Reduce your procurement time, processes and the costs

Locata has successfully progressed from a G-Cloud 6 to a G-Cloud 8 framework agreement as an official Crown Commercial Service supplier on the Digital Marketplace.

Public sector organisations can buy services through the Digital Marketplace and save time and money as the process is faster and cheaper than entering into individual procurement contracts.

Buyers no longer need to carry out lengthy procurements under the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) process as the frameworks on the Digital Marketplace are fully compliant with EU procurement regulations. This reduces the time it takes to commission services by 50% to 70%. It also removes duplication of effort as departments do not need to run their own OJEU procurements – this only needs to be done once under the Digital Marketplace.

An independent review showed that average efficiency savings of 50% could be made through the use of G-Cloud. These savings came from:

The UK Government’s Digital Marketplace has opened up the procurement process to help SMEs secure long-term work. It also provides the UK Government with access to innovation, at a much lower cost.

Locata fully supports the UK Government’s Digital Marketplace strategy, which is set out below:
Together with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) we will:

Encourage a competitive market and stimulate a responsive, evolving market that contains:
• The right range of products and services
• The right people to provide products and services
• The right price and value against products and services
Work with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) to ensure that new iterations of frameworks meet the GDS design principles
Ensure people use Digital Marketplace-accessible frameworks and that spend which could go through them, does go through them
Support self-service buying by enabling simple, clear and fast purchasing by creating an end-to-end service that is digital by default and fully compliant with procurement regulations
Create a government-to-government network where we will actively engage and educate buyers as well as promote the Digital Marketplace
Build stronger communities, providing a way to connect:
• People transforming public services
• Communities of relevant experts
• Resources to deliver the right project outcomes

This will:

Save money for the taxpayer by continuing to drive costs out, efficiency in and expose departments to the type of private sector innovation they should be investing in
Provide access for innovative suppliers and continue to support and encourage growth in the SME marketplace
Match demand to supply with minimal friction for all parties and so save time
Reduce the risk of successful legal challenge by being compliant by default