Digitálne výstupy a špecialisti 7 (DOS 7)

What it is now

For several years, a UK public sector buyer wanting digital delivery capability had to work out which of two frameworks applied. Digital Outcomes 6 (RM1043.8) covered outcome-based engagements — describe the problem, and suppliers propose a team. Digital Specialists and Programmes (RM6263) covered individual specialists and larger programme roles. The two had different suppliers, different rules and different buying processes.

Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7 (RM1043.9) merged them. It started on 30 January 2026 and replaced both predecessors. Digital Outcomes 6 is no longer the live vehicle.

The agreement is managed by the Government Commercial Agency (GCA), which replaced Crown Commercial Service on 1 April 2026. Supplier places and terms transferred unchanged.

The four lots

1. Digital Outcomes — the classic route. The buyer describes a desired outcome and a phase of work; suppliers propose a multidisciplinary team to deliver it.

2. Digital Capability and Delivery Partners — new in DOS 7. Longer-term strategic partners for sustained digital transformation programmes rather than a single phase of delivery.

3. Digital Specialists — individual practitioners for defined periods: user researchers, service designers, software engineers, delivery managers, content designers, technical architects and similar roles.

4. User Research Studios and Participants — research facilities and participant recruitment.

Lot 2 is the significant addition. It acknowledges something buyers had been working around: a discovery-to-live delivery team procured phase by phase is a poor fit for a multi-year transformation programme, and buyers were reaching for other frameworks to get continuity.

How it is structured

DOS 7 is set up as an open framework under the Procurement Act 2023. Rather than a single closed supplier list fixed at award, it is a scheme of successive frameworks that reopens to new applicants at intervals — GCA states the agreement will run for six years and reopen approximately every eighteen months, and the current supplier window's end date is given as 29 July 2027.

Section 49 of the Act sets the outer limits for this: an open framework must have its final framework expire within eight years of the award of the first framework in the scheme, and it must reopen at least once during the first three years and at least once in each five-year period beginning with the award of the second framework.

For suppliers this is a real improvement on the old model. Missing a DOS application window used to mean waiting years. Under an open framework the wait is measured in months, and a supplier who was too small or too new at first award has a route in.

What buyers procure through it

Call-offs follow the phases in the Government Service Manual: discovery, alpha, beta, live and retirement. In practice the common shapes are a discovery or alpha engagement of a few weeks to a few months with a small team, a beta or live engagement running considerably longer, and specialist placements for a defined term.

Buyers publish a requirement, suppliers on the relevant lot respond, and the buyer evaluates. Unlike G-Cloud, this is generally a further competition rather than a direct award — the whole point is that the buyer is describing a problem rather than picking a catalogue item.

What it takes to compete

Real agile capability, not agile vocabulary. Evaluation on the outcomes lot turns on the proposed team, its evidenced track record in comparable public sector delivery, and how convincingly the supplier has understood the problem. A response that describes a methodology without naming the people who will do the work reads as a brochure.

Named people, available people. Specialist call-offs are frequently decided on whether a credible named individual is actually free on the dates required. Bidding people you cannot supply damages you for the next competition.

Understand the service standard. UK government digital delivery is assessed against the Service Standard, and teams are expected to work in the open, do user research continuously and iterate. Suppliers whose delivery model is a fixed-scope waterfall project dressed in sprint language do not survive contact with a service assessment.

Do not stop at the framework place. Winning a place gets you access to the requirements; it does not put you in front of buyers. Suppliers who do well on DOS build visible reputation — published work, contributions to the government digital community, people known to the departments they want to serve — and treat the framework as the contracting mechanism rather than the business development strategy.

Plan across frameworks. Many suppliers hold places on both DOS 7 and G-Cloud, because the same client relationship can produce both a delivery engagement and a software or hosting requirement, and the two are bought through different routes.

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