An SME moving into the public sector market for the first time, or one that’s finding it tough going, has got to make the best use of its marketing assets. The most important of these at first instance is your presence on the Digital Marketplace. Here we introduce new tools and marketing data and show you how to do that. Analysis, Get-conformant, Get-found, Get-optimised, Get-selling, Opinion

In Part 1 we looked at the first 4-months of spend data of 2019/20 (April to July) and compared this to the same period in 2018/19. Taking the perspective of demand-side management we concluded that management of the Digital Marketplace was proving to be effective and fruitful. In this part we are going to look at the same data as ‘sales’ data and assess the state of the marketplace from the perspective of the tech industry – the supply-side. Analysis, Opinion

Return to work after the summer break and CCS have published the spend figures for G-Cloud & DOS from the Digital Marketplace. This covers the first 4-months of the new financial year (April – July). I’m looking for an answer to the question “Is G-Cloud Working?”. In this first part I’ll be looking at the demand side of the equation and looking for objective evidence by comparing the period with April – July of the previous year. Analysis, Opinion

To be successful on G-Cloud, you have to sell. First you have to decide who you are going to sell to. This article summarises some of the market characteristics to look out for. There is a link to the free, detailed paper on selecting target markets in the ‘resources’ section. Get-selling

An SME moving into selling to the public sector has a lot of specialist skills to learn and some baggage to jettison. There is a simple process to accelerate the whole thing. This article sets out a plan to quickly bring you to the top of the game without reinventing the wheel. It also has a note on how to stick-it to the competition while you’re about it. Get-selling

There are roughly 140 attributes for SaaS products on G-Cloud which buyers can use to promote candidates to their shortlist, or eliminate products from consideration. Correlating attributes to sales success shows which attributes in general are key to buying behaviour. This article shows what these attributes are. Reperform this exercise with competitor and similar products to your own to find out what are the product differentiators that are effective in your market. Get-optimised

Buyers use Search on G-Cloud to find candidate products. They also use Filters and may use Categories. With 8,000 SaaS products on the catalogue – it is essential to get this right. This insight article tells you how… Get-found

The Service Definition is an essential marketing tool and it has got to be good. In this article we explore what should be in a good Service Definition and what are the characteristics of a bad one. Consider some content as ‘mandatory’ – CCS recommend this content because buyers have asked for it, but this is necessary – not sufficient. Get-optimised

54% of SaaS suppliers on G-Cloud 9 had a fatal flaw in their pricing information. The same is likely to be true on G-Cloud 10. Half of suppliers celebrating getting onto G-Cloud 10 were actually Dead-on-Arrival. This article explains the type of errors and how to fix the problem. Get-conformant

At the time of writing 792 of the 2,239 SaaS suppliers on G-Cloud (35%) had not loaded a Service Definition. Analysis of G-Cloud 9 showed that 63% of SaaS suppliers had either no Service Definition (28%) or one that conveyed no useful additional information (35%). This is a fatal flaw which can be remedied at any time. Get-conformant

Certain attributes that are still detailed on the face of the SaaS catalogue are so common, we should recognise them as ‘standard’. That they appear on the catalogue suggests buyers have, in the past, expressed that these are important in reaching selection decisions. This article lists the ‘standard’ attributes for you to compare with your own listing to see if you are missing something. Get-optimised

CCS have published spend data for December, this article uses data for 12 months to November 2018 (as December is significantly incomplete). Overall significant growth, SMEs falling behind, particularly in hosting. 80% of SME SaaS vendors haven’t recorded a sale in last 12-months. Analysis, Opinion

An overview of the soon to be published (draft) spend figures for the Digital Marketplace. In this Part 1, I look at the growth pattern of G-Cloud and DOS overall against the November 2017 forecast. There is clearly emerging a 2-speed Marketplace with growth rates widely different for Large and SME organisations. SMEs don’t wring their hands and complain about unfairness… it’s not about the size of dog in the fight, it’s about the size of fight in the dog. Analysis, Opinion

There has been some heated debate about the correct categorisation of SMEs in the G-Cloud sales data. The SME definition, for the majority of companies is simple. This article explains the definition and how it is applied. It also explains where the errors come from and provides advice on what to do if you see a supplier holding-out to be in the wrong category. Opinion

The sales data on G-Cloud shows SMEs are having a tough time getting into the sales magic circle. This article reveals just how big the gulf is then shows the start of the pathway to success. Let’s leave the hand-wringing to the folks we leave behind and get out in front. Analysis, Opinion