G-Cloud suppliers or a DOS 7 competition: which route fits

Buying cloud hosting, cloud software or cloud support puts you in the market for G-Cloud suppliers. Buying a team to research, design or build a service puts you on Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7. The thing being bought sets the route, whatever the budget.

One mechanical difference follows from that and shapes everything else. G-Cloud suppliers can be appointed by direct award, meaning without running a competition. DOS 7 carries no direct award route, so every requirement goes to further competition.

Getting the classification wrong costs time rather than money. A requirement written against the wrong agreement has to be withdrawn and rewritten, and the delivery window already committed to a cabinet date shrinks by however long that takes.

Both agreements are run by the Government Commercial Agency (GCA, formerly Crown Commercial Service), formed on 1 April 2026, so older call-off paperwork still carries the CCS name.

Classify the requirement before you pick the agreement

Route confusion usually starts with the framework a council used last time, before anyone has looked at what is being bought.

Two tests separate most cases: whether the thing you need already exists as a cloud service, and whether you are buying the people to create it.

A content management system licensed as software sits on G-Cloud, and so does the hosting underneath it. A discovery, an alpha, an accessibility remediation programme or a website build goes to DOS 7, because in each case the council is paying for a team’s work and the thing being bought does not exist until they deliver it.

One programme often splits across both. A council replacing its main website will commonly procure the build through DOS 7 and the hosting and platform support through G-Cloud, as two call-offs with different start dates. Treating that as one procurement is where timetables slip.

How to find and appoint G-Cloud suppliers

G-Cloud is a catalogue. The scope covers cloud hosting, cloud software and cloud support. Anything outside that is out of scope, however well a supplier fits.

Shortlist from published documents before you contact a supplier

Published G-Cloud services can be searched and filtered without registering first, so an officer can see the market before any internal approval is in place.

Filter by lot first, because the lot boundary is what puts a service in or out of scope for your requirement.

Every listed service carries a published service definition and a pricing document. A shortlist can therefore be built from published documents alone, comparing scope and price, before a single supplier is contacted. On G-Cloud 15, certificates shown against a listing are validated before they appear, so what you read there has already been checked.

DOS 7 has no equivalent browsable catalogue. You reach that market through the Contract Award Service, which needs a Public Procurement Gateway account and whose filtering tool narrows suppliers by skills and services. Filtering there is optional, and it does not replace publishing the requirement.

Direct award is available on every G-Cloud 15 lot

G-Cloud permits direct award. A council can identify the service that meets its requirement and award without inviting competing bids, provided the selection is documented and defensible.

On G-Cloud 15, RM1557.15, awarded on 6 August 2026, all lots can be called off with or without competition. Internal guidance that still names certain lots as competition-only is now out of date.

Which G-Cloud iteration your call-off will sit under

G-Cloud 14 expires on 28 October 2026. Under agreement number RM6292, Cloud Compute 2 runs a month longer, to 27 November 2026. G-Cloud 15 replaces G-Cloud 14, G-Cloud 14 Lot 4 and Cloud Compute 2, and what G-Cloud 15 changes for the public sector buyer covers what moves at call-off.

Every DOS 7 requirement goes out to competition

Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7, agreement RM1043.9, covers digital outcomes and specialists. GCA’s wording on the agreement page is “There is no option to award without competition”. The current period ends on 29 July 2027.

There are four lots, three of which matter for a council build. Lots 1 and 2 are where a council buys a team, either for a defined outcome or for a longer transformation programme. Lot 3 is where it buys one named specialist, such as an interaction designer for six months. The full lot scope and the process sit in how a council buys through DOS 7.

GCA reported over 1,700 suppliers on the agreement at 31 March 2026, 89 per cent of them SMEs, so the constraint the competition route imposes falls on your timetable rather than on the field you can reach.

What has to exist before you publish

Requirements are published on the Contract Award Service. Every supplier awarded a place on the agreement and registered on the platform can view and respond to them, so membership of a particular lot does not narrow who sees your requirement.

