The NHS, through its Shared Business Services (SBS) arm, has launched a new procurement framework that provides the entire public sector with a simple and legally compliant way to purchase cloud solutions.

The Cloud Solutions Framework is comprised of 24 suppliers and will be available to the NHS, local authorities, police, educational establishments, and any other public sector organisation.

The four lot scheme covering a wide range of cloud support that includes both bespoke and off-the-shelf solutions.

Lot 1 offers solution design and consultancy, Lot 2 covers IaaS, SaaS and PaaS offerings, Lot 3 includes cloud support services, while Lot 4 offers end-to-end cloud that helps organisations find a trusted partner that can offer complete start-to-finish support for its cloud journey.

The framework will run until September 2021, but there is an option to extend this for two more years. It will also encourage suppliers to launch new products and solutions throughout the life of the agreement to benefit the public sector.

The cloud market is a very crowded and complex on, according to Phil Davies, procurement director at NHS SBS who said the aim of the new framework was to remove some of that complexity. 

«To ensure framework users have access to the very best cloud services at the most competitive price, we carried out a rigorous tender process and limited the number of suppliers on the framework to the 10 or 20 most outstanding in each Lot. The result is a specialist pool of 24 leading suppliers, which provide the greatest expertise and value-for-money to the public sector,” he said.

«The framework is structured in a way that includes a full range of cloud support services. It means that regardless of where a public body is on its journey into the cloud, or how straightforward or complex its requirements, purchasing the right support is simple, cost-effective and OJEU-compliant.»

A full list of suppliers on the new NHS SBS Cloud Solutions Framework is available here.