Guidance

Buying services on the Digital Marketplace

How to use the Digital Marketplace to find cloud technology and specialist services for digital projects.

All public sector organisations, including agencies and arm’s length bodies, can use the Digital Marketplace to find cloud technology and specialist services for digital projects.

Contact Crown Commercial Service if you’re not sure whether you’re eligible.

Crown Commercial Service
cloud_digital@crowncommercial.gov.uk

Digital Marketplace services and frameworks

Suppliers on the Digital Marketplace provide services across 3 frameworks (agreements between government and suppliers).

Cloud services (the ‘G-Cloud’ framework)

Cloud services are split into 3 categories:

  • cloud hosting, for example content delivery networks or load balancing services
  • cloud software, for example accounting tools or customer service management software
  • cloud support, for example migration services or ongoing support

Digital specialist services (the ‘Digital Outcomes and Specialists’ framework)

Digital specialist services include:

  • digital outcomes, for example a booking system or an accessibility audit
  • digital specialists, for example product managers or developers
  • user research studios
  • user research participants

Datacentre hosting services (the ‘Crown Hosting Data Centres’ framework)

One supplier provides datacentre hosting to government. It offers:

  • mission-critical datacentres
  • a flexible, pay-for-what-you-use model
  • secure facilities
  • power uptime availability that exceeds Tier III+
  • leading environmental performance

The government’s Cloud First policy means you need to consider a cloud solution before you can choose datacentre hosting from the Crown Hosting Data Centres framework. You’ll also have to explain why moving to the cloud is not right for your project as part of the digital and IT spend controls process.

You must make your decision-making process auditable when you buy services on the Digital Marketplace.

How to buy services

The process is different depending on what you’re buying.

For more information, read the:

Contact Crown Commercial Service if you have any questions about the buying process.

Crown Commercial Service
info@crowncommercial.gov.uk

Updates to this page

Published 1 May 2015
Last updated 1 October 2019 + show all updates
  1. The Digital Marketplace support email address has changed to cloud_digital@crowncommercial.gov.uk. Guide title has been changed. Duplicative content has been removed.

  2. Updated to reflect new G-Cloud 9 'lot' structure.

  3. First published.

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