Government boasts SME credentials of G-Cloud 7

Almost all of the record number of new suppliers are small firms

G-Cloud is more SME friendly than ever, according to the government, which has released a number of figures about the latest iteration of the framework.

The version, known as G-Cloud 7, went live on 23 November and 11 per cent more suppliers were awarded a place on it than on the previous version, G-Cloud 6.

G-Cloud was set up in 2012 with the aim of levelling the playing field for suppliers and encouraging more small firms to provide government with IT. The government is trying to move away from signing big, long-term deals with huge tech suppliers.

In a blog post, the government said more small suppliers are flocking towards the framework.

"G7 has attracted a higher number of new suppliers than any previous iteration of the G-Cloud framework," it said. "We have 709 new suppliers on the G7 framework and 95 per cent of these are SMEs. We had 516 [new suppliers] for G-Cloud 6 and 89 per cent of those were SMEs."

More than 2,500 suppliers are on the G-Cloud framework in total now, 89 per cent of which are SMEs, which the government defines as a company with fewer than 250 staff and turnover of less than £50m.

Although more suppliers have signed up to the framework, concerns about G-Cloud 7 emerged ahead of its going live when suppliers complained about a 20 per cent cap on the amount by which services can be scaled up.

Research carried out by CRN last year revealed that two thirds of suppliers listed on the G-Cloud framework had at the time failed to make a penny though the scheme. Suppliers warned last week again that getting a place on the framework does not guarantee sales.