ADVICE CLOUD LIMITED
G-Cloud Procurement Advice and Digital Procurement Consultancy Service
We assist public sector bodies, offering specialist advice to de-risk procurement: G-Cloud buying, end-to-end procurement process and expert led training to upskill internal teams. No long term lock in and unique Utilisation based billing available.
Features
- Over 100 years combined buying experience from G-Cloud
- 1000+ call offs supported valued in excess of £1bn
- Former CCS, GDS & Central Governrnent /WPS procurement specialists available
- TPP24 Certified Practioners
- Onsite or Virtual G-Cloud procurement training courses
- Call-off contract drafting including terms and service management
- Framework & DPS expertise including G-Cloud, DOS, Spark, CS3, TS3
- Compliant supplier contract renewal support as required
- Development of specifications and statements of requirement
- Full digital & cloud procurement team service
Benefits
- Compliant call off procurement support across all CCS frameworks
- Experience in utilising & buying Artificial Intelligence services & software
- Central & Local Government, NHS, Health, Education, Blue light expertise
- Experience of MEAT,MAT & direct award processes
- Social Value question drafting for best outcomes: Qualitative & Quantative
- Specialising in SME Engagement for diverse supply chain development
- Social Value evaluation and inclusion in Call-Off Contracts
- Procurement Benchmarking inline with emerging National Procurement Policy
- Social Housing, Not for profit & Academy Trust experience
- AI, Automation, Cyber Security, IoT, Networking & other services supported
Pricing
£75 a person an hour
Service documents
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format,
email the supplier at publicsector@advice-cloud.co.uk.
Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.
Framework
G-Cloud 14
Service ID
9 2 6 9 2 3 8 7 7 5 9 1 8 4 3
Contact
ADVICE CLOUD LIMITED
Chris Farthing
Telephone: 0330 124 4224
Email: publicsector@advice-cloud.co.uk
Planning
- Planning service
- Yes
- How the planning service works
-
Our procurement service helps Buyers with ensuring their G-Cloud procurements obtain the best outcome. We:
- understand user needs
- drafting functional & non functional requirements
- conduct market testing
- supplier early market engagement
- Long & shortlisting
- Award using MEAT or direct award
- Drafting & finalising of call-off contracts
- Supplier on and off boarding
- Contract review and renewal.
Throughout this exercise, we work collaboratively with the stakeholders hence improving acceptability and ownership of delivered solution or vendor.
We provide clear visibility and audit-ability of the selection process and debrief unsuccessful vendors giving the strengths, weakness and improvement areas with their bid response.
We work with the customers to align their procurement requirements to meet organisational business needs and strategic plans. - Planning service works with specific services
- No
Training
- Training service provided
- Yes
- How the training service works
- We provide a range of training. Face to face, group or one to one, on or off site. We also have an extensive and growing portfolio of online course available.
- Training is tied to specific services
- No
Setup and migration
- Setup or migration service available
- Yes
- How the setup or migration service works
-
Our procurement service helps buyers with ensuring their G-Cloud procurements obtain the best outcome. We support with facilitation of cloud readiness assessment, options analysis of available cloud hosting options (Multi cloud, hybrid, collocation, private or public clouds) benefit realisation assessment, continuous review of cloud utilisation and value for money.
We also work with the clients in making sure that the solution proposed aligns with the strategic direction of the organisation.
We conduct bench-marking exercise of available cloud infrastructures.
We provide clear visibility in the exercise and the selection process, conduct as-is and to-be review and conducting the gap analysis with recommendations for proposed solutions. - Setup or migration service is for specific cloud services
- No
Quality assurance and performance testing
- Quality assurance and performance testing service
- No
Security testing
- Security services
- No
Ongoing support
- Ongoing support service
- Yes
- Types of service supported
-
- Buyer hosting or software
- Hosting or software provided by a third-party organisation
- How the support service works
-
We can provide pre, during and post award procurement support including supplier contract management as required.
Strategic contract review and management
In-sourcing and Outsourcing advisory.
