What is G-Cloud 13 (RM1557.13)? – December 2022
G-Cloud (RM1557) is a framework that was created by Crown Commercial to simplify and shorten the buying cycle for UK Public Sector. Services are uploaded and divided into several lots, these are then presented to the buyer through a front-end catalogue known as the ‘Digital Marketplace’.
In total £10.6bn of services have been procured through the framework since its inception, with 39% of those sales to SMEs within the United Kingdon. The main consumers of services from the framework is within Central Government, including:
- Home Office
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Ministry of Justice
Suppliers submit an application to register their listings with Crown Commercial Services under the lots within the framework. These lots are:
Lot 1: Cloud Hosting
Cloud platform and infrastructure services that allow buyers to do any combination of the following: deploy virtual infrastructure, provision and run software / applications, provision and utilise processing, storage or networking resources. A typical example of this would be IaaS and PaaS.
Lot 2: Cloud Software (SaaS)
Applications provided to the buyer that will typically be accessed over a public or private network e.g. the internet and hosted within the cloud / supplier’s infrastructure.
Lot 3: Cloud Support
Services that help the buyer to deploy, maintain and support their cloud infrastructure and systems.
G-Cloud is open to suppliers of all sizes, from SMEs to large enterprise organisations, and allows buyers to Contract Award through the framework, meaning a direct award for a specific service to a specific supplier is possible providing the solution meets the buyer’s needs. The benefits of the framework include:
- Buyers have a wide selection of services to choose from, over 25,000 are listed at the time of writing across 3,500 suppliers
- Speed and efficiency in procurement and delivery, the services are ‘ready to go’ and can be selected, procured and deployed from a well-defined catalogue
- Services are flexible, and can be scaled as required and as business demands change
- Cost savings are realised by using cloud-based services, buyers do not need to design, procure, manage and maintain complex IT
- Security and assurance, the services and suppliers listed on the Digital Marketplace are all compliant and subject to the framework terms and conditions
More information can be found on G-Cloud at G-Cloud 13 – CCS (crowncommercial.gov.uk)
