Singleton to focus G-Cloud and Digital Services on 'local authority use'

G-Cloud supremo's team will visit regional centres in bid to boost uptake

The director of the G-Cloud public-sector IT services programme, Tony Singleton, has promised to focus more on local authority uptake of the G-Cloud and Digital Services frameworks.

Writing on his blog, he said an organisational shake-up would result in more personal contact from members of his team with local authority IT leaders, as well as a "continuing conversation" about how IT services can best be delivered across the board.

Writing on his blog, Singleton said, "We need to talk about a wider programme for transforming the way in which the public sector buys digital services and also how Cloud First can help the way in which IT services are delivered by departments through a range of benefits."

He said his Digital Service team has already been "out and about talking at several... regional events" in Wales, Cambridge, Liverpool, Derby and Bristol, adding that they would "continue to do more events" alongside Crown Commercial Service, local authorities and SMEs to "help buyers share their experiences".

Singleton also quotes Chris Chant, the retired original director of the programme, as saying that "local authorities and the wider public sector have been doing far better at delivering lower-cost user-centric IT services than central government for as long as I can remember".

G-Cloud has apparently logged total transactions of £175m up until the end of March 2014, with 60 per cent of this business going to SMEs.

But at the time the figures were released in May, Singleton said that G-Cloud should never be considered "business as usual".

"How I dislike that phrase, 'business as usual'. It suggests to me that it's job done, sit back, put your feet up.

"No, it is NOT business as usual, there is much to be done in transforming the way IT is not only bought but also consumed across the wider public sector."