Back at the beginning of April I wrote about how the first phase of the Cyd project was coming to an end. I explained how we were evaluating the Alpha to date and considering next steps in the context of the emerging priorities for Welsh Government and commercial and procurement communities in Wales.
At that point we took the decision to extend the Alpha to the end of June to let us keep the momentum that was already in place around the Cyd services. During that time, we looked at what had been delivered, where our focus now needs to be and agreed on the next steps.
An Alpha report has now been completed, the executive summary published and we now have agreement to extend the project to the end of March to continue delivery.
Listening to the community
The Alpha report reflects the needs of the community as well as progress and findings from the project team. Cyd now has an active group of practitioners and stakeholders from across the community who engage with its events.
Cyd also has an