Service scope
- Service constraints
- N/A
User support
- Email or online ticketing support
- Email or online ticketing
- Support response times
-
Weekdays 9.00-17.00 (30 minutes response time)
Weekend (no support provided) - User can manage status and priority of support tickets
- No
- Phone support
- Yes
- Phone support availability
- 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
- Web chat support
- No
- Support levels
- Support is provided on a best endeavours basis however most calls are responded to within 2 hours
Resellers
- Supplier type
- Not a reseller
Staff security
- Staff security clearance
- Conforms to BS7858:2019
- Government security clearance
- Up to Security Clearance (SC)
Standards and certifications
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification
- No
- ISO 28000:2007 certification
- No
- CSA STAR certification
- No
- PCI certification
- No
- Cyber essentials
- Yes
- Cyber essentials plus
- No
- Other security certifications
- No
Social Value
- Social Value
-
Social Value
- Fighting climate change
- Tackling economic inequality
- Equal opportunity
- Wellbeing
Fighting climate change
Advice Cloud are a cloud-based, remote SME organisation. We utilise online collaboration tools to reduce the need for travel and limit travel to key company or client events. Public transport is strongly encouraged over personal vehicles.
We are currently Carbon Neutral Certified and we have committed to Net Zero 2030. Our first emissions reporting iwas in 20/21 financial year and we will update this for 23/24 by November 2024; while we expect emissions to increase from the 20/21 COVID-affected year, we commit to offsetting these emissions in the short-term, and have produced an action plan to reduce, which includes:
- In 2023 we completed company-wide Carbon Literacy training to upskill all team members on emissions creation, reporting and reduction.
- In 2025 we aim to have reduced our Scope 3 emissions by 50%Tackling economic inequality
We actively engage with Start-ups and SMEs and provide regular, free content (blogs, reports, webinars) via our website to thousands of public sector technology suppliers as part of our work to make public sector procurement processes more accessible. Currently 75% of our private sector client base are SMEs. By 2025, we aim to increase the representation of minority-owned businesses in our client base by 10%.
Our supply chain is small and, aside from the SaaS products we use, is made up entirely of SMEs.
In 2025, we will be conducting a full supplier review, which will include identifying opportunities where we could build supply chain partnerships with organisations that actively contribute to community and social benefits (e.g. VCSEs).Equal opportunity
We actively support in-work progression and development of all team members. We achieve this by operating a flexible and transparent organisation where all team members have open access to most business information, meetings and budgets. This enables even entry level staff to gain an understanding of knowledge, processes, strategy at all levels, and actively encourage team members to contribute to or lead on projects outside of their core role to pursue areas of interest or potential progression.
All team members have direct access to the Managing Director and CEO for one-to-one or group support/mentoring. In 2021 we have begun building a group of external coaches/mentors that can be accessed by team members – currently covering the areas Business Development/Strategy, Marketing and Diversity and Inclusion.
Our recruitment process tests for skills and purpose-alignment rather than professional experience, and in all stages prior to interview candidates are anonymised (no indication of gender/age/ethnicity) to reduce risk of bias.
We are a Disability Confident Employer (Level 1) and aim to progress to Level 2 in 2025.
We have an equal training budget of £1k per person per year, additional to various training budgets assigned for team-wide activities/sessions. For example, in January 2022 all team members had Unconscious Bias training.
We also provide all team members with 20 paid days a year (additional to annual leave and bank holidays) for personal development and growth.Wellbeing
We pledge to create a supportive, open and transparent environment and policies that gives people the flexibility and clarity that looks after their health and wellbeing.
We collaboratively review and update our Mental Health and Wellbeing policy annually, which is signed by all team members; this includes support/guidance, and our agreed responsibilities. The policy is easily accessible via our ‘Academy’ Trello board for new starters and ongoing learning, ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing’ Trello board which contains further resources.
We have established a Health and Wellbeing staff forum (30% of staff) which meet monthly to discuss any challenges/issues and opportunities to deliver against our agreed KVIs, which include delivering activities and training focussed on health and wellbeing.
All team members and their immediate family have access to a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme that offers emotional counselling, legal information, bereavement support, medical information and online CBT self-help resources.
In 2024 we aim to source a suitable private healthcare plan for staff
Pricing
- Price
- £75 a person an hour
- Discount for educational organisations
- No
Service documents
Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format,
email the supplier at publicsector@advice-cloud.co.uk.
Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.