The government’s newly rebranded Digital Services framework is set to include three main categories, according to the Government Digital Service.
Earlier this week, the GDS announced that the framework would be renamed as Digital Outcomes and Services to better describe what is available to public sector bodies.
In a blog posting, it said that the new categories have been decided after consultation with customers and suppliers.
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The three new categories are planned to be:
- Digital outcomes, providing solutions to research, test, design, build, deliver, evolve, retire or support a digital service
- Digital specialists as a service, to deliver a specific piece of work on a service, programme or project
- User research studios and participants
Contracts will also be simpler under future versions of the framework, the GDS said.
“The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) reduced the length of the call-off contract between DS1 and DS2,” the post said. “Digital Outcomes and Specialists will reduce this even further.
Buyers will be encouraged to talk to suppliers in an open forum before the start of the tender process, to help buyers build clearer requirements.
In addition, the new framework will allow buyers to meet face-to-face with suppliers as part of the evaluation process, and GDS says this will be organised in a way that complies with EU procurement law.
Assessment criteria at the framework stage will be lighter, with the focus moved towards the call-off stage, GDS said.
It added that the application process for the framework would become more similar to the one introduced for G-Cloud 7.
Last week, the GDS said that it wanted to downplay the names of individual frameworks sitting on the Digital Marketplace.
It said: “We want to move away from using frameworks as brand names. The frameworks should sit behind and inform the Digital Marketplace service rather than being an integral part of it.”
