The UK government wants to catalyse local digital transformations and unleash the full potential of 5G technology by splashing out £40 million.
This investment aims to empower local areas across the country, enhancing their digital connectivity and facilitating the development of advanced wireless technologies, from cutting-edge healthcare solutions to futuristic farming and smart transport systems that combat congestion.
The UK government plans to relax a proposal that would mandate technology companies to reimburse victims in the event of online financial fraud.
The move follows concerns raised by the Treasury and the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology regarding the proposal’s impact on the UK tech industry.
The annual cost of fraud to the UK amounts to billions of pounds. The government wants a new national fraud strategy to foster collaboration between the government, law enforcement and private companies.
It is expected that the measures will introduce a voluntary agreement where the technology sector will commit to tackling online fraud, rather than being held accountable for reimbursing victims. All a technology company has to do is promise that the attack will not happen again and show what steps have been taken to prevent it.
IT services outfit MTI Technology is now an officially authorised TePAS supplier and has MTI approval to provide IT products and services to organisations across in the UK Public Sector.
The Technology Products and Associated Services framework, or [TePAS] is the Crown Commercial Service’s pan-government collaborative framework agreement for the supply of commodity technology goods and associated services for use by whole UK public sector.
This framework is one of the most significant of its kind in the UK, with estimated revenues circa £6.5 billion due to flow through this agreement over its two-year lifecycle. This framework replaces the existing Technology Products 2 agreement and can be used by public sector bodies with immediate effect.
Microsoft’s price increases have gone down like month old milk left at the back of a fridge with public sector customers and the channel being blamed for not explaining them well enough.
Vole made changes to its pricing structure from the start of last month, with the aim of simplifying things. That meant that there would be an introduction of single prices in some areas and the removal of complicated discount structures in others.
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) will open the third iteration of the Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS) framework in July, after initially extending DOS 2 for a year
This follows a similar turnaround with the G-Cloud framework earlier this month. The DOS framework launched initially in 2016 to replace the Digital Services framework, which came in for criticism from suppliers.
DOS 3 will open for bids in July and is expected to go live in September.
Niall Quinn, director at CCS, said: “We have listened to feedback from suppliers and customers and decided to go ahead with re-letting Digital Outcomes and Specialists in line with our original timescales.
“This will give customers access to the very latest services, and ensures that current suppliers and new bidders, including smaller businesses, have the chance to work with the public sector.”
CCS said that £280 million had been spent through DOS since its launch, with the current version of the framework having 2,000 partners – 94 percent of which were SMEs.
G-Cloud 10 will launch later this year as the government changed its mind on delaying the new framework until 2019.
In November Crown Commercial Service (CCS) extended G-Cloud 9 by up to a year, meaning the framework could have run for an unprecedented two-year period. This meant that suppliers would not have been able to add new services to their offering, or update pricing.
CCS has, however, today announced a U-turn, with G-Cloud 10 opening for £600 million worth of bids in April.
Oliver Dowden, minister for implementation, said: “I’m pleased to confirm that we will re-let the G-Cloud framework, which provides opportunities to many small businesses in the digital sector.
“This will provide innovative online solutions to government, supporting the delivery of efficient, effective public services. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, so it’s crucial that we listen to them when shaping policy, as we have done today.”
It appears that suppliers managed to lean on the government and get it to change its mind.
There does not appear to be any significant changes to G-Cloud for the tenth version, except for the possibility that the Cyber Security Services framework may be brought back into the G-Cloud.
The cost of not delaying the new programme was that the governing body is unlikely to have had a chance to make the sweeping changes after feedback from customers.
Data published by Crown Commercial Service (CCS) shows that Total G-Cloud sales passed £2.8 billion in 2017.
However, despite the fact that G-Cloud was supposed to give contracts to smaller suppliers more than half of the spending by government and public sector organisations is still going to large suppliers.
In fact since 2012 and 31 December 2017, G-Cloud has facilitated £2.85 billion of spending – with 52 percent of this going to what the government classifies as large suppliers.
SME suppliers have cashed in 48 percent of total sales through G-Cloud, but this has come from 71 percent of the deals put through the framework.
To be fair, the figures are a slight improvement for SMEs since the last time data was released, with numbers published for the period up to 31 July showing that just 47 percent of spending was going them.
Last week the government revealed that over £3.2 billion had been spent by the public sector on digital services through G-Cloud and two other frameworks – Digital Outcomes Specialists and Digital Services.
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has extended the G-Cloud 9 framework until May 2019.
It is saying that G-Cloud 9 is being extended past its May 2018 expiry date as G-10 stalled.
In a message sent to suppliers today, CCS confirmed that G-Cloud 9 will be extended for a period of “up to 12 months”, with the expiry date now set for “on or before” 21 May 2019.
The note said: “The decision to extend G-Cloud has not been taken lightly. It will allow time for CCS and GDS to deliver a revolutionary transformation to the platform to meet user needs – for suppliers and buyers both central government and wider public sector.
