Your guide to purchasing ServiceNow services on G‑Cloud

From working with numerous council customers, the team at Unifii have been able to map out the key steps to on how best to leverage G-Cloud for purchasing ServiceNow licenses and/or services. We typically work in partnership with your procurement teams in order to answer any questions quickly and adapt to each company’s internal processes. 

One of the biggest challenges that organisations have is understanding what G-Cloud is and how it was intended for use. I’ve noted a couple of points below that help position it and how it’s supposed to be used:

• G-Cloud is a government framework that has the ServiceNow services already documented, and is open to all public sector organisations (including agencies and arm’s length bodies)

• G-Cloud is not intended as a mechanism to run a competition but customers must have clear requirements and clearly assess the various offerings to ensure they will meet their needs

• There is a G-Cloud buyers guide which provides a lot of supporting information that procurement teams can review for supporting information at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/g-cloud-buyers-guide

The following is a typical journey for awarding a ServiceNow license contract via G-Cloud but the same process would apply for implementation or managed support services which the customer may need. The entry point to G-Cloud is via Crown Commercials Digital Market Place website. This can be found at https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/buyers/direct-award/g-cloud/start

1. Services search - The first step is to search for the appropriate services. The following links may help narrow the review list for the respective services:
   
   a. For ServiceNow Licenses - click here

   b. For ServiceNow Support and Platform Management Services - click here

   c. For ServiceNow Implementation Services - click here
   
   d. All results returned need to be assessed so finding a sensible short list will reduce the time needed by the council to evaluate the services. With dozens of suppliers reselling ServiceNow licenses, using additional filter conditions helps narrow down broad lists with generic terms
   
   e. If your search returns only a single service, and that service is assessed to meet your needs, you are able to award a contract to that supplier (information here)
   
   

2. Service Assessment - Once you have found a search query that you feel gives you the right set of services, these need to be exported and assessed. Once exported, this list is final so it’s important to make sure you’ve got what you need.
   
   a. Assessment needs to be open and fair. You can’t hold a competition but clarifications are allowed from services. ServiceNow license pricing comes with a volume discount statement that can be clarified. (information here)
   
   b. It is therefore necessary to request that each service on the search provides their pricing. This needs to be requested centrally from ServiceNow and all parties will be given the same price to purchase licenses as a reseller.
   
   c. The assessment should consider Whole life costs, after sales support and any other value add that a service provider may offer.
   
   

3. Award the Contract – Once your assessment is complete and you’ve found the right supplier you will need to complete the 'G-Cloud Call-off Contract'.
   
   a. The call-off contract is a standard document that is used across all G-Cloud awards (available from here). To help reduce the effort internally for councils, we have already completed one with the supplier information we can share.
   
   b. It also provides space to fully articulate the services to be delivered and the pricing. Typically for a license deal this will include copies of all the ServiceNow licence paperwork for completeness.
   
   c. Where certain schedules are not required then these can be removed to simplify the review and understanding of the document.
   
   
   

Timeline for a G-Cloud award:

Accelerated – 4 weeks – If the requirements are clearly understood and internal stakeholders are lined up to execute quickly. Can also be shortened by a week with extra planning.

• Week 1 – Service Search started and service short list finalised

• Week 2 – Service Response due with volume discount pricing information

• Week 3 – Internal assessment and validation completed and preferred service picked

• Week 4 – G-Cloud call off contract drafted, reviewed and issued for signature
  
  

Typical – 6 - 7 Weeks – Based on activities organically being scheduled and allowing additional time for responses and assessment.

• Week 1 – Service Search started and service short list finalised

• Weeks 2 & 3 – Service Response due with volume discount pricing information

• Week 4 & 5 – Internal assessment and validation completed and preferred service picked

• Week 6 / 7 – G-Cloud call off contract drafted, reviewed and issued for signature

 
Unifii want to help you make your G-Cloud procurement process as easy as possible, and we have been able to assist numerous organisations in navigating this process. If Unifii can advise you any further, especially in relation to your enterprise service management tooling, please get in touch with us here.