Editorial

The Digital Marketplace Contenders, 12: PretaGov

‘We estimate that to digitise 100 paper based processes would take 230 years and £150m, based on most commonly-used developer intensive solutions. In time, that’s equivalent to the time it would take to do nine return trips to Pluto, and cost, employing 487 extra NHS nurses.’

Posted 13 June 2017 by Gary Flood


In the latest of our profiles of interesting IT suppliers on G9, we meet Virgina Choy, the CEO of PretaGov, a UK-Australian provider of cloud-based, low-code products.

Welcome to the Digital Marketplace Contenders, Ms Choy. Let’s start by you telling us about your company; what is your value proposition?

Not only is there a global shortage of developers, but they are also a very expensive resource. PretaGov aims to solve this problem with our main product offering PretaForm, a low code SaaS solution that greatly reduces the time and cost of releasing complex digital services.

PretaForm’s an automated workflow and app builder that accelerates digital transformation by enabling and empowering non-technical staff to build the bulk of the service, while maximising productivity from precious and expensive developers. Unlike low- or high-code platforms,  which are either technically limited or require expensive professional services, PretaForm offers complete scalability, so there is no limit to what can be built unlike our competitors. With our cloud coding environment, there is no limit to what you can do.

Sounds interesting. What is the relevance for the public sector?

We estimate that to digitise 100 paper based processes would take 230 years and £150m, based on most commonly-used developer intensive solutions. In time, that’s equivalent to the time it would take to do nine return trips to Pluto, or the cost of employing 487 more NHS nurses!

For public sector organisations transitioning to digital government, PretaForm accelerates successful releases of digital services and and increases efficiencies, as non-technical staff such as business analysts are empowered to build the bulk of the service while, if necessary, precious software developers can implement custom business processes, i.e. integration and automated workflow.

Why are you on The Digital Marketplace now, and what do you hope to achieve?

We wanted to be listed on the Digital Marketplace as it the best platform for promoting our SaaS products to Government. There is a definite increase in adoption of cloud technology in the public sector, but more traditional buying methods such as open tenders mean lengthy procurement processes. The G-Cloud framework provides greater opportunities for government agencies and Departments to purchase and implement vetted software as a service, which have been assessed against cloud implementation security standards. Another reason to use the Digital Marketplace frameworks is because it is the easiest procurement process for both buyer and supplier.

We hope to assist many government Departments who are finding the transition to digital government time consuming and costly. By enabling a larger part of the a government department’s team to build digital services, digital government can be accelerated and affordable, resulting in more efficient use of taxpayers’ money.

How did you find the process of on-boarding onto the Marketplace? Do you have any guidance or others on the basis of that experience?

Our products have been available through the G-Cloud Framework since it was first released. The early iterations were very time consuming to complete the tender process, as it was an old school proposal submission, but he last few iterations have been a much more streamlined online process.

My guidance for newcomers is to ensure your cloud implementation security meets the Government’s standards, as the self-assessment is a large part of the information to be provided about your products.

Finally, if ThinkDigitalPartners.com came back to talk to you in a year, what would you like to be able to say you’d achieved in the public sector?

I would love to be able to say we contributed greatly to the Government’s vision of becoming a truly Digital one, and the enormous benefits that delivers to citizens.

Thanks for your time today, Ms Choy – and good luck on The Digital Marketplace!