This week Computerworld UK highlighted that the Cabinet Office has blocked 54 subscriptions, costing £45K each, to Gartner’s subscription services. We assume government organisations are being blocked at the time of renewal. In case you don’t want to get the calculator out, that equates to £2.4m of contracts across Whitehall.
This should be of interest to SITS suppliers to UK Government from a couple of perspectives. While there is clearly a question mark over whether UK Government is getting value for money from these subscriptions, the action also emphasises the Cabinet Office’s will to centralise the procurement of products and services where there is potential for the resource to be shared. And this goes for ICT products and services too, not just research services. And secondly it gives the impression that the Cabinet Office views Gartner’s research and advice as recommending the use of traditional ICT suppliers (the so-called oligopoly) rather than steering departments and agencies to consider a broader range of providers including SMEs and those supporting digital transformation.
It is our view that the successful suppliers to Government will be those that work with rather than against the Government reforms being spearheaded by the Cabinet Office. And that goes for suppliers of all types of product or service. Though some would like to think otherwise, there is no letup; the Cabinet Office's pursuit of its reform agenda is picking up momentum and its influence at departmental level is increasing.