Channel's relief as Technology Products goes live

Government mega-framework finally up and running following several delays

IT suppliers breathed a collective sigh of relief yesterday as the government's delayed Technology Products framework finally went live.

Framework agreements for the pan-public sector procurement vehicle, which replaces four previous agreements including CITHS, have now been formally dished out following weeks of delays caused in part by two separate legal challenges.

Thirty-six firms scooped a place across the four Lots of the framework (see below), which has an estimated purse of £4bn to £6bn over its two-year lifespan.

Technology Products – or IT PASS as it was initially known – was first unveiled in December 2013. Repeated delays, including a last-gasp legal challenge last month thought to be from CCS Media, forced the government to extend CITHS, along with ITH&S, for three months beyond its 31 October expiry date.

Robin Phillips, commercial manager at Trustmarque, which secured a berth on Lot Two covering packaged software, praised Crown Commercial Service (CCS) for "getting it over the line".

"The channel and the public sector will be mightily relieved that the difficult and extended procurement is now concluded," he said.

Daley Robinson, group marketing director at Stone Group, which features on Lot One, said Technology Products offers a simpler procurement route for public sector customers used to navigating CITHS, ITH&S and Sprint 2.

"Crown Commercial Services' vision of consolidating these three frameworks into one mega-framework has been realised," he said. "I think we will see people transacting on it from next week and that it will be a tremendous opportunity for the channel."

Developed in collaboration with Pro 5 and the MOD, Technology Products also replaces the MOD's Information Assurance agreement.

Robinson added: "Although anything services-focused will go through G-Cloud, anything that has a hardware element to it at all will be through this framework. It has taken time, but ultimately as a professional and also a taxpayer, I think it's right for the country."

Technology Products features a wider array of suppliers than CITHS, which had a maximum of 12 suppliers in each Lot across its three Lots. Lot One alone of Technology Products features 20 suppliers after five firms were added following a legal challenge in September.

Phillips said: "We'd expect an already challenging environment to be shaken up as new suppliers elbow for market share, but there's still room to differentiate and innovate to win good business without resorting to a race to the bottom."

Technology Products' widening of scope that permits software solutions to include hardware components, and vice versa, is also an improvement upon its predecessors, Phillips added.

"This is a really progressive move to make it easier for customers to procure turnkey solutions rather always having to manage multiple parties to deliver one project," he said.

A Cabinet Office representative said: "We are pleased that the Technology Products agreement has now gone live and we expect it to deliver significant savings for the wider public sector as well as delivering the best value for taxpayers.

"The agreement is designed to support central and local government ICT strategies and will deliver commodity technology requirements, providing easy access to technology hardware, software and solutions."

Lot 1 - IT Hardware & Value-Added Services

Ergo Computing
Probrand
XMA
Kelway
Softcat
Akhter Computer
Pervasive Networks
Insight
Computacenter
SCC
Stone Computers
Esteem Systems
Maindec Computer Solutions
Bull Information Systems
European Electronique
ANS
Misco
Software Box Ltd (SBL)
Supplies Team
Centerprise International

Lot 2 - Packaged Software & Value-Added Services

Viglen
Softcat
Insight
Kelway
Computacenter
SCC
Software Box Ltd (SBL)
Comparex UK
Bytes Software Services
Phoenix Software
European Electronique
Trustmarque Solutions
Logicalis
Novosco
Storm Technologies

Lot 3 - Information Assurance Products & Services

Softcat
Akhter Computer
Computacenter
Software Box Ltd (SBL)
Kelway
SCC
Centerprise International

Lot 4 - End-User Computing Devices

Viglen
Centerprise International
Lenovo Technology
Acer
Fujitsu Services
Dell
Toshiba Information Systems
Novatech
HP Enterprise Services
Samsung Electronics