UK government plans public sector app store

A new digital marketplace has been announced by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) with the intention of shaking up how the UK public sector buys technology, including providing access to pre-approved solutions at nationally negotiated prices and using AI to help match buyers to suppliers. 

The National Digital Exchange (NDX), which has been in development for over a year, will operate like an app store for public sector tech procurement, providing the opportunity for users to rate and review products they have purchased. It is being developed in a way that is intended to open the market to more UK tech firms, particularly those in the SME community.

As announced in the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government, the government intends to use its scale to unlock greater value in procurement. The paper said that DSIT is working with HM Treasury to take “a new approach to digital funding” in the Spending Review (which takes place on Wednesday). This is intended to drive the “right outcomes, better value, increase agility and reduced risk” and introduce greater focus on realising efficiencies and productivity gains. 

The NDX announcement followed last week’s report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which called on the government to better leverage its buying power when dealing with digital technology suppliers. 

The PAC report warned that the government lacks sufficient skills to manage the depth and breadth of its digital commercial needs, highlighting the fact it only has 15 people dedicated to the full-time management of technology suppliers. It said the situation was untenable given the pace of digital technological change. 

The original Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Digital Marketplace closed in 2023 and was replaced by the Public Procurement Gateway. However, the NDX is doing something different by matching buyers to pre-approved solutions. Whether it will be able to deliver its ambitious aims of unlocking £1.2bn a year in savings and reducing the search for solutions to “a matter of hours, not months” remains to be seen. The issues highlighted by the PAC raise concerns about whether there is currently the capacity within government to populate the marketplace with the breadth and quality of solutions that will be required across the UK public sector. 

Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:13

Tags: procurement   government   digital+marketplace   DSIT