Member Article

IT in the public sector: space for the SME

The public sector’s relationship with technology has changed dramatically over recent decades. There will have been few computers in central government in the 1980s, whereas these days the prime minister has his own dedicated iPad app.

Many public sector organisations now rival the privatesector in terms of technology awareness and utilising ‘forward thinking’ IT. From changing the way healthcare is delivered, to providing easy access to local government resources for citizens, the solutions on show across the UK demonstrate that the public sector will embrace technological innovation readily.

The issue isn’t that organisation are cautious or wary, it’s that IT suppliers have historically struggled to secure contracts due to a complex and sometimes prohibitive procurement process.

Not only this, but the difficulty and often high cost of this public tendering process created an oligopoly, as only the largest suppliers had the resources to win the projects. This meant that customer organisations were missing out on the technical knowledge and agility of working with smaller firms, which are often able to deliver innovation much quicker that their large, corporate counterparts.

The government spotted this and so in 2011 it set a target of awarding 25% of funds from public contracts to SMEs by 2015.

But thus far the statistics don’t read particularly well. In 2013 we’re only at 10.5%, while recent research from Fujitsu found that 26% of SMEs think securing public contracts is now more difficult than before.

As an SME supplier that works extensively in the public sector, we can say from experience that winning work is possible, but smaller IT firms need to remain agile when they have something good to offer, and explore all available avenues to engage with the customer.

That’s not to say the current procurement system is ideal. Navigating through the reams of paperwork is time-consuming, complicated and often prohibitive; and we would agree that SMEs don’t have a big enough share of the opportunities created in the public sector.

However, there are viable options available to SMEs, one being recognised procurement frameworks. G-Cloud, for instance has opened the door to many suppliers. Set up by the Government Procurement Service, G-Cloud is an online portal designed to allow organisations to quickly and easily procure IT from approved suppliers..

To win a place on the framework, suppliers must go though a rigorous selection process, ensuring that only trusted providers with sufficient capability and expertise are selected.

But it’s fair to say the public sector hasn’t fully embraced this new model yet, and the amount of money spent through G-Cloud is still low compared to legacy procurement processes.

Another approach – and one we’ve used successfully – is to work through an established framework supplier as a channel partner, effectivelyacting as a conduit to navigate through established procurement frameworks.

The names of those firms working on the various government frameworks are published on framework websites, and they generally have a department set up to process tenders on behalf of SME companies looking to win public sector contracts.

The oligopoly still exists for the moment, but instead of seeing that as an obstacle, SMEs should be using it to their advantage.

Better still, smaller firms with niche specialisms can add significant value to larger suppliers’ offerings, often enabling large, established providers to bid for projects that they would otherwise have beunable to deliver. Pooling together resources in this way can result in well-rounded projects, while leaving the majority of the procurement process to the bigger partner who can afford that investment.

An example of this working successfully was our work on the Cardiac and Stroke Network in Lancashire and Cumbria. Having developed the concept of a pay as you go Video as a Service (VaaS) offering that would address the Stroke Network’s requirements, Imerja partnered with Virgin Media Business to deliver this service, which allows doctors to diagnose suspected stroke patients and correctly prescribe stroke treatment remotely. Virgin provided the high-speed private network, while we added the high-definitionvideo link and monitoring service. The result is a saving for the NHS of around £8 million a year, as well as the improvements to patient outcome following a stroke, and ultimately delivering better care.

Success with this application of a niche service approach has created its own micro-climate of interest with clinicians and other health workers across the northwest region. Despite the presence of procurement barriers, with a compelling enough proposition it can be the customer that can be the biggest advocate in securing contracts.

This is the type of value that SME suppliers can add to the public sector. While the government works to open up other avenues of entry for smaller firms, the SME shouldn’t sit on its hands. Instead it should exploit the paths that are already available.

Ian Jackson, managing director of Imerja

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Imerja .