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How Do SMEs Sell Into Government?

Whilst advising multiple clients over the past few months, I’ve heard several grumbles about selling into the public sector. About how it’s a closed shop, it’s only for the big players and it’s not an effective way to secure great value for the taxpayer. All very emotive.

And whilst I can empathise to a degree, if any business wants to work with public sector organisations, first and foremost it must have a desire to improve public services and make a difference. I am passionate about public services – I have dedicated over half of my life working for or with public services – and want to be able to contribute to a better society wherever possible.

I’m spending quite a bit of my time at the moment supporting businesses who are looking to access public sector frameworks, whether that be entering them for the first time or looking to expand their current offerings and access new services. As a benevolent kinda guy, I thought it would be useful to share with you my thoughts and provide some information that would help more companies get onto frameworks.

Please keep reading if that would be of interest to your organisation. Or even better, get in contact via LinkedIn or email us at learnleadgrow@outlook.com and let’s discuss it in more detail, or we can provide some checklists and templates to help you hone your applications.

What Frameworks Are Out There?

There are lots.

Crown Commercial Services (CCS) manages over 100, spanning technology & digital, buildings & infrastructure, travel, energy and much more. It’s a complicated landscape, and all run to different timelines, serving different purposes. In my view there are too many, and that makes it harder for SMEs to access the ones that are most useful for them. Taking a month to prepare submissions for a government framework is fine for a behemoth tech giant who have teams of people working on tenders and bids. But, for an SME with a handful of staff, all of whom are working on billable activity, a week or so’s effort to collate and submit information is an impact on that month’s P&L that you want confidence will realise long-term benefit.

One of the biggest and most useful for tech SMEs is G-Cloud.

G-Cloud launched in 2012 and is now in its 14^th iteration. It enables public sector organisations to buy cloud hosting, software and support services without running full tender processes, meaning it can compliantly procure at a faster pace.

Services are accessed via the Digital Marketplace and there are now over 4,000 suppliers offering more than 40,000 services. Historically, over 80% of suppliers are SMEs, and contracts can be for up to 4 years – many of these are direct awards, which is something all suppliers hope for.

If you wanted to explore the current agreements and what you’ll be signing up to, then refer to the G-Cloud14 framework as a point of reference.

If you’re on this framework then hopefully you’ve seen value from it. If you aren’t then the good news is that applications for G-Cloud 15 open soon!

How Do You Get on G-Cloud?

The high-level timeline for G-Cloud 15 is as follows, noting that dates may be subject to change from CCS.

• Publication of ITT / Find a Tender notice: 23 October 2025 (indicative date).
• Application window: opens 23 October 2025 and runs through late 2025 with suppliers submitting online listings and supporting documents.
• Evaluation and framework award: estimated award by July 2026 with framework live from mid/ late 2026 (award dates in public notices show July 2026 and go-live expected August 2026).
• Contract period (estimated): July 2026 to July 2030, four years.

Essential supplier requirements

• Eligible services and lots: suppliers may list Cloud Hosting (IaaS/PaaS), Cloud Software (SaaS) and Cloud Support services; Cloud Compute is folded into G-Cloud 15. Learnleadgrow’s top tip: Most SME services will fall under Cloud Support, as this is where consultancy and managed support services will sit. Many assume “Support” is only end user support and incorrectly categorise services.
• Mandatory documents per service listing: Pricing document; Service Definition; Terms and Conditions specific to each service. Learnleadgrow’s top tip: Look at the Digital Marketplace, look for a service offer from one of your competitors and see what they are charging and create your listing accordingly.
• Compliance and assurance: appropriate Economic and Financial Standing (EFS) checks per lot; there is a strong emphasis on Social Value, Quality and Price in the evaluation.
• Security and data protection: up-to-date certifications where applicable (Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001), evidence of data protection and security controls in service definition.
• Accessibility and document format: supplier documents should meet accessibility standards and be submitted in approved formats (guidance historically expects accessible docs; follow CCS/ Digital Marketplace rules).
• Pricing transparency: clear, consistent pricing and terms for the public sector; pricing uploaded with the listing.
• Evidence of past performance: case studies, references and outcome evidence to support quality scoring during evaluation.
• Digital Marketplace account: suppliers must have (or create) an account on the Digital Marketplace to submit listings.
• Insurance: Evidence of required insurances (e.g., public liability, professional indemnity).

A Practical checklist for SMEs

Preparation (immediate)

1. Register on the central digital platform before bidding Information and guidance for suppliers - GOV.UK provides overall guidance, the specifics of how to do this are here: 2025-02-19 ACT NOW Suppliers' user guide: How To Register Your Organisation FINAL.docx. This should take about 10 mins.
   1. Have the last 2 years of accounts to hand to upload
   2. Have info re: certifications you have (ISO, etc)
   3. Company registration number; registered address; trading name.
   4. Have a primary contact: Name, role, phone, email for the CCS contract contact
2. Join the mailing list (which annoyingly could only be done by having a Google account) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMgwpZ1kwubGUpKMLwu0ZpHS8zdWmXKgaHUJKRl-SwqQT95w/viewform
3. Confirm which Lot(s) you will target: Hosting, Software, Support; map each service to the correct lot and Cloud Compute subcategory. Learnleadgrow’s top tip: we recommend that you add a number of offerings and not just one. These will vary depending on what your business offers.
4. Create/ verify your Digital Marketplace supplier account and company profile; ensure the primary contact details are current. You can add other users to this if you want to.
5. Consider assigning internal leads and deadlines (owner for Service Definition, Pricing, T&Cs, Security evidence, Case Studies). Or it may just be one person doing all the legwork for smaller companies.
6. Register for the Find a Tender service: Find a Tender
7. Familiarise yourself with the Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) levels as they dictate the rate card. SFIA levels help define roles and rate cards. You can explore them at SFIA.org.
8. Check that you’ve got the required levels of insurance cover and your ISO/ CE certs will be active or renewed in time for the application process. Commonly (but not mandated) these levels are:
   1. Public Liability Insurance, £5m
   2. Employers’ Liability Insurance, £10m
   3.  Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance, £1m
   4. Cyber/ Technology Liability Insurance, £1m (recommended)

