Government gives into suppliers and scraps framework

Divisive Digital Services framework to be 'completely redesigned' and given a new name

The government has admitted defeat on the Digital Services (DS) framework and said the scheme will undergo an overhaul so large it will emerge as "essentially a new framework".

The government's digital commercial programme director Tony Singleton said the DS framework will basically come to an end when DS 2 expires in August. He said the third iteration - which will go live in January 2016 - will be completely different.

"It has become clear from user research that Digital Services needs to be completely redesigned to the extent that it will essentially be a new framework," he said. "We're even considering giving it a new name that more accurately reflects its purpose.

"We've had feedback from suppliers who want to be able to supply teams of people, focused on addressing specific needs and outcomes, rather than body shopping. As a result, we're designing the new framework to meet this need."

The DS framework was set up in 2013 and sits alongside G-Cloud under the Digital Marketplace umbrella. They were both designed to help the government encourage smaller suppliers into its supply chain and help the public sector get better value when it comes to IT and digital solutions.

But in February, DS framework suppliers joined forces and spoke out, claiming it was not fit for purpose due partly to the way the framework tenders for projects according to an individual's capabilities instead of a company's entire offering - what they described as body shopping.

Singleton said on his blog that the replacement for the DS framework will aim to allow buyers to engage an entire team of people and have access to resources such as research labs.

There was talk of merging the new DS framework with G-Cloud and making the former a lot on the latter framework, but Singleton said that idea was scrapped because G-Cloud is meant to be for commodity cloud services.

"To include this in the G-Cloud framework would add considerably to the contract terms and conditions, increasing the burden on SMEs," he said.

Over the summer, the government plans to carry out a "period of pre-market engagement" during which it will consult with buyers and suppliers.

Cautious optimism

DS framework supplier DXW - which was one of the companies that spoke out against the framework in the first place - cautiously welcomed the news that the framework in its current form was being scrapped.

"Digital Services 3... sounds a lot like a framework that will never be," said DXW's managing director Harry Metcalfe. "This is all great news. It was frustrating not to be able to know what was going on during the pre-election period, and it is reassuring to now have some detail about GDS's [Government Digital Services] thinking. And the thinking seems good.

"Re-orientating the framework around teams, specialists and supporting resources is a much more sensible approach - a closer fit both to the needs of buyers and the capabilities of suppliers.

"Also, excitingly, and in stark contrast to DS2, there will be a period of supplier engagement and consultation about the general approach... so I'm looking forward to lots more useful and interesting conversations."

But Metcalfe added that "niggling concerns" remain.

"As ever, the devil is in the detail," he said. "At a high level this sounds like exactly the right approach, but the little things can make or break these processes. There's not yet enough detail on the framework or call-off selection processes to know if they'll be better. We don't know what we're going to be asked to provide to describe our services or their costs. We don't know how the framework will support (or not support) broader things like published project pipelines, marketing, or providing management information.

"But I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect that we would know those sorts of things at this stage."