You can read the Digital Market Place guidance on the .Gov website but if you want the bare bones of how Digital Market Place DOS works here is your quick guide.
Digital Outcomes
Suppliers who can provide teams to build and support a digital service can apply to this category. A digital outcome could be a discovery phase to create an information systems vision of an NHS department.
Digital outcomes suppliers must provide at least one of the following in relation to building digital services:
- user experience and design
- performance analysis and data
- security
- service delivery
- service development
- support and operations
- testing and auditing
- user research
Digital Services
Suppliers who can provide individual specialists to work on a service, programme or project. A digital specialist’s work must have deliverables and a defined scope. A specialist in this category might be a delivery manager working on the transition of the replacement driving licence product from beta to live.
Digital specialists suppliers must provide at least one of the following roles:
- agile coach
- business analyst
- content designer or copywriter
- cyber security specialist
- delivery manager or project manager
- designer
- developer
- communications specialist
- performance analyst
- portfolio manager
- product manager
- programme delivery manager
- security expert
- service manager
- technical architect
- user researcher
- web operations engineer
Quick Buying Guide
| Action | Date Completed |
| 1. Prepare your requirements – a list of ‘must-haves’ and ‘wants’ – and get approval to buy what you need. | |
| 2. Search for services on the Digital Marketplace using keywords. | |
| 3. Review services and use the filters to create your shortlist. | |
| 4. Compare services to find the cheapest or best value for money. | |
| 5. Choose your service, award and sign the contract (or ‘call-off’). | |
| 6. Publish the contract on Contracts Finder. | |
| 7. Complete the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) benefits form. | |
| *If you award a contract through G-Cloud, make sure you keep a record of all the buying process stages. You must be able to show a clear audit trail, including searches you’ve carried out, filters you’ve used and how you’ve compared services. |
Engagement with suppliers
| Action | Completed Y/N |
| Information to be provided | |
| your organisation’s name and department | |
| background to your organisation and project | |
| what you want to achieve | |
| the phases you want them to give feedback on | |
| the date you need them to respond by | |
| where the work for any future project will take place | |
| when you want the work to start | |
| the information you want them provide, for example how much the work might cost, how many people it might involve and how long it might take | |
| any next steps required |
Buying via a team
| Action | Completed Y//N |
| Before you start | |
| 1. You can talk to suppliers to prepare your requirements. | |
| Download list of suppliers. | |
| 2. Get budget approval. | |
| Write and publish your requirements | |
| 3. Write your requirements and say how you’re going to evaluate suppliers. | |
| 4. Publish your requirements and evaluation criteria so suppliers can apply for the work. This information will be published on the Digital Marketplace where anyone can see it. | |
| Answer supplier questions | |
| 5. Post all supplier questions and answers on the Digital Marketplace. | |
| Evaluate suppliers | |
| 6. Shortlist and evaluate supplier applications. | |
| 7. Award a contract to the supplier that best meets your needs. | |
| The buying process should take around 4 weeks. | |
| Read more about: | |
| how to buy | |
| how suppliers have been evaluated |
| You must write clear requirements and evaluate suppliers against them. |
The Application Process
| There are 2 parts to the supplier application process on the Digital Marketplace. Suppliers have to: |
| 1. Confirm information about their company history and the way they work through a series of questions. This is called the ‘supplier declaration’. |
| 2. Add information about the services that they want to offer. |
| Digital Outcomes and Specialists service details |
| Digital Outcomes and Specialists services have to fit into 1 of 4 categories, or ‘lots’: |
| 1)digital outcomes, for example, a team to provide a booking system beta or an accessibility audit |
| 2)digital specialists, for example, an individual developer or user researcher to work on a specific project |
| 3)user research studios |
| 4)user research participants |
| Digital Outcomes and Specialists suppliers must include information like: |
| where they can work |
| how much their services cost |
| details of their experience |