“Previously, we have undertaken continuous and regular refreshes for each of the individual agreements. However, this hasn’t always given us adequate time for the Digital Marketplace to be developed beyond simply the refresh of these agreements, to meet user needs.
“More time is now needed to transform the platform and make it scalable and more flexible, enabling more framework services and improved customer and supplier functionality based on what user needs have identified.”
That’s from The government’s Digital Future Twitter page, which added that G-Cloud 9 had been extended to give time to enable wider functionality improvements.
Along with G-Cloud, the Digital Outcomes and Specialist 2 framework, and Cyber Securities Services 2 framework have also been extended until 2019.
The move will allow the 70 percent of suppliers who are yet to make a sale on G-Cloud 9 a bit longer.
The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn which says that G-Cloud 9 will be extended by 12 months next week, with G-Cloud 10 now delayed until May 2019.
G-Cloud 9 was supposed to end on 22 May but now the government is mulling over an extension and is expected to confirm it soon. The question is why and it is believed that framework has suffered since Tony Singleton moved on.
The worry is that there might be “very significant” problems with G-Cloud which will leave suppliers burnt, while many expected an extension they did not expect the full 12 months.
Each time there is a new G-Cloud there are more than 700 new SME suppliers join. Suppliers cannot be added in the middle of an iteration, meaning they have to wait and apply for the next version. New products and services can not be added mid-iteration, meaning these also have to wait for the next incarnation to launch.
Another issue is that this shows that the government’s so-called commitment to technology is inconsistent and not transparent. Some suppliers are muttering that the government claims it has an industrial strategy where tech SMEs are seen as vital, and yet the Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Service are deciding internally whether they’re really going to do something which damages the growth of the same sector.
Delays will cause pricing issues for suppliers because prices are locked in when a G-Cloud iteration goes live and can able to be changed when a new iteration launches.
The UK government has launched a £20 million education programme to train nearly 6,000 teenagers in cyber security.
The Cyber Security Schools Programme is being rolled out to help address the UK’s IT skills shortage.
Matt Hancock, minister of state for digital, said: “Our Cyber Schools Programme aims to inspire the talent of tomorrow and give thousands of the brightest young minds the chance to learn cutting-edge cybersecurity skills alongside their secondary school studies.
“I encourage all those with the aptitude, enthusiasm and passion for a cybersecurity career to register for what will be a challenging and rewarding scheme.”
Aimed at 14 to 18 year olds, the programme will see teenagers study a range of cyber security areas alongside compulsory education through a network of clubs, activities and online content.
The programme will be delivered through BT, online education platform futureLearn, cyber security training institute SANS and Cyber Security Challenge UK.
The government has set the target of having at least 5,700 students graduating the course by 2021, with routes into employment provided to successful participants.
Students, teachers and industry organisations can register their interest in the programme through its official website.
Asite has announced it has been signed up to the UK’s Crown Commercial Service’s G-Cloud Programme.
Asite helps outfits manage their projects and supply chains collaboratively; the company has gotten onto the G-Cloud programme with its Adoddle which is a collaborative content management system designed to handle a wide range of content.
The content includes intelligent forms, multimedia supplier catalogues, complex BIM and product models, videos, and other various file types. The government is interested in Adoddle because it allows clients to store all of their content in one central, secure repository while enabling them to fully customise the structure of their content with highly controlled access.
The UK government launched G-Cloud 9 in May of 2017 as a means of enabling public sector bodies to buy cloud-based digital services, directly off the shelf from smaller distributors. The open framework is refreshed every three to 12 months, consistently bringing on new suppliers and services.
Tony Ryan, CEO of Asite, remarked: “Our appointment to the G-Cloud framework builds on our long-standing relationships, which provide project collaboration services in the cloud to the UK government. Together with our longstanding commitment to supporting the government’s Construction Strategy and in particular to the achievement of Level 2 BIM with our cBIM service, we are fully committed to the improvement of procurement in UK construction.”
Lobby group TechUK has brought forward its requests to those hoping to be elected.
It is calling for more of a proactive stance by the next government on digital technology.
TechUK CEO Julian David said that the pace of global digitisation will not slow down and the UK had a choice about whether we want to shape the digital future or be shaped by it.
“The course of the next parliament will see significant technological developments in the way we work and live. It’s crucial that all political parties avoid broad brush and reactionary policy solutions to the complex challenges of the digital age. Politicians must do all they can to cultivate a world-leading tech sector, where a new wave of tech talent can start and scale the next generation of world leading tech companies,” he said.
Resellers want tougher steps to tackle late payers and to make supply chain bullying illegal. Federation of Small Businesses Chairman Mike Cherry has also asked future governments to step up and do something.
He said that there are a series of decisions required by new Government Ministers in their first 100 days in office.
These include export support to tackling our late payments crisis, to co-funding apprenticeships and a new consensus on the future of business rates, to the survival of small businesses.
“Our manifesto sets out what small businesses want to see from all major parties and candidates standing on 8 June. Millions of votes are at stake,” said Cherry.
