Government to step up SMB IT procurement ahead of 2015 election

Cabinet Minister Francis Maude has vowed to spend a further 100 million on procuring IT services from SMBs by the next general election in 2015.

These services will be purchased via the CloudStore and Digital Services Framework, confirmed Maude, as the Government seeks to procure more IT services from smaller businesses.

Speaking at an event in central London today aimed at showcasing the Government's range of digital services, Maude said the Government has already made good headway in this area.

"At the time of the last General Election just six per cent of central government procurement spend was with SMBs and Government did not even monitor who its suppliers were," said Maude.

"Now direct spend with SMBs is up above 10 per cent and we are spending a further nine per cent indirectly.

"That's good news for SMBs across Britain but we want to see those numbers grow further," Maude continued.

Stepping up the number of SMBs it deals with means the Government gets access to innovative IT solutions at markedly lower prices, claimed Maude.

"One great example of the potential from small businesses was when we retendered a hosting contract. The incumbent big supplier bid 4 million; a UK-based small business offered to do it for 60,000. We saved taxpayers 98.5 per cent," explained Maude.

The Cabinet Minister also reiterated the Government's commitment to shunning proprietary software and embracing open source-based products. To this end, the Government has also set out the file formats it wants adopted across departments to make it easier to share documents.

They include the Open Document Format (ODF), which is produced by free-to-use software packages like Google Docs and OpenOffice.

"It's not about banning any one product or imposing an arbitrary list of standards. Our plan, as you would expect, is about going back to the user needs, setting down our preferences and making sure we can choose the software that meets our requirements best," said Maude.

"The adoption of open standards in Government threatens the power of lock-in to proprietary vendors yet it will give departments the power to choose what is right for them and the citizens who use their services," he added.