Starting G-Cloud 9 from scratch is a step in the right direction
Framework rejig will boost G-Cloud's appeal among local government, Oneserve's CEO Chris Proctor claims
In a recent interview with CRN, Warren Smith, the interim programme director for the Digital Marketplace, which controls G-Cloud, the Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework and Crown Hosting, has committed to "fundamentally revisiting" the G-Cloud framework, rather than simply making minor adjustments, as has been the case with each iteration up until now.
A major part of this is to ensure that the wider public sector, aside from central government bodies, knows about and has access to G-Cloud. A huge majority of work through the framework continues to be done through central bodies, with local, health, schools and other departments away from Westminster, unable to or unwilling to purchase via G-Cloud.
We really welcome this commitment from Warren Smith. By stripping the framework back to its original aims and looking more at the wants and needs of the end user, the team at the Digital Marketplace will see that there is as much of an appetite for cloud services away from central government as there has proved to be within it.
We have certainly found this to be the case, but everything we have implemented with local government bodies over the last couple of years has happened outside of G-Cloud.
Local government has the potential to benefit more from cloud services than other public sector bodies. With the increased flexibility, better cost efficiency and higher levels of innovation, cloud will really allow local government to flourish. G-Cloud should give local government decision makers an easy route to finding these solutions, but at present it's not just working.
It is this issue that Warren and his team might not be able to find all the answers to. Certainly going back and ensuring that G-Cloud 9 ticks all the boxes of the original aims of the framework, and is as easily accessible as possible is a step in the right direction.However, we believe that if local government is to fully embrace G-Cloud, wider changes outside of the framework need to be considered.
Ensuring that we have the right people in the right positions within the procurement process in local government is a key part of this. At present, decision making is a haphazard, and often intimidating process and of course those making the decisions have the potential to change every few years. This is not the stable environment needed to make such important changes that could impact the entire IT infrastructure of a public sector body. We need civil servants and experts to play a bigger part in the decision making process.
The approach that Warren Smith has suggested is absolutely right, but without further, wider changes to the procurement process within local government it might not matter what changes are made to the framework itself.
Chris Proctor is CEO at Oneserve, a G-Cloud supplier, and an ex-city councillor at Southampton City Council.