The Government is drawing up a strategy to govern the purchase and supply of digital products and services across the public sector.
The strategy will cover the government’s Digital Commercial Programme will focus on user needs and service design and delivery, according to a blog post published today by Warren Smith, head of Strategy (digital commercial programme) at the Government Digital Service.
He said the strategy would be produced later this year, in consultation with buyers and suppliers.
According to Smith, individual strands of delivery, such as the forthcoming Digital Marketplace, are interdependent.
He said: “If just one part fails to meet our users’ needs, then the whole user experience is potentially affected. The programme needs to be designed and delivered as a service.”
The aim will be to understand user needs and educate them about the new principles and approaches the government is adopting in achieving change.
Smith said: “In doing so we will equip them with the right mindsets, behaviours, tools, and a set of principles, guidance, practical methods and templates supported by real illustrative examples, in readiness for buying and selling.”
The strategy will cover four areas: routes to market, tools, governance and support.
The government is developing a set of principles and an approval standard to ensure that all new commissioning frameworks for digital and technology are designed right, Smith said.
As previously announced, the Digital Marketplace will become the single platform for buying and selling digital technology within government, but “but there are a number of other tactical tools that we’re looking to develop that help towards our aim of making the buying and selling process simpler, clearer, and faster,” Smith added.
GGS is aiming to produce the first draft of the strategy before the end of June and gain feedback from a small group of buyers and suppliers.
Two months later it will be published to a wider group of users, before the final strategy is published by the end of September.
