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Details of the next iteration of the G-Cloud framework are due to be published next week, with a bidding process scheduled to kick off in April, PublicTechnology understands.

This timeline will give the government a tight – but achievable – window in which to complete the bidding and award process before G-Cloud 10 reaches the end of its scheduled one-year term on 1 July. 

The incumbent framework was launched publicly in early March 2018, with bidding taking place between 18 April and 23 May. Winning bidders were informed around a month later, ahead of contracts coming into effect on 2 July. 

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A total of 3,505 suppliers won a place on G-Cloud 10 – including 649 who appear on a G-Cloud framework for the first time. The deal is split into three lots, with 2,240 and 1,896 firms accredited to provide cloud software and cloud support services, respectively. The cloud hosting lot contains 614 companies – some 287 of which also feature on both the other two lots. More than nine in 10 firms on the framework are SMEs, according to the government. 

Figures from the Crown Commercial Service show that G-Cloud 10 has generated much smaller sales than its predecessors, with just £91.2m spent via the contract up to the start of 2019. This compares with £771m that was spent via G-Cloud 9 – which overlapped with its successor for several months, having run for an extended 16-month period from May 2017 to September 2018.

A cumulative total of more than £4bn has been spent via G-Cloud across its 10 iterations, including £912.4m during the first three quarters of the 2018/19 year so far. The 2017/18 year marked the first time that annual revenue topped the £1bn mark, reaching £1.07bn – a figure that is set to be comfortably exceeded this time around.

CCS declined to comment for this article.