We recently talked about the importance of G-Cloud (‘G-Cloud Matters To All Of Us’), the government’s targeted push to radically simplify and cheapen the provisioning of ICT for the public sector. And I am delighted to be able to discuss a specific example of this kind of straightforward, value for money contracting that we have been a part of.

We have just been signed up to provide the back end technology for a new system the Environment Agency   is deploying to better manage English reservoirs – a vital national resource, especially in this era of strange weather we are having.

The application’s based on the proven Documentum enterprise content management system, as extended by SynApps – and in fact, what’s exciting is that the project is the first ever cross-Whitehall accredited implementation of that platform. We are working with our strategic partner QinetiQ on the security side of all this.

Not only did the the Environment Agency purchase the solution through the G-Cloud procurement framework, it also will be delivered through the Cloud. And another notable feature, the project will be bedded in to the Agency’s environment using the government-backed Agile project management approach.

Civil servants using the software tell us it’s not only going to help significantly improve admin and management of the reservoirs – it will also be able to offer much better service to the public, as information can at last be centralised and routed around much better.

We are 100% committed to ensuring the benefits of Agile, Cloud and the G-Cloud buying process get realised with this project. That means our investment as taxpayers will get properly looked after in government ICT.

That’s got to be a very promising start to our work in the G-Cloud? We’ll be bringing you updates on progress – probably around the end of the year, when we expect the first phase to be fully live.