Government to speed up ICT procurement by 40 per cent

Francis Maude has today launched a raft of measures that will improve the way government, the biggest single buyer of ICT services in the UK, does business with suppliers.

Key measures announced today will see a 40 per cent increase in the speed of procurement. They will also make the procurement process more transparent by publishing £50bn of potential business online, and improve collaboration with business at a much earlier stage in the procurement process.

This increase in speed will also reduce the cost of procurement, which is currently about £46,000, compared with about £19,000 in France.

The announcement was made by Francis Maude at an event held in London today, dubbed The Crown and Suppliers – A new way of working.

The measures follow research conducted for the government's growth review, which due to be published on 29 November. It details how a lack of certainty about government buying decisions has prevented suppliers from "investing, tooling up and preparing to compete effectively with others in the market for public sector business," according to a statement.

The government will release details of £50bn of potential business online from tomorrow.

It will also forecast potential contracts worth more than £5m, and approximately 150 opportunities will be made available.

By next April, government departments will have published rolling medium-term pipelines for its construction and infrastructure projects including those in ICT.

The Cabinet Office has said it will work with departments to ensure SMEs can access the value of procurement, by encouraging or challenging prime contractors to do more, or breaking up large contracts.

It will also be 40 per cent faster to do business with government. All but the most complex procurement processes will be completed within 120 days from January 2012; the procurement process currently takes an average of 200 days.