The Cabinet Office says the UK public sector IT buyer and seller both need a new basis for successful partnership.
That’s going to be in the form of a new Supplier Standard that it’s drawn up in collaboration with techUK, the trade body for the British IT supplier sector.
techUK’s chief executive officer Julian David described the draft, now in ‘beta’ for community consultation for the next three months, as “a great step forward in delivering the right collaboration between government and industry”.
The government says that programmes like ‘Government as a Platform’ mean it’s moving away from “long-term, large-scale contracts” towards more “flexible, digital, agile and transparent interactions”, focused on joint delivery.
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The proposed Standard for digital and technology service providers describes its “expectations of, and commitments to”, the technology companies it will need to work with to make this approach successful.
The proposed Standard is an attempt to lay out what both sides should expect from each other going forward, say the pair, and are:
- User needs first
- Data is a public asset
- Services built on open standards and reusable components
- Simple, clear, fast transactions
- Ongoing engagement
- Transparent contracting.
“We want suppliers, both current and potential, to take note of the key principles and use them to help in the bidding process for government IT and tech projects,” said Cabinet Minister Ben Gummer at the launch event in London (go here for a video of the event).