

Running total hits £6m following 46 transactions in December

The G-Cloud has had its most successful month to date as the CloudStore catalogue rang up £1.22m in sales in December.

Launched last February, G-Cloud is designed to shatter traditional government buying patterns by enabling public sector bodies to procure IT services quickly and simply from a wide array of suppliers.

Much to the chagrin of the 458 suppliers listed in CloudStore, just £3m of business was conducted through G-Cloud between February and September last year.

Talking at CRN's Channel Conference last October, G-Cloud bod Eleanor Stewart likened the challenge of breaking down the prevailing public sector procurement culture to turning a tanker. Former G-Cloud boss Chris Chant also highlighted the "strong resistance to change" that is holding back progress in a blog ahead of his departure last April.

But business appears to be picking up as sales surpassed the £1m mark for only the second time in December, with the running total rising to £5.95m.

Some 46 transactions took place last month, the largest being a £141,000 deal between BJSS and NHS Connecting for Health.

Alpine Consortium racked up a £108,000 transaction with the Ministry of Justice, while Atos IT Services UK won £81,000 of business with the Home Office in one deal.

SCC and Bytes Technology Services were among the resellers and SIs that bagged deals in December.

Last week, the third iteration of G-Cloud was announced, which the government claims features a new and improved ITT application process based on supplier feedback.

The second iteration of G-Cloud features 458 suppliers offering off-the-peg services covering SaaS, PaaS and IaaS.