MARKET REPORT Public Sector
Selling in the Public Sector
Comms Business Magazine takes a look at the Public Sector with a view to determining opportunities,
challenges and market movements which are impacting those partners selling into that particular vertical
Because it is so in the public
eye and scrutinised by
audit bodies this sector
has over time become
regulated to the point where
suppliers can really only gain
access to it by becoming
approved - getting on the list
authorised to sell.
Getting on the list is not
rocket science but, as you
might imagine for this sector, a
process – much of which can be
researched and completed online
at gov.uk.
e site was updated in
April 2019 and provides an
introduction to the Crown
Commercial Service for
potential suppliers of goods and
services to the public sector.
It includes guidance on how
to nd and respond to tender
opportunities for suppliers of
all sizes, including small and
medium sized enterprises.
As you would imagine, this
sector is a huge consumer of
digital services and both the
Crown Commercial Service
alongside the Government
Digital Service (GDS) seek to
provide full transparency for
suppliers and users of their
services.
The Market
In a word, the market is huge.
In a nutshell, the public sector
is responsible for providing
all public services in the UK,
from the emergency services
and healthcare, education and
social care, to housing and refuse
collection.
e latest O ce for National
Statistics gures, covering
December 2018, showed around
one in six employed people,
or around 5.4 million people,
in the UK worked in services
or enterprises controlled by
government, worth billions of
pounds in sta ng costs every
year.
How di cult is it to become
an authorised supplier to public
sector organisations?
Ben Ryland, Head of Public
Sector at 4net Technologies,
says you have to go through
a rigorous and varied process
that takes several months to
complete.
“ e key thing is to get onto
the right Crown Commercial
Services framework at the right
time.”
“Getting accepted onto a
Crown Commercial Services
framework is important if you
want to be successful within this
sector, as it puts you in a much
better position to win contracts,”
says Marie Hamilton, Central
Government Account Director,
Avaya.
“We are very pleased to
be a partner for a number
of successful public sector
suppliers.”
Jon Cole, Head of Public
Sector at VideoCentric, says the
Frameworks route to market is
always the di cult one.
“ ere are ways to pass
business through framework
holders - this is accepted and has
been done for many years. To
get onto a Framework is di cult
and time consuming. ey come
up for renewal at regular periods,
sometimes 3 and sometimes
5 years. ere are a LOT of
frameworks, covering everything
in di erent ways; -
• di erent verticals – e.g.
universities, Healthcare, Blue
lights
• regions – e.g. regional HE
procurement hubs, Grids for
Learning.
• Technologies – e.g. GCloud
is limited to hosted software/
SAAS
Half the battle is working out
which frameworks are the best
ones to be on, or who you’re
going to partner with on an
opportunity.”
Emily Shimell – Head of
Marketing and Manager of
Frameworks at VideoCentric,
says one of the biggest
challenges they have faced so
far is working with framework
structures and portals that are
not really set up for combined
SaaS/solution selling.
“If you are selling individual
commodities – printers,
stethoscopes, PC’s, pens, for
example - then I believe it
would work more e ectively.
However selling subscriptions
to services, that may or may
not require particular hardware
purchases for connecting
into the service, bundled
with various service add-ons,
professional services and
consultancy wrap arounds,
presents a much bigger
challenge, especially where
networks & security, business
needs & strategies are in play
- there isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a
one-size- ts-all approach, and
o -the-shelf buying means that
the resulting solution is never
going to be optimised for the
organisation.
Trying to explain a pricing
structure of an entire Video
Collaboration solution in simple
‘how much per unit per hour’
terms isn’t as simple as any of us
2018 Public-Sector-Procurement-hot-spots would like it to be!”
36 | Comms Business Magazine | February 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/gov.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk