Some 22 resellers in CRN's Top 250 VARs have generated £1m business through G-Cloud. Here we catch up with four of them to find out how they've succeeded in cracking the cloudy framework where many suppliers have failed
13. Daisy
G-Cloud sales: £3.6m
Overall G-Cloud ranking: 164th
Number of deals: 93
Biggest deal: £369,917 (Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust: G-Cloud 3)
Representative: Andy Riley, public sector network director
What's been your recipe for success?
Making sure our offerings are broad enough to appeal to as many customers as possible. At Daisy we have over 5,500 public sector customers that could technically buy through G-Cloud, so we have to make sure our offerings on there have the breadth to appeal to as many of them as possible.
"G-Cloud has really put cloud services on the map," Andy Riley, Daisy
And also using industry-specific keywords that mean you can be found easily. It's not rocket science but it has taken a while to get those words in place that will get the searches to generate the business you require.
Has G-Cloud achieved its original aims?
I think it has. It had a slow start, which was well documented. There were a lot of people using G-Cloud as a procurement vehicle for services which weren't deemed cloud services and that was quite well documented. But for the last few iterations of G-Cloud they've tightened up the services you can get on there. G-Cloud has encouraged people to start looking at cloud services. It's really put cloud services on the map. When I sit in front of customers and talk about G-Cloud, they may not know what it is, but they know it's a vehicle for cloud services, so I think it has achieved its aim.
What's your top tip for budding G-Cloud suppliers?
Using keywords that are relevant to the customers you are targeting, with the language they use.
What is your biggest G-Cloud bugbear?
That it is not very dynamic. I believe they are moving towards a dynamic purchasing system but at the moment the framework dictates that you've got to put your offerings on there and they could stay on there for a year. It needs to be agile, fresh and always moving. I'm changing my products on a monthly basis to appeal to my customers.
How could G-Cloud be improved?
It's exactly that. We can't stagnate for six months at a time on a framework with set products. The success of RM1045 [Network Services] is because we are allowed to upload service offerings at the drop of a hat. If you can go into a customer who says ‘I want everything in yellow', we can upload that and they can have everything in yellow. That's how dynamic it needs to be.
How concerned are you that more G-Cloud spending is shifting towards the big consultancies such as Capgemini and Deloitte?
It's not a worry for me. There are government mandates out there stating that public sector bodies are supposed to be giving the smaller guys a fair chance to win the business. I would expect to see a shift away from that over the next few iterations of G-Cloud and that you'll see the smaller guys coming up and winning some decent business.