"As a CFO, visibility of spend trajectory is vital for shaping our medium-term financial plans. Be Connected helped us identify overlapping contract areas across departments and provided immediate insight into potential aggregation opportunities. In one instance, we discovered three separate mobile service contracts across different teams that could be consolidated – delivering an estimated £320k in savings over two years. The ability to view historical spend alongside renewal dates has become an indispensable planning tool."

"Using Be Connected prior to launching our recent data centre procurement gave us a distinct advantage. The platform allowed us to review similar contracts awarded by other councils, understand pricing trends, and spot alternative supplier strategies we hadn’t considered. It encouraged early engagement with internal IT and finance teams, fostering cross-department collaboration that improved our specification and ultimately our evaluation criteria. We've moved from reactive to informed and strategic procurement."

"When planning the renewal of our Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, Be Connected enabled us to see how neighbouring councils structured their licensing and deployment models. This intelligence supported our business case, especially when benchmarking costs and negotiating with suppliers. It’s not just a tool for procurement; it’s a research partner that supports ICT leadership in making aligned and cost-aware decisions."

"I initially viewed Be Connected as a procurement tool, but its cross-functional value became clear quickly. Our finance team now uses it during budget setting to interrogate recurring third-party costs and spot duplication. The visual spend trajectory helps us challenge assumptions internally and hold budget holders to account with external validation. It’s helped shift our culture from compliance-focused to value-driven."

"Be Connected doesn’t just show what’s happening – it shows what should be happening. We used it to lead a joint procurement for telephony services across multiple departments after discovering our current fragmented approach cost us 18% more than the regional average. Seeing how others structured similar contracts gave us confidence in moving forward with an aggregated model."

"ICT often ends up responding late in the procurement cycle – but Be Connected brings us in at the right time. For cloud renewals, we used it to align our roadmap with upcoming procurement windows and to flag supplier performance issues from other authorities. It’s helped us become proactive contributors rather than reactive sign-offs."