Huddle grabs lion's share of CloudStore sales

Publication of sales achieved through the G-Cloud framework have revealed that the majority of purchases made to date have been for Huddle's collaboration software. Huddle sales account for more than £400,000 of total sales of £453,000, with buyers of the software including the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Communities and Local Government. The largest Huddle sale is for £251,000 to the Ministry of Justice, followed by similar deals for £70,200 to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and for £66,546 to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Other buyers listed by the CloudStore include the Boundary Commission for England, the Department for International Development, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Government Procurement Service, the Health and Safety Executive, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and West Midlands Services NHS trust. All but two of the sales are for software-as-a-service delivery, rather than for specialist cloud services. Chris Pennell, principal analyst at public sector market intelligence firm Kable, said: "The Ministry of Justice purchase notwithstanding, the level of expenditure per procurement is a reflection of the slowly, slowly approach being adopted towards CloudStore. It is interesting to note that the majority of purchases have been for Huddle's collaboration services, which has already garnered headlines through deals with Foreign and Commonwealth Office Services." This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Guardian Government Computing network here .