Editorial

Government digital pioneer Tony Singleton joins public sector procurement consultancy Advice Cloud

Tony Singleton joins Brighton-based public sector procurement consultancy to help tech SMEs ‘make the most of the opportunities open to them’

Posted 7 August 2017 by Gary Flood


Tony Singleton, seen by many as the driving force behind the government’s G-Cloud and Digital Marketplace strategy, has moved into the private sector after 35 years in government service.

Singleton, an OBE, has joined Brighton-based public sector procurement consultancy Advice Cloud as a Strategic Advisor, a  role in which it’s said he “hopes to share his experience with suppliers looking to sell to government”.

“I strongly believe that the UK public sector has a lot to gain from using new and innovative suppliers that it has not had the opportunity of working with before,” Singleton said in the statement announcing his move at the end of last week.

“SMEs bring fresh, new ways of solving problems and delivering products that help ensure services meet the needs of users [and] working with Advice Cloud gives me the opportunity to work with those suppliers, helping them to make the most of the opportunities open to them,” he added.

Currently in its 9th iteration, G-Cloud alone has since its inception generated over £2bn of sales, with 47% being awarded to SMEs, says Advice Cloud, noting that of the 2,500 suppliers claimed to have been given the opportunity to work with the public sector for the first time via cloud-based IT procurement, 88% of these were small and medium size businesses.

“I am incredibly excited and humbled to have a person of Tony’s calibre join the team,” claimed Advice Cloud’s founder and MD Chris Farthing.

“He will bring an unrivalled wealth of experience and knowledge to us here, as well as assisting us and our ambitious SME clients deliver better public services.”

Singleton has twice been named one of the top 50 most influential people in UK IT, and was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2014.

A graduate of the Cabinet Office’s Major Project Leadership Academy, Singleton was COO for Directgov from 2006 to 2011 before becoming chief operating officer of the Government Digital Service. From March 2014 he was  G-Cloud and digital commercial programme director, a post he maintained until March 2016.

Subsequent to his Digital Marketplace work he then became Chief Operating Officer at BEIS and until recently the IFA Set-up Programme Director at the Department for Education.

Advice Cloud is a public sector procurement specialist and G-Cloud consultancy, specialising in assisting both public and private organisations buying and selling IT, Cloud, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Digital & Professional services.

It has also consulted for government organisations including Brighton & Hove City Council, Horsham District Council and Adur & Worthing Councils on technology procurement.