Be Connected and the Institute for Government Report on Mission-Led Government Procurement
Be Connected is uniquely positioned to address the challenges highlighted in the Institute for Government’s (IfG) report, “The role of procurement in delivering mission-led government.” The public sector spends over £400 billion annually on goods, works, and services, yet the report makes it clear that procurement is still not operating as the strategic engine it could be. Fragmented data, unclear missions, duplicated effort, and risk-averse culture all prevent procurement teams from delivering on government priorities.
This blog explores how the IfG’s findings align with the strengths of Be Connected—and why platforms like ours are essential for delivering true mission-led procurement.
Procurement as a Strategic Tool—But Data Holds It Back
The IfG report states bluntly that procurement has the potential to shape markets, promote innovation, and drive major government missions, but only if procurement professionals are empowered with the right visibility and intelligence.
Right now, that visibility simply doesn’t exist.
According to the report, procurement data across the public sector is:
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Low quality
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Fragmented
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Inconsistent
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Not designed for strategy
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Not linked to outcomes or missions
Without quality data, procurement cannot meaningfully support missions such as net zero, digital transformation, health reform, or levelling up. Organisations are left with blind spots that lead to repeated mistakes, duplicated contracts, unaligned spending, and missed opportunities to collaborate.
This is precisely the gap Be Connected was created to close.
How Be Connected Addresses This National Problem
The IfG recommendations map almost perfectly to the problems Be Connected solves. Below are the key points and how your platform responds.
1. Fixing Fragmented Procurement Data
The report highlights that procurement data in its current state is not capable of supporting mission-led work.
Be Connected provides:
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A single view of contracts across the public sector
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Clean, structured, comparable datasets
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The ability to identify spend trajectories
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Real-time visibility of contracts, suppliers, spend patterns, expiries, and renewals
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Cross-sector insights so organisations can compare themselves to others
This eliminates data fragmentation, one of the core barriers identified by the IfG.
2. Spotting Duplication Across Public Bodies
The report stresses that public sector procurement is often disconnected, with departments and authorities working in isolation.
This leads directly to:
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Duplicate contracts
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Overlapping consultancy spend
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Missed opportunities for aggregation
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Reinventing the wheel
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Wasted taxpayer money
Be Connected’s duplicate contract identification feature is built for this exact problem.
Public bodies can instantly see:
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Where the same supplier is working across multiple councils or departments
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Where identical contracts exist
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Where consolidation would generate savings
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Where spend is fragmented across categories
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Where collaboration could deliver greater value
This aligns perfectly with the IfG mission-led principle of “spend coherence”.
3. Moving Procurement from Transactional to Outcomes-Led
The report criticised public bodies for focusing on inputs rather than outcomes, which weakens the impact of procurement.
Be Connected supports this shift by giving practitioners:
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Visibility of similar contracts and their outcomes
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Data on supplier performance
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Insights into what solutions other bodies have already procured
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The ability to compare approaches across sectors
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Evidence to support outcome-based specifications
Procurement becomes strategic, not administrative.
4. Strengthening Market Engagement and Innovation
The IfG recommends that government set clearer market signals, publish longer pipelines, and open up opportunities for innovation.
Be Connected helps:
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Show historical purchasing trends
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Reveal future procurement opportunities
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Identify which suppliers dominate categories
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Highlight where SMEs already provide services
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Drive competition through transparency
For suppliers, this is transformational. For procurement teams, it ensures that market engagement is informed, not speculative.
5. Giving CFOs and Procurement Leaders Oversight and Control
The IfG report repeatedly points to the need for stronger governance, early engagement of commercial teams, and financial oversight.
Be Connected provides CFOs with:
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A full helicopter view of procurement activity
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Immediate insight into overspend, fragmentation, or structural inefficiencies
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Visibility of where procurement is or isn’t aligned with missions
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Confidence that public money is being used to deliver value, not waste
This fits your message of guaranteeing ROI and delivering “value for value”.
6. Supporting Mission-Led Government
The principles of mission-led procurement—strategic clarity, collaboration, early engagement, and long-term outcomes—are only possible with strong, reliable data.
Be Connected directly supports all four pillars:
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Clarity: Shows where spend is aligned or misaligned with missions
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Collaboration: Reveals opportunities for joint procurement and shared contracts
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Engagement: Gives early signals to the market through visibility of contracts and pipelines
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Outcomes: Enables monitoring of contract performance and mission impact
Be Connected is not simply a tool—it is a structural enabler of mission-led procurement.
External Validation of the Need for Be Connected
What makes this report invaluable to your narrative is that it reinforces what Be Connected has been saying all along:
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Public procurement suffers from data disorder
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Decision-makers cannot act strategically without proper visibility
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Duplication and fragmentation are costing the public sector millions
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Cross-sector alignment is impossible without a unified view
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Procurement professionals need high-quality intelligence to deliver value
This is a powerful message for your outreach to CFOs, Heads of Procurement, and policy leaders.
The full IfG report can be accessed here:
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-09/procurement-mission-led-government.pdf
Conclusion
The Institute for Government’s report outlines the structural problems holding procurement back from delivering on government priorities. Be Connected offers a direct and practical answer to these problems.
By fixing fragmented data, revealing duplication, enabling collaboration, and providing strategic insight, Be Connected empowers public sector bodies to move from cost-based purchasing to mission-aligned procurement that delivers genuine value for citizens.
Be Connected is not simply a platform—it is the intelligence layer public procurement has been missing.