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
3. Fordway
Total G-Cloud sales: £13.1m
Number of G-Cloud deals: 159
Overall G-Cloud ranking: 43rd
Largest deal to date: £332,018 (Central government: G-Cloud 3)
Representative: Richard Blanford, managing director
What's been your recipe for success?
We were a reasonably well-known public sector supplier before G-Cloud came out, and had all the relevant badges and an understanding of the market. Secondly, we got on G-Cloud early: our first major win came on G-Cloud 2 in 2012/13. So it's been good steady progress since then, and once you've got one win you start winning more. Quite a lot of our G-Cloud business is suggesting to customers that they may look at G-Cloud if it's not one they're buying through - we use it as a marketing tool.
Has G-Cloud achieved its original aims?
Before G-Cloud our public sector customers were generally local authorities and the NHS, and G-Cloud has opened up central government to SMEs like us. The other thing G-Cloud has done - and we have seen it recently with frameworks like Technology Services 2 - is Crown Commercial Services are now approaching frameworks in a slightly different way. Historically they chose the top six or eight companies and everyone else was excluded. Now there is a bar set for quality and if you pass over that bar you're on the framework, so it has definitely helped SME engagement within central government. We are living proof of that as at least two-thirds of our G-Cloud sales (£13.1m) have been with central government.
What is your top tip for budding suppliers?
There are three I would suggest.
"We've got 12 services that I don't think we've transacted anything with. Just because you're on the framework, that doesn't mean you're going to get any business at all," Richard Blanford, Fordway
G-Cloud is quite unusual in that you can put any service you like up there, but it has to be something the potential customer base actually wants. We've got 17 or 18 discrete services defined on G-Cloud but the vast majority of our revenues come from just three, with two newer ones starting to gain traction. We've got 12 services that I don't think we've transacted anything with. Just because you're on the framework, that doesn't mean you're going to get any business at all.
Secondly, once you post your product and its pricing, the potential buyer can compare everyone in the market that is offering a comparable service. So you have to make sure it is not only compelling but priced correctly. We have a near full-time member of the marketing team whose job it is to make sure our service descriptions are up to date.
The third thing is that you have to understand once you've published in G-Cloud that there is no flexibility. They buy the service you've defined, or they don't buy anything. You have to be very open, honest and clear on what your service is. The biggest thing we've found over the years is making sure what you've put in is well defined and accurate. It's a catalogue, and if there are 50 comparable items and yours doesn't look the best the customer isn't going to buy it.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned in your G-Cloud journey?
Keeping it up to date, and evolving your services. One of our services in G-Cloud 9 is less than half the price it was when we first put it on the framework, firstly because we knew the customers wanted it but it wasn't selling and secondly because we worked out a much more effective way of delivering it.
What is your biggest G-Cloud bugbear?
The [lack of] flexibility. And secondly, because it's a catalogue you can get quite a lot of time wasters. It's very easy for people to run searches and enquiries and we get a lot that don't turn into business. But generally we see it as a very positive framework.
How can G-Cloud be improved?
There is a very low barrier to entry for G-Cloud and actually I'd like to see the barrier for entry and definitions being tightened. At the moment you can self-certify. This is more advice for other suppliers, but if you've self-certified, you've got to be able to prove it. A lot of people have made the mistake of thinking that because they're on the framework, business will come.
How concerned are you that more G-Cloud spending is shifting towards the big consultancies like Capgemini and Deloitte?
The big boys were slow to respond but have woken up and worked out how to use the framework. There are certain organisations that need to deal with companies of that size. You just need to go after the appropriately sized customers that are suited to what you can deliver effectively.
