The government has unveiled the second iteration of its cloud-based app marketplace, CloudStore.
The new version is said to offer improved functionality for both buyers and sellers. Included in these updates are improved search and price comparison capabilities and the ability to buy services directly through the store if the user is registered with the Government E-Marketplace.
Further enhancements on the buyer side include more information about the apps available and the suppliers, such as service definitions, terms and conditions and, where applicable, rate cards.
For companies supplying apps to the Marketplace payments should now be quicker and easier, the government said, which should please CloudStore suppliers, many of which are SMBs.
Suppliers will also now have the ability to make changes to their entry details directly.
"Using cloud solutions in the public sector that have been assured and accredited will almost always be less expensive, and we will only pay for what we use," said Government CIO Andy Nelson.
"We had overwhelming interest in the first CloudStore. This iteration improves on the original in a range of ways – better functionality on searching, price comparison and payment are just a few examples. CloudStore will continue to evolve and change. For this iteration it made practical and financial sense to use an existing government platform," he added.
Eleanor Stewart took to the G-Cloud blog to refute some claims that the project was running late.
"There is perception coming from some quarters that the programme is running late," she wrote. "Just to be clear on this we’re not – the second iteration of the CloudStore went live earlier today and the next round of procurement will be open when the OJEU is published before the end of this month, well on schedule to be live by August."
"Whilst we may have hoped to get these both out sooner we wanted to ensure that we listened to the feedback we have been getting from buyers and suppliers and that these were reflected in both CloudStore and the Gii procurement," she added.
She also rejected claims in a VMware survey that many organisations do not know what G-Cloud is and those that do are unconvinced about its chances of success.
"Now this really confused us as one of the main authors of the report was formerly involved with the original G-Cloud strategy (albeit the one replaced by the strategy published in October 2011 which we’ve been delivering against)," she said.
"In addition another supplier, who are very supportive of the programme, published a totally different survey in March with somewhat opposite results. Which to us just goes to show that you can’t really trust statistics or surveys as you can make them say just about anything you want them too," Stewart added.
