Digital Outcomes and Specialists opportunities are published in the OPEN
That’s right, you can see all past and current opportunities that have been published by buying organisations. This data can be extremely valuable when informing your public sector sales strategy. For instance, if you see that a Discovery for the development of a digital service is advertised but you are interested in subsequent phases you know that (if the project is successful) these will shortly be published. You can even go further with this and see that the expected length of the discovery phase is 8 weeks, so shortly after that you should be keeping an eye out for the alpha tender.
Another interesting factor of DOS opportunities is that you can see how many applications have been started and submitted and by what size organisation. This will allow you to gauge how much interest there is in the opportunity. Tough competition shouldn’t put you off if you are the right person for the job, but a high volume of applications may suggest your time could be better spent on other opportunities.
DOS framework often allows easy communication with Buyers
A well know fallacy in procurement is that suppliers shouldn’t contact buyers during the tendering process. DOS takes the sting out of this, with each opportunity having the functionality for suppliers to ask clarification questions. The questions and answers are publicly available, meaning that not only can you benefit from your own queries but also from the questions asked by others. This allows you to do your due diligence before you start your application.
There is money to be made on Digital Outcomes and Specialists
Over £4.7bn has been put through the framework since its creation in 2016 and 33% of this was with SME providers. The Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework is part of the governments commitment to making it easier for suppliers to sell to government, breaking up projects into phases or roles making it a more level playing field for smaller providers.
It’s a great way to get into central gov (and the public sector as a whole)
As mentioned above, DOS is an excellent way to get your foot in the central gov door. Central government departments are the most active sector on DOS having spent over £4.3bn of the total. If central gov is where you want to go, DOS is a great place to start. Whilst the uptake in local gov and the wider sector has been slower, this framework is only set to expand it’s reach as it moves into its fifth iteration.
The Digital Outcomes and Specialists club is a good one to be in. Feel free to get in touch with us and we can help you become a DOS hero too!
