CSPG Datasets – Can they really save millions for the Public Sector?

An indication of relative share of the market held by various suppliers

Cross Sector Procurement Gateway (CSPG) holds a great deal of extremely useful data for public sector procurement officers. It is very easily leveraged to generate real savings when approaching a framework. Be Connected is the inbuilt tool for extracting usable insights.

This series of articles explores some of the CSPG datasets such as Telephone Maintenance.

What is a Dataset?

While data can be sourced from a wide range of sources and contain all manner of things, a dataset can be defined as:

Dataset: An organised collection of similar and related data

The CSPG datasets we are delving into in this series of articles relate to contract renewals for public sector procurement categories.

CSPG provides other datasets too, such as

  • Departmental documents such as strategy and financial plans
  • Supplier profiles
  • .. and others

Business Intelligence V Datasets – what’s the connection?

Data by itself is virtually useless. Converting into useful Business Intelligence is what counts.

CSPG presents public sector procurement information as Business Intelligence that can be sliced and diced easily and within a few seconds, literally. Organisations can instantly capitalise on its value.

It’s flexible enough to give public sector procurement specialists more than just raw material for decision making. It fills in many of the gaps that exist in government data to present a rich picture that answers questions such as:

  • Am I paying too much for services in this category?
  • Who else is procuring similar services?
  • What exactly are they paying?
  • What should I be benchmarking spend against?
  • Are there better suppliers already being used by other organisations?
  • Whom can I contact in other organisations to discuss their suppliers?
  • With whom could I collaborate to cut costs in my region / vertical / anywhere in the entire UK?

What information does a CSPG dataset hold about a category?

The value of any dataset is relative to what a specific set of users need. CSPG’s datasets are a goldmine of information for public sector procurement departments.

Granularity in the level of detail is the key to extracting maximum value.

For example, it’s not enough to know that the public sector spends about 50 million every year on Mobile Minutes. Procurement needs more detail than that, such as:

  • How much is spent in my region and my vertical?
  • Who has rolling contracts in place and who has issued fixed term contracts to suppliers?
  • What suppliers are most active – and are there smaller suppliers who may charge less?
  • Who has contracts due for renewal in the next 6 months for this category?
  • Who owns those contracts and how can I contact them directly?

How does Be Connected present this Business Intelligence?

We delve into several categories in turn over the course of this series of articles. In each one you will see screenshots and graphics taken from the CSPG datasets.

For example, this is indicative of the share of the UK public sector Telephone Maintenance market enjoyed by the main suppliers. It’s not the full picture. The numbers are based on partial data – just those contracts up for renewal in the next 6 months.

An indication of relative share of the market held by various suppliers

And Yes – used as intended, these datasets can literally shave millions of pounds off UK public sector spend.

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Call him on 0161 791 1421 or send him an email at vimal@thepublicpurse.org.uk *

 

* The Public Purse is the “action tank” that developed and delivers  CSPG and Be Connected

 

Next review: Be Connected Data Analysis – Telephone Maintenance For UK Public Sector Procurement