Prepare Documentation (within 1–2 weeks)

1. For the listings you need a clear service name: Concise, searchable, and consistent with market terms. The SEO functionality isn’t overly complex within the Digital Marketplace. Learnleadgrow’s top tip: If you put the words “Salesforce partner” 50 times in your service offer then whenever somebody searches for a Salesforce partner, you’ll probably come top of their search results!

There should be:

• a short summary: 1–2 sentence plain-English description of what the service does
• a full service description: Features, key capabilities, technical architecture, data residency, scalability, SLAs, and any third-party dependencies.
• Service scope and exclusions: What’s included, optional add-ons, and what you will not provide.
• Target buyer profile: Which public-sector customers the service suits and typical use cases.
• Accessibility and inclusion: Notes on accessibility compliance and supported assistive tech.

2. Draft Service Definition(s): clear scope, service levels, on-boarding, support, data residency and security controls; write in plain, procurement-friendly language.
3. For security you will need to confirm things like the below (they are likely to be the same for all entries):

• Data handling: Data types processed, storage locations, retention, deletion procedures, and data export tools
• Security certifications: List current accreditations (e.g., ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials) and dates of expiry
• Technical security controls: Encryption (in transit, at rest), authentication, key management, logging and monitoring
• Incident response: Contact details, response times, escalation path, and breach notification commitments
• Privacy and GDPR: Roles (controller/ processor), DPA availability, standard contractual clauses if relevant
• Penetration testing and vulnerability management: Frequency and responsible parties.

4. Prepare Pricing document(s): consistent public-sector pricing; list tariffs, unit rates, volume discounts, and billing terms. Is it a per user or per instance price, or T&M, flat fee?
5. Produce T&Cs per service: supplier-specific terms compatible with CCS template expectations and call-off use.
6. Detail SLAs, availability targets, credits for missed SLAs
7. Support model – operating hours, contact methods (whether via phone/ email/ portal), RTO and RPO
8. Collate supporting evidence: ISO 27001 / Cyber Essentials certificates, data protection documentation, business continuity and incident response summaries.
9. Prepare 2–3 short case studies (problem, solution, outcome, metrics) and at least one public-sector relevant reference if available.

Compliance and Quality (within 2–3 weeks)

1. Collate background and supporting data: gather accounts, bank references or other financial evidence; check likely economic and financial standing threshold for chosen lots and ensure documentation is ready.
2. Social value and quality inputs: document community impact, sustainability, supplier diversity or training commitments to support Social Value scoring.
3. Accessibility check: convert documents to required formats and validate accessibility (screen-reader friendly).

Submission readiness (final week before opening and during response window)

1. Populate online listing templates: reuse any validated service question responses where allowed; ensure responses are compliant not marketing-led.
2. Upload mandatory documents: Service Definition, Pricing, T&Cs, security certificates, case studies, SFIA or rate cards where applicable.
3. Final legal and commercial review (if you feel they are needed): ensure no clauses conflict with public-sector procurement requirements and prompt payment expectations.
4. Dry run: have a colleague or procurement-savvy reviewer test the listing for completeness and clarity.

Post-Submission Actions (early 2026)

1. Monitor CCS/ Digital Marketplace messages for clarification requests and respond promptly.
2. Prepare delivery pack and buyer engagement materials: standard onboarding checklist, SOW templates, SLAs, escalation paths to speed call-offs.

Post go-live actions (summer 2026)

1. Plan Marketing to say “we are an approved government supplier” once listing is live
2. Plan sales/ outreach to public sector buyers once listing is live (targeted outreach, leveraging case studies).

Prioritised Summary Timeline for SMEs

• w/c 06/10: Decide lots and allocate owners; create/ verify Digital Marketplace account; start Service Definition drafts.
• w/c 13/10 & 20/10: Finalise Service Definition, Pricing, T&Cs; collect security and financial evidence; write case studies. ITT opens.
• w/c 27/10: Accessibility and legal review (if it is needed); populate listing fields; final drafting of documents in preparation for upload.
• w/c 03/11 (available from 23 Oct 2025): Submit listings; have a 2^nd reviewer; monitor for queries and updates.

It might feel like there is a lot to do – it’s not a simple tickbox exercise, but it isn’t overly arduous. And if you haven’t done it before and need help here then why not get in touch with us at   learnleadgrow? We’ve experience of successfully applying for multiple CCS frameworks and have seen first-hand how it can lead to winning multi-million pound contracts within a relatively short timeframe.

Some people might wonder why we have shared this with the wider world. There are companies that make a living off selling these services, and whilst we would gladly work with you to submit and hone your offers, we want a market that is vibrant, growing and SME-friendly. One that makes sure public services improve as quickly as they can at a cost which makes sense to taxpayers like you and I.

So, drop us a line, and if you have other hints and tips to add to the list then please do share them!