First up, what is G-cloud 13 accreditation?
G-Cloud refers to the Government’s digital marketplace. Essentially, it’s a centralised procurement framework, set up by the UK Government, so that public sector organisations can easily find a reputable cloud solution provider.
It was created to encourage the adoption of cloud services across the public sector. Also, to provide a secure, pre-approved and accredited platform, which would save public sector organisations the time needed to research potential digital transformation partners themselves.
Achieving G-Cloud 13 accreditation means Babble is listed on the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Government portal of registered cloud service suppliers.
I imagine CCS doesn’t mean much to many, but to put it simply it’s an executive agency and trading fund of the Cabinet Office of the UK Government. Its role is to improve the Government’s commercial and procurement activity.
As part of this network, public sector companies can see that Babble is an accredited supplier, without having to go through the usual rigorous tests and checks.
Which cloud services are we approved for through G-Cloud 13?
We have been approved for three services – Lot 2 Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact which covers our Contact Centre software offering.
All three of these are integral to Babble’s core solutions and pivotal to us working with more organisations in the public sector.
Why is this accreditation so important for Babble?
While the name certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue, G-cloud 13 accreditation is incredibly important to us as we begin to work with more public service clients.
It saves a lot of headaches for both parties when tendering for projects, as this can take up a lot of time and research. Because our services are now pre-approved, public-sector organisations can work with us without having to go through the arduous tendering process. Being listed on the portal also means that we already meet any compliance and accreditation requirements and saves the time it would normally take for a business to review these.
It also demonstrates our credibility and commitment to supplying government approved cloud services to our clients, something we want to expand on in future as Babble grows at pace.
Babble have previously worked with public sector organisations before, and we’re excited about the new opportunities the G-Cloud portal will present. All our private sector clients are already benefitting from the flexibility and improved efficiencies our cloud solutions offer and we can’t wait to offer this to even more public sector clients who will see Babble listed on the G-Cloud portal of approved suppliers.
Being part of the framework also means that the public sector organisations we partner with can become more efficient through more agile and better value cloud services, as they only pay for what they need. Ultimately, we want to support the public sector in its digital transformations as much as the private sector, so and the G-Cloud networks allows us to do just that.
When we completed the process, we were provided with CCS and G-Cloud 13 approved ‘badges of honour’. While achieving a badge of honour for providing cloud services might not sound that ground-breaking, it shows the great work Babble is doing to help our public service customers.
Has Babble achieved any other accreditation this year?
Absolutely. We also achieved our ISO 27001 accreditation which shows our suppliers, stakeholders and clients just how seriously Babble takes information security management. The accreditation shows that Babble:
- Increases resilience to cyber-attacks
- Provides a centrally managed framework that secures all information in one in all forms (paper-based, cloud-based and digital data)
- Ensures organisation-wide protection, including against technology-based risks and other threats
- Helps in response to evolving security threats
- Reduces costs and spending on ineffective defence technology
What this long list is saying is that Babble can be trusted to guard against almost any type of security threat.
Both these accreditations reflect all the hard work that the team has put in behind the scenes during the past year. 2023’s almost here, but I can promise we’re not going to rest on our laurels. Watch this space.
