Cabinet office minister, Francis Maude has pledged that the government will have purchased £100 million in IT services from SME by the 2015 general election.

The move to procure services from SMEs forms part of the government’s attempts to increase competition and reduce the dominance of large enterprise level suppliers.

The comments made during a London event showcasing digital innovation included the announcement of the launch CloudStore, a new cloud based procurement framework for the public sector which is intended to reduce administration times and increase the ease of use of shared services between departments.