At iResponse we build apps that help emergency-services and rescue teams answer one deceptively simple question: who's available, who's responding, and where? iFire began as one serving firefighter's answer to that problem on his own station, and it now helps crews replace the spreadsheets, group chats and pagers they'd otherwise rely on. We want the services that depend on a tool like this to be able to buy it as easily, and as confidently, as possible. That's why we're working to list our platform on the UK Government's G-Cloud framework.
What G-Cloud is — and why it matters
G-Cloud is the UK Government's official marketplace for cloud software, run by the Crown Commercial Service. For a public-sector team, buying through it removes a lot of friction: the commercial terms are pre-agreed, and every supplier listed has had to meet the framework's bar for security, data protection and accountability. Instead of a drawn-out procurement, a fire & rescue service can find a service, compare it fairly, and call it off against a standard contract.
For a small supplier like us, being listed means a fire service or coastguard team can adopt our apps through a route their procurement colleagues already trust — quickly, and with the assurances they need built in from the start.
Which of our apps this is for
We run three branded editions from one platform. Two of them serve public-sector buyers and are the focus of this work:
- iFire — for fire & rescue services.
- iRescue — for HM Coastguard.
iCrew, our edition for the RNLI and independent lifeboats, serves the charity and voluntary sector rather than public-sector buyers, so it sits outside this framework and is available directly.
What it actually takes
Here's something most people don't realise: G-Cloud isn't a product test. Nobody at the Crown Commercial Service installs the app and signs it off. Getting listed is partly a paperwork exercise — and partly a set of hard gates you genuinely have to clear. The work that matters falls into two strands, and we've been pushing on both.
Becoming an approved supplier
The framework needs to know who it's dealing with. We operate as a registered UK limited company, we've written a clear service description aimed squarely at public-sector buyers, and we've published simple, transparent per-user pricing. The right business insurance — professional indemnity and liability cover — is in place. Our customer terms, aligned to the G-Cloud call-off contract, are with a solicitor for review.
Looking after data properly
Our apps handle sensitive information — including, when someone is responding to an incident, their location. So we've done the data-protection groundwork that public-sector buyers expect to see: a full Data Protection Impact Assessment, a data processing agreement that sets out our commitments to customer organisations, a plain-English privacy notice, and a maintained record of how data is used across the service. The public-sector editions are hosted in the UK, on AWS London, so data stays in the UK.
Security and resilience
We're working towards Cyber Essentials, the Government-backed security certification, and we've been running an end-to-end review of our systems with improvements rolled out as we go. We've documented our responses to the National Cyber Security Centre's 14 Cloud Security Principles, and drawn up a business-continuity plan for keeping the service running and recovering quickly if something goes wrong.
Accessibility
Public-sector software has to be usable by everyone. We've published an accessibility statement covering how our apps measure up today, including any known issues, and the next step is an independent audit against WCAG 2.2 AA, the recognised accessibility standard.
None of this is wasted effort, even before we're listed. Every one of these steps makes the product safer, clearer and more resilient for the crews already relying on it.
Where we are now
The most recent G-Cloud application window has closed. Under the new rules it's an open framework, which means it reopens to new suppliers at regular intervals rather than once every few years. So we're using this window of time to get everything in place, with the aim of being ready to apply the day the next one opens. Most of the groundwork is done; the pieces still in flight — chiefly the Cyber Essentials certificate and a couple of legal reviews — are well underway.
We keep a live tracker of where each milestone stands, updated as the work progresses — you can follow our progress here.
Why we're doing this in the open
We're a small team, and we think the organisations that trust us with operational tools deserve to see how we work. We'll keep sharing progress here as each milestone lands. If you're a fire & rescue service or part of HM Coastguard and you'd like to talk about adopting iFire or iRescue, get in touch at hello@ifireapp.net.