The media is awash with reports that UK Government has signed a commercial agreement with Huddle (Ninian Solutions Ltd) for its cloud-based collaboration platform. We understand that the agreement, which was jointly developed by Huddle and a working group led by DEFRA, will allow any government body to benefit from government-specific Huddle pricing, training and support.
Huddle was established in November 2006 by Andy McLoughlin and Alistair Mitchell. According to Young Guns 2009, which highlights “the inspirational entrepreneurs running the most exciting young business in the UK”, Huddle was backed by investors including Eden Ventures. In 2009, it projected its turnover for the year would be £4 million – up from £1.5 million in 2008. Key partnerships at that time were with business network, LinkedIn, and video conferencing giant, InterCall. The London-HQed company has since expanded into the US market. According to its website, clients also include leading UK SITS supplier, Fujitsu.
In UK Government, the company already claims to work with 60% of central government departments (including DEFRA), having started working within the sector three years ago. In addition, one of its most recent contract signings was with the NHS East of England Strategic Health Authority, which implemented Huddle to connect ten NHS organisations working on specific projects. The company is now touting Huddle as a viable alternative to Microsoft SharePoint. CEO and co-founder, Alistair Mitchell is making some big claims. According to eWeek Europe, he believes UK Government could save more than £100 million by replacing the likes of SharePoint with Huddle.
Huddle looks to be making a big splash for a small company and is clearly a dab hand at 'talking the talk'. At the same time, the Cabinet Office Efficiency & Reform Group will be delighted that it can communicate progress on two key strategies – 1. the move to the cloud and 2. increasing the amount of business done with SMEs/start-ups. But let’s not forget that Microsoft also has a cloud version of SharePoint within Microsoft Office 365 (Office SharePoint Online). And it, too, will be looking to evolve its government-wide agreement (PSA09) to incorporate its cloud offerings. Microsoft won’t be ready to give up £100 million – more than a quarter of its revenues from UK Government – without a fight, but the competition is certainly getting fiercer.