The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) has retired the Digital Marketplace procurement platform and plans to replace it with a new Contract Award Service (CAS).
While the Digital Marketplace website is still live, it says it is not open for new opportunities under the Digital Outcomes and Specialists (DOS) 5 framework – which is now being run down – and that potential suppliers need to access opportunities under DOS 6 through the Public Procurement Gateway (PPG).
CCS said it has taken the steps as the Digital Marketplace has been struggling to accommodate the growing demands of customers and there is a need for an enhanced digital platform to support future iterations of DOS and other procurement agreements.
This includes the PPG as a registration vehicle for suppliers, and the CAS as a more flexible and scalable platform for buyers and suppliers. The latter should be accessible through the PPG button on the organisation’s website – although at time of writing it was not clearly visible.
Heavy spend
The Digital Marketplace has been in place since 2014, providing a platform for sales on the DOS and G-Cloud framework, with total spends valued at £5.2 billion for the former and £14.3 billion for the latter, according to figures published by CCS.
One of its prime purposes was to help SMEs win a greater share of business in the public sector digital sector, and while CCS has claimed significant progress there have also been indications of frustration, most recently in a survey by IT industry association techUK.
Its closure has prompted a round of complaints on social media, with a number of posts claiming this has undermined transparency in procurement.
