How 3Chillies is supporting the public sector: G-Cloud 13 and Digital Outcomes 6
Over the last few years 3Chillies has delivered many successful digital projects for government and public sector organisations. We’ve worked with everyone from central government departments to local councils to the NHS and beyond, and it’s been an important area for our business.
Recently we heard that 3Chillies has been accepted onto the G-Cloud 13 and Digital Outcomes 6 frameworks. Both these are UK-government managed supplier lists that help public sector and government bodies to procure expert help for cloud hosting, migration and support projects (G-Cloud 13) as well as a wider range of other digital and outsourcing projects (Digital Outcomes 6). We’ve been on these lists for a few years now and they’ve helped us to win some very substantial work. In fact, we continue to work on various projects including for some very high-profile public sector organisations, that for confidentiality reasons we’re not allowed to reveal, although I wish we could, as I’m proud of what we have delivered!
The advantages of G-Cloud 13 and Digital Outcomes 6
From an agency perspective, the predecessors to G-Cloud 13 and Digital Outcomes 6 have been excellent sources of work for us from public sector institutions, so I’m very pleased that we will be on both of the latest frameworks. It means a smaller agency like 3Chillies has a level playing field to compete for this valuable and rewarding work against some of the larger players; it also means there is healthy competition which has a positive ripple effect for both clients and agencies too. The end result is that we get to work with some excellent, talented and highly committed digital teams in the public sector, meaning our work continues to be satisfying, interesting and occasionally challenging!
But more broadly speaking, these lists play a valuable role in helping the public sector to hire the digital help they need, driving efficiency and also reducing costs. This is not only through the ability to outsource services and move over to the cloud, but also in significantly reducing the time it takes to appoint the right digital partner.
Finding the right provider and agency can be a hugely time-consuming effort and these lists can simplify the buying and procurement process, speed up an RFP tender, and even circumvent the need for one for smaller pieces of work. The frameworks also provide transparency about the skillset of the providers who are listed, as well as the likely costs; G-Cloud 13 presents our rate-card for example.
Reducing costs for public sector organisations
Many of the projects that we are asked to do, especially when we’re migrating services to the cloud, also result in cost savings. Anything that delivers value for money and makes better use of taxpayer’s contributions is going to be welcome news in the current climate, as well as go down well internally with stakeholders when budgets are subject to tight control.
For example, many public sector organisations still have legacy applications that are on-premises and are holding them back, in terms of broader plans to modernise, as well as wishing to move expenses from a CapEx to an OpEx basis. The G-Cloud 13 framework allows them to quickly source cloud migration partners like 3Chillies that can help them move workloads to the cloud, or perhaps move a website to take advantage of content management systems offered on a SaaS basis. Outsourcing the support for cloud hosting can also make sense, particularly for smaller organisations.
Meanwhile the Digital Outcomes 6 framework (which will be published in March 2023, a date which was moved recently back), lists digital providers who can provide a range of services. Here at 3Chillies we’ve been asked to create mobile apps, develop new websites, create custom business solutions and more. The listing allows a government or public sector organisation to source a list of suppliers who can then be invited to tender or bid for a digital project.
Opportunities for innovation
The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for providing more digital services and information to the public; being in the cloud provides a much better springboard for innovation in this area and lowers barriers to entry. A hosting environment like Azure has the strict security and governance controls that Microsoft has invested heavily in, as well as the scalability that is required to deliver digital services to the public without sacrificing performance.
The agility of a cloud-based content and digital marketing solutions also makes it is easier to launch and then iterate services, lowering the costs and time-to-market for innovation. Moving datasets to the cloud and then making it available for others through APIs provides opportunities for others to use this data and deliver further services. In their own way, the G-Cloud and the Digital Outcomes framework contribute to increasing digital innovation in the UK.
Supporting the public sector
I’m looking to more great public sector projects in the coming years. If you’re a government department or public sector organisation and are interested in moving over the cloud, or have a specific project in mind, then either find our listing on either the G-Cloud framework or Digital Outcomes 5 / 6, then get in touch.
