Tony Singleton OBE joins our Team!
Big news here at Advice Cloud: this month we welcome Tony Singleton OBE, the driving force behind Digital Marketplace to our team. Tony is joining us as a Strategic Advisor and will be sharing 35 years of experience with our clients.
OBE Tony Singleton and Lindsay
It’s no surprise that we here at Advice Cloud are over the moon to have a person of Tony’s calibre join our Team. But what does he think?
Tony Singleton, OBE"It is a great pleasure for me to join the Advice Cloud team. I first met Chris when he challenged me to come and speak to a group of suppliers in Brighton. My reply was simply “you only have to ask!” Although passion is an overused word, I do feel very passionately about giving SMEs the opportunity to work directly with the public sector to build great digital services. When I produced the Digital Marketplace strategy, it carried the tag line ‘Helping those transforming public services by making it simpler, clearer and faster for them to buy what they need”. Working with Advice Cloud will give me a unique opportunity to work with SMEs who want to help transform public services by making it simpler, clearer and faster for them to compete for public sector contracts. I am also delighted to be able to continue to provide procurement support to the public sector”
Back in May when we heard he was leaving government we were very quick to come to him and argue our case. We agreed on many things and that’s where it basically started:
Digital marketplace has revolutionised public sector procurement – Is the Digital Marketplace perfect? No. It is a work in progress. But one is certain even from the beginning it has significantly reduced barriers to entry to market and levelled up the playing field. Traditionally, UK public sector was dominated by an oligopoly of about eight major system integrators. Today, The most recent G-Cloud figures show that there has been over £2 Billion of G-Cloud sales alone, with 47% of sales being awarded to SMEs.
More SME suppliers selling to government – there is no doubt that both Tony and we at Advice Cloud are singing from the same hem sheet when it comes to this. SME’s bring new perspectives and innovative products to the market place.
Turning ideas into reality – Tony’s goal with switching his focus on consultancy is driven by, as he puts it, his desire to “turn ideas into reality.” Who wouldn’t want that for their clients! Tony is looking forward to working directly with suppliers. We offer plenty of those ?
Being approachable and honest – And having a bit of fun! – the fit was right simply because of how we approach working with people. We don’t do hard sales here. We don’t make up data or claim miracles. Open and honest has always been Tony’s style as well. When it comes to the fun bit of it, just take a look at the picture we used for this article. One of our other favourites, Lindsay Smith from CtrlO, caught Tony for a selfie at the Digital Leaders week 2017. The event didn’t get a stellar review but the picture is great!
A bit about Tony
Now you probably all know already who Tony is but just in case here it is…Tony Singleton has twice been named one of the top 50 most influential people in UK IT and has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2014. Here at Advice Cloud we know him as the designer of the Digital Marketplace.
As a G-Cloud and digital commercial programme director he was at the fore front of setting up and designing G-Cloud, till March 2016. Before then he was chief operating officer for Directgov and the chief operating officer of the Government Digital Service. His last public sector gigs were as a Chief Operating Officer at the BEIS Department and till recently the IFA Set-up Programme Director at the Department for Education.
A very big warm welcome to Tony! We are all excited to have you with us. If you would like to know more about Tony joining the Team and what this might mean for your organisation give us a call 01273 974414 on or drop us an email.
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