Analysis: G-Cloud sales growth hits plateau

Over the past year, monthly sales have only grown in the double digits year on year

Sales growth on the government's G-Cloud framework has hit a plateau, according to analysis carried out by CRN, which shows annual monthly sales growth has not been in the triple figures since last February.

The G-Cloud framework started from scratch in April 2012 and since then, cumulative sales through it have surpassed the £1bn mark. The government publishes a full and updated spreadsheet of G-Cloud data every month but it only crunches the numbers in certain ways.

At first, owing to the fact the framework started from nothing, year-on-year monthly sales growth through G-Cloud was sky high: In April 2013 - the first time a year-on-year monthly comparison could be made - sales growth was a massive 3,527 per cent, after revenue soared from £102,000 in April 2012 to £3.7m a year later.

By the end of 2013, for the full year, annual sales growth was 1,230 per cent, although the figure is skewed somewhat as the framework only started trading four months into 2012, meaning the periods are not directly comparable.

At the end of 2014, annual sales growth slowed to 301 per cent, and at the end of 2015, year-on-year growth for the whole year had fallen again to just 45 per cent.

Throughout 2013, annual monthly sales growth was regularly coming in at more than 1,000 per cent, and throughout 2014 growth slowed, meaning monthly sales year on year tended to be in the triple digits. In the past 12 months, from March 2015 to March 2016, annual monthly sales growth did not exceed 60 per cent. In fact, sales in November 2015 and February 2016 actually fell year on year.

In February 2016, figures for which have only just become available, sales through G-Cloud hit £40m, when in the same month a year ago, they had come in five per cent higher at £42m.

The below graph shows the monthly annual growth rate for G-Cloud since April 2013 - the first time a year-on-year comparison on monthly sales could be made - demonstrating a clear plateau in the past 12 months. (Click graph to enlarge)

The graph below shows sales through G-Cloud on a monthly basis from when it started to February 2016. (Click graph to enlarge)