G-Cloud tender deadline extended due to weight of interest

The Government has pushed back the deadline for submissions for the G Cloud tender from 23 November to next Monday, 5 December and created a whole lot of confusion doing so.

The cabinet office first advertised a tender for G-Cloud services on 18 October and, thanks to an error in the Government document, has already had to clarify the date.

IT Pro's sister title Cloud Pro was first alerted to the changed date following a tweet from Chris Chant, the director of G Cloud. In the tweet, Chant said, "please check your mail from the eSourcing portal about 30th Nov deadline for submissions being extended."

But, confusingly, the eSourcing portal itself said that while the deadline date was indeed 30 November, and that the use of 23 November as the deadline, as mentioned in the Cabinet Office's own guide to G-Cloud tender, had been a mistake. And that was before the 30 November deadline was changed.

According to a cabinet office spokesman the volume of interest forced the deadline to be extended.

"Due to the large amount of questions about the G-Cloud project, the deadline was extended to give all interested parties a chance to submit their entries," the spokesman said.

Chant's Twitter feed said that expressions of interest in G-Cloud had topped 500 and he was "chuffed", although he has previously warned that small and medium businesses will have to be patient about winning Government contracts.