G-Cloud: What it is & why you should use it.

G Cloud: What it is and why you should use it.

By: Reuben Leach, Commercial Manager

If you work within the public sector, G-Cloud is a term you’ve maybe heard.

But what exactly is it and how can it help you? This article will hopefully help to clear up these questions and give you a better idea of how G-Cloud can benefit you and your department or organisation.

What is the G Cloud service?

Well, to answer that question, let’s start at the beginning.

The G-Cloud Framework is an initiative set up by the UK Government’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS). For some reason we’ve seen people mistake G-Cloud for Google Cloud, which is a different entity altogether. The aim of G-Cloud is to promote and make easy, for public sector bodies, the procurement of cloud based services. This consists of a framework agreement (G-Cloud) and an online store known as the “Digital Marketplace” which has access to suppliers offering Cloud based services.

G-Cloud, as a service, was introduced in 2012 and has grown impressively since then, with more and more suppliers offering a wide range of services to the public sector. Most of these suppliers are small to medium businesses. The aim was to shift 50% of all government IT spending to cloud based services by 2015, a decision made because of the radical change and innovation cloud based computing offers.

Every 6 to 9 months the G-Cloud framework has an upgrade, with the latest version being G-Cloud 9 being released in May 2017. After a slight delay G-Cloud 10 is due to open for bidding in April of 2018

Why use G-Cloud?

If you are responsible for procurement within a public-sector organisation you’ve probably already been encouraged to use G-Cloud services. It certainly has two major benefits: choice and efficiency.

In terms of choice, G-Cloud opened the market to allow a whole host of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) to offer innovation and cloud based services to the public sector. Services which were not previously available. In days gone by, when opportunities went out for tender, large companies with better staff resources were often more successful in winning business than SME’s. This led to a few companies dominating the management of public sector IT services and to a lack of innovation. Now, with the Digital Marketplace, it’s possible to browse a whole host of different businesses offering various services, so buyers can find one that suits their organisational needs perfectly.

G-Cloud can also help buyers become more efficient in their purchasing process. Using G-Cloud is far easier than old-fashioned tendering processes. A factor that can help save both costs and time – so more focus can be put on what’s important.

Along with the specific benefits G-Cloud brings to Public Sector Procurement, there is also all the pros of cloud based solutions. Ease of deployment, flexibility, expert technical support and top-notch security are just some of the few benefits that come with using a cloud based solution.

Hopefully this blog has cleared up a few questions you may have about G-Cloud and given you some idea of the many benefits it can bring. To familiarise yourself with the Digital Marketplace why not check out our G-Cloud services at https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/search?q=PCS+Business+Systems