A DOS 7 requirement therefore needs a written specification, evaluation criteria and moderation capacity before it goes out, and none of that can be shortened by picking a supplier you already rate. GCA publishes no standard timescale for a DOS 7 competition, so build the timetable from your own evaluation and governance calendar rather than from a figure quoted by a supplier.

G-Cloud and DOS 7 side by side

Two agreements councils reach for by mistake

Technology Services 4 will not carry a website build

Technology Services 4, RM6190, comes up often because its name sounds broad enough to cover everything technical, and the current period ends on 11 June 2028. GCA describes its scope as technology and digital strategy, service design, end user device support, IT infrastructure, application development, data and transformation.

GCA is explicit about the exclusions: “Technology Services 4 is not a route to market for contingent labour (contractors or interim staff), management consultancy or resource augmentation.”

Web development and digital design are not clearly covered. A council buying a website build should be pointed at DOS 7.

RM6237 is capped below most digital projects

RM6237, the Low Value Purchase System, is a below-threshold dynamic purchasing system established under Part 4 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and contract values must stay within the limits set in PPN 11/23. Anything above those below-threshold limits cannot be bought through it, which rules out most council digital projects.

Before your next requirement goes out

G-Cloud 14 and Cloud Compute 2 both expire this autumn, and GCA has published no buyer start date for G-Cloud 15. Any hosting or cloud software call-off planned for this financial year needs a decision now about which agreement it lands on. That choice sets both the call-off terms and the maximum contract length available.

DOS 7 gives more room. Anything build-shaped can sit there while the G-Cloud transition settles, provided the requirement is written as an outcome rather than a list of technologies.

AxisTwelve builds and hosts digital services for councils including Bexley, Lambeth and Merton, and publishes its current framework positions.

Frequently asked questions

Can a council appoint a supplier through G-Cloud without running a competition?

Yes. G-Cloud allows direct award, so a council can appoint from the catalogue without inviting competing bids, provided it records why that service was chosen. On G-Cloud 15, awarded on 6 August 2026, every lot can be called off with or without competition. Earlier iterations did not offer direct award on every lot.

Which framework covers a council website build?

Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7, agreement RM1043.9. It covers outcomes and specialists, which includes design, build and user research delivered by a team. GCA’s published scope for Technology Services 4 does not clearly cover web development or digital design, so a website build belongs on DOS 7.

How do I find suppliers on G-Cloud?

Search and filter the published catalogue of cloud services, which needs no registration to browse. Each listed service publishes a service definition and a price, so candidates can be compared and a shortlist built from documents alone. On G-Cloud 15, any certificate displayed against a listing has been validated before publication.

References

• Government Commercial Agency agreement page for G-Cloud 15 (RM1557.15), award date 6 August 2026, https://www.gca.gov.uk/agreements/RM1557.15, accessed 4 August 2026
• Government Commercial Agency agreement page for G-Cloud 14 (RM1557.14), expiry 28 October 2026 and call-off length, https://www.gca.gov.uk/agreements/RM1557.14, accessed 4 August 2026
• Government Commercial Agency agreement page for Cloud Compute 2 (RM6292), expiry 27 November 2026, accessed 4 August 2026
• Government Commercial Agency agreement page for Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7 (RM1043.9), including lots, buyer guidance, the award constraint and supplier numbers as at 31 March 2026, https://www.gca.gov.uk/agreements/RM1043.9, accessed 4 August 2026
• Government Commercial Agency agreement page for Technology Services 4 (RM6190), scope and exclusions, https://www.gca.gov.uk/agreements/RM6190, accessed 4 August 2026
• Government Commercial Agency agreement page for the Low Value Purchase System (RM6237), https://www.gca.gov.uk/agreements/RM6237, accessed 4 August 2026
• Government Commercial Agency, About GCA, formation on 1 April 2026 and the Crown Commercial Service position, https://www.gca.gov.uk/about-gca, accessed 4 August 2026
• Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Part 4, legislation.gov.uk, accessed 4 August 2026
• Cabinet Office Procurement Policy Note 11/23, threshold values, accessed 4 August 2026