This week GDS Head of Content Design Sarah Richards talks about meeting our counterparts from Canada, Ontario.ca, and their exciting One Site project, and Josh Russell and Warren Smith explain how the new Digital Services Store will make make it easier for government buyers to work with SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprises).
Transcript
Sarah Richards (Head of Content Design): I spoke at a conference in Canada last week. The Ontario.ca do a conference for civil servants and I was talking to them about what GOV.UK does. They are doing something very similar; they have got a project called One Site and it is pulling everything together into one place just like we did on the beta. I met their team, it's just like having a GDS (Government Digital Service), but on the other side of the water. They are an incredible team, they're doing amazing things. I shared everything that GOV.UK was doing, so right back from the beta and how we started, which really resonated with them because that's exactly where they are now, and then they gave me some information because they do things quite differently over there and some of their processes are different. So I took all those and I've brought those back and then we're going to put them into some of the discovery sessions of some of the projects that we're working on here.
Josh Russell (Digital Market Engagement Manager): The Digital Services Store opened last week, it's a catalogue of all the companies that are available on the Digital Services framework. It's all the services you would need for transformation of your online service, everything from development services, through to design, user research and system administration.
Warren Smith (Digital Services Framework Manager): The Digital Services framework is open to the whole public sector and it allows buyers to find suppliers with specific capabilities to help them build digital services that are Digital by Default. It's got about 184 suppliers on it, 84% of whom are SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprises). It's all about capability, so if you're small or large, it doesn't matter.
1 comment
Comment by Tanya Coyle posted on
gov.uk - you've given us so much inspiration. here in ontario, we're just starting out, but the fire has been lit! there's no weapon as powerful as that of an idea whose time has come (from a movie, not me). But the point is, we're going to keep going. you've shown us what's possible - and it's worth fighting for.