Gagging order on G-Cloud suppliers dropped this Sunday

IT and comms suppliers can finally confirm on Sunday their involvement in the long-awaited government G-Cloud framework - Blighty's new way of selecting the firms that will sell tech kit to the public sector.

Government Procurement Services (GPS) provisionally told firms whether they had made it onto the guest list earlier this month but gave those that failed to make the grade an Alcatel Period - a fortnight to appeal against the decision.

This cooling off period ends on Friday and suppliers received a letter from GPS this week reconfirming their place on the framework and asking them to hold on making individual announcements before Sunday.

"If you want to issue a press release hold off until Sunday," the letter stated, adding that all formal communication must be passed through the battalion of PR bods within GPS.

The G-Cloud framework includes four lots - infrastructure-as-a-serivce, platform-as-a-service, software-as-a-service and specialist cloud services - worth a total of £60m.

As previously revealed, Mark O'Neill - the proposition director of innovation and delivery at Government Digital Services - confirmed that the "first tranche" of the G-Cloud catalogue will be launched in March.

The tender process was delayed last year to give more suppliers the chance to put themselves forward, and according to sources some 240 players are understood to have been accredited, allowing them to bid for individual contracts as they arise. ®