Good practice:

Cloud for Europe (C4E) – Joint pre-commercial procurement for public sector cloud innovation

C4E addressed the objectives of the European Cloud Partnership program, established under the European Cloud Computing Strategy. C4E aimed to help the public sector organizations in Europe better understand what to look for in cloud services, what terms of reference to use for procurement of cloud products and services because most public organizations only had experience with procuring non-cloud IT services; moreover, C4E aimed to help procurers gain experience in innovative cloud procurement.
The main objectives of C4E were to:
- remove the obstacles for Cloud adoption
- provide the conditions for a digital single market for cloud computing in Europe
- harmonize the requirements from different public organisations beyond national borders
- identify through PCP the innovative solutions for cloud services and enhance cloud adoption in the public sector
- provide better information to public procurers about the potential of cloud services
- build trust in European cloud computing by applying PCP as an instrument for industry innovation
C4E was built in 3 phases. In a preparatory phase, tender specifications were developed, and subsequently a call for tender was launched. At the end, practical usable specifications, requirements and prototypes were available, shared to be used for future PCP activities.
The main stakeholders of this good practice were from both private and public sector: industry (especially SMEs), purchasers, government users and citizens.

C4E was co-funded by the European Commission under the Framework Program for Research and Innovation (FP7-ICT). Overall budget: € 13 293 552; EU contribution: € 9 865 000.

C4E's main results:
- adoption of innovative cloud computing solutions in the public sector
- adjustment of public sector requirements and establishing suitable contractual terms for future cloud procurements
- elaboration of best practices and recommendations for future PCP activities
- production of guidance and training materials (including a booklet “Pre-procurement processes for dummies”)
C4E has been awarded with the National Award for Innovation 2016 of Italy.

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C4E represents a significant opportunity for potential procurers and suppliers to learn from its’ experience in enabling the procurement of cloud computing services by European public administrations.
C4E is a partnership of 30 partners from 13 different European countries, Romania being represented by the National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics (ICI) and a coordination and support action for joint PCP. This is why the best solutions resulted from the PCP process were published and shared within the partnership and also with other member states, public procurers and industry.
Moreover, in order to increase the efficiency of its implementation, C4E has established partnerships with other projects in the PCP field, such as CHARM and PRACE-IP3, in terms of lessons learned for the PCP process.
The C4E knowledge and lessons learnt were visibly transferred beyond the project partnership and this transferability could also be applied to Interreg Europe projects.