Bumper start to 2014 for G-Cloud with January sales of £15m

Running revenue total nearing the £100m mark

Sales through the government's G-Cloud framework edged closer to the £100m mark in January after the year's opening month yielded £15m in business.

According to the latest figures released today, the running total of sales through G-Cloud up until 28 January was £92.7m, up from the previous month's running total of £77.8m. This means some £15m of business was pushed through the framework during the month.

Of the total business put through the framework since it launched in 2012, 56 per cent of total sales by value, and 61 per cent by volume, have been awarded to SMB firms - which the government counts as those with fewer than 250 staff and less than €50m (£41.5m) annual turnover.

Three quarters of total sales by value were awarded by central government departments, with the remaining 25 per cent coming from the wider public sector.

The government has been extremely vocal about its efforts to save taxpayer cash by opening public sector IT up to a wider range of smaller suppliers in order to get better value for money. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude recently announced his new "red line" measures - including a £100m cap on all government IT deals - in order to level the playing field for SMBs.

While those efforts were applauded by some, other firms have blasted the government over G-Cloud in particular, after a survey found most the public sector did not even know what it was.