HPE is planning to tell 1,000 Enterprise Services staff to clean out their desks and pick up their P45s in the UK.
Most of the cuts are in the Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing (ITO) department where 780 people are at risk.
Staff in the UK were sent an “internal use only” memo on Friday afternoon revealing that hundreds of them could be out of work by the end of April. Of course if you send an email like that out someone is certain to leak it.
This is the second jobs warning at HPE. In January. HP told 166 ITO employees in England that they would be fired. Those at-risk workers are based in HP Enterprise’s Lytham site in Lancashire, and they provide infrastructure services for public-sector clients, including the UK government’s Department for Work & Pensions.
Today’s email to ITO staff is headlined “management update” and was written by Maurice Mattholie, ITO VP in UK and Ireland. It reads:
“I am writing to inform you of the Company’s proposal to implement a Workforce Management (WFM) programme in Q2 FY16. As announced by Meg, Hewlett Packard Enterprise needs to create a more efficient and accountable organisation to ensure a healthy long term sustainable business, with a market competitive cost structure, that will help the company transition to the new style of business.
It is important to point out that we are fully committed to continuing to use redeployment and voluntary exits to manage WFM in the UK and Ireland. It is expected that up to 780 positions within ITO will be impacted through WFM in Q2.
Whilst I appreciate that this announcement may cause concern I am committed to providing regular updates to ensure that everyone is kept informed. Thank you for your continued professionalism at this time of uncertainty.
This comes as HP Enterprise prepares to relocate all ITO roles in the UK to its offices in Cobalt, Newcastle, and Erskine in Glasgow. HPE, which employs about 240,000 people globally, has vowed to axe up to 30,000 workers worldwide over the next couple of years.”
Another memo sent today to HPE UK staff, Jacqui Ferguson, senior VP for HP Enterprise Services in UK and Ireland, said that:
“In the UK, part of our strategy for Enterprise Services is to move more delivery services to both our Regional Delivery Centres (RDCs) in Erskine and Newcastle and to our Global Delivery Centres (GDCs). In aligning to this strategy in the UK, we have started consultation on our plan for the reduction of additional roles during Q2, with the UK trade unions and HPE employee representatives in the Enterprise Services Business Units.
We’d like to assure you that we remain committed to supporting the employability of our employees through a number of internal initiatives, including reskilling, redeployment and support to obtain alternative employment, as appropriate.”
Needless to say that morale at HPE is gutted and the fact that the company is doing well now that it has off-loaded its profit sapping PC side means that few could understand why it is happening.
The UK government claims that its G-Cloud procurement makeover in the new year, will “revolutionise” the way suppliers work with the public sector.
The government is trying to make procurement simpler for buyers and suppliers and is testing it on its Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS) framework.
“Plain English” standards were applied to the DOS tendering process, which the government claims it has vastly simplified.
Writing in its bog the government said: “For the redesigned framework, we’ve reduced the length of the documentation significantly. The new documentation includes six tender documents rather than the 11 we had for Digital Services 2.
“The DOS tender pack, which includes the contracts, has around 50 per cent fewer words than the Digital Services 2 tender pack. It’s also 123 pages shorter. If the average adult reading speed is around 250 words per minute, the old documentation would have taken around nine hours to read, and that’s assuming a reader understands everything on a single read-through. We estimate that the new DOS documents will take around three-and-a-half hours to read.”
G-Cloud – which shares a place in the Digital Marketplace alongside the DOS framework – is next in line to get a procurement makeover.
The blog said that in 2016, the government will work in a similar way for the next iteration of G-Cloud (G-Cloud 8) as well as for any new or redesigned frameworks coming onto the Digital Marketplace in the future.
“We think that meeting user needs is important for all government procurement, not just for digital and technology services. We want to share our approach and the lessons we’ve learnt from delivering DOS for the Digital Marketplace.”
Security outfit Tor has said it wants to wean itself off US government cash.
In 2013, Tor received more than $1.8 million from the US government, about 75 percent of the $2.4 million in total annual expenses, according to their latest publicly available tax returns.
While Tor is grateful for the cash, it is worried that conspiracy theorists claim that the US spooks have the system wired up to be a honeypot.
The premise is that while Tor is meant to keep you anonymous on the Internet but it’s funded in large part by the US government who does not want you to be anonymous. So it must be a way that the government locates those who want to be anonymous and tracks them down.
Technically this is tricky, but it is probably better for Tor if it was free of a government involvement – particularly when that government has been seen as a big fan of snooping.
Developers recently discussed the push to diversify funding at Tor’s biannual meeting in Spain, including setting a goal of 50 percent non-U.S. government funding by 2016.
Tor developers at the meeting also brought up the possibility of lobbying foreign governments within, for instance, the European Union.
However, increasing non-governmental funding is a major priority. Individual donations rose significantly in the last year and Tor plans on soliciting them much more aggressively in 2015. Every new download of Tor—there were 120 million in 2014—will be asked to donate to the project, a change expected to take place in the near future.
Tor is launching a crowdfunding campaign in May of this year.
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