Chris Chant, government’s programme director for the ‘G-Cloud’, has appealed to SMEs and new suppliers to bid to be the technology provider for the project, despite already having received over 300 applications.

Government has an ongoing ambition to use more small and medium suppliers and has targeted that 25 per cent of all public contracts should be distributed among these firms. The problem of large companies monopolising government spend is particularly prevalent in IT, with some firms having been accused of taking advantage of the public purse and not providing value for money.

Hence, proactive efforts are being taken across government to remedy the situation, with the G-Cloud tender a prime a case in point. A simplified process for applying with detailed instruction has been provided.

Despite this though, it appears that the SMEs have not got the message. Although Chant confirmed that the process had received upwards of 300 bids in the month since it opened, he said most of these have been from big suppliers.

Hence, Chant took to his blog to issue a rallying call.

“From now on if government wants some IT it needs to do what everyone else does and look at what’s already available, not just what we can pay to have built for us and not just what we are used to doing,” he said. “It will be uncomfortable, uncharted territory for many but it must be done. It is unacceptable for things to remain the same. So if you are a SME and you have a SaaS or other cloud service that government might use – we want to know about it.

“We have made the G-Cloud procurement a lot easier to understand and get through. G-Cloud has no massively complex set of requirements that you need a PhD to understand. Just use the forms to tell us what services you have – all the documentation is online and we’ve written a simple guide if you have never worked with us before. In fact if you haven’t we really want you to apply.”

He also said that government is going to use open standards wherever it can and will only commit to short contracts or ones with a break clause at a maximum of one year in. This, he said, should allow for the opportunity for SMEs to regularly be in with a chance of garnering business from Whitehall.

Government has an aspirational aim of hosting 50 per cent of its IT on the G-Cloud within four years. It says it will save a minimum of £460m per year in doing so.

The G-Cloud tender process closes on November 30. The details of what government is looking for and how you can apply are available by clicking here.