Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 up and running

Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 – the commercial framework the government set up to help the public sector find suppliers that can provide teams or specialists to help deliver digital projects – got its official launch last Friday.

The framework has attracted 2,018 suppliers in total, with 94% of them small and medium-sized enterprises, says the two parts of Whitehall behind it, CCS (Crown Commercial Service) and GDS (Government Digital Service).

Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 replaces Digital Outcomes and Specialists 1, but has over 800 more suppliers than the earlier iteration. It is supposed to be live for 12 months with a further 12 month extension.

It’s split into four lots – digital outcomes, digital specialists, user research studios and user research participants. Studies indicate 1,586 suppliers in the first lot, 1,774 in digital specialists, 181 in user research participants but so far only 85 in user research labs. (S0me suppliers got listed in more than one category, please note.)

The government says that 2,000 supplier figure matters, as it aligns with its plan to have £1 in every £3 of public sector spend going to the smaller player by 2020.

As that’s around £15bn worth of purchases each year – if the target is reached – that’s “a big opportunity for small businesses”, it claims.

For more information about Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2, visit the Digital Marketplace at www.gov.uk/digital-marketplace.

GDS said that it will ask why those suppliers who were on the first Digital Outcomes and Specialists didn’t apply to be listed on the second, as part of its on-going work to try and improve G-cloud.

For more on Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2, go to the main Digital Marketplace space on GOV.UK here; if you are a potential buyer from the sector, go here, and here if you want more advice on making the most of it as a supplier.