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NHS Shared Business Services sets ‘simplified’ public sector cloud procurement framework live
Twenty-four suppliers selected to populate cloud procurement framework, which is geared towards simplifying the purchasing of off-premise services for public sector organisations
NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) has set live a two-year IT framework aimed at streamlining the procurement of cloud services for the entire public sector.
A total of 24 suppliers have made it onto the organisation’s four-lot Cloud Solutions Framework, which NHS SBS has previously touted as a way to provide public sector organisations with a “compliant and simplified” means of procuring off-premise services.
These include NHS organisations, but also local authorities, police forces, educational institutions and others, with the framework’s four-lot design aimed at providing them with services and support for every step of their journey to the cloud.
Lot 1 covers solution design and consultancy, Lot 2 focuses on infrastructure-, software- and platform-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings, Lot 3 is concerned with cloud support services and Lot 4 will give users access to end-to-end cloud solutions.
The framework, valued at between £75m and £500m, will initially run until September 2021, although NHS SBS reserves the right to extend it by two years. It will also be dynamic in the sense that suppliers will be encouraged to add new products and services to it throughout its life.
This is notably different to the way the G-Cloud procurement framework operates, for example, where suppliers are only able to update their service listings every two years.
Phil Davies, procurement director at NHS SBS, said the organisation had selected suppliers for the framework based on their expertise and the value for money of their technologies.
“In what is an incredibly crowded and complex market, our aim was to significantly simplify the procurement process for the NHS and wider public sector,” said Davies.
“The framework is structured in a way that includes a full range of cloud support services. It means that, regardless of where a public body is on its journey into the cloud, or how straightforward or complex its requirements, purchasing the right support is simple, cost-effective and OJEU [Official Journal of the European Union]-compliant.”
Read more about cloud frameworks
- The Scottish government has set its £30m cloud procurement framework live, as part of its push to provide public sector organisations and charities operating in Scotland with access to IT resources that are locally hosted, sustainable and provided by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
- Public sector IT buyers may soon find themselves spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding where to procure their cloud services, thanks to the emergence of several new frameworks, but where does that leave G-Cloud?
The healthcare arm of public sector-focused infrastructure-as-a-service provider UKCloud has secured a place on all four of the framework’s lots.
Cleveland Henry, director of cloud for UKCloud Health, said the NHS SBS cloud framework is a welcome addition to the portfolio of other procurement routes it offers public sector organisations that want to move more of their IT off-premise.
“UKCloud Health is at the forefront of providing a secure and resilient, but easy-to-use cloud platform that supports public sector digital transformation and enables the optimisation of patient-oriented healthcare,” said Henry.
“This experience and knowledge, coupled with expert services, has enabled hundreds of public-sector organisations in the UK to deliver more scalable and cost-effective public healthcare services – both directly and via our ecosystem of health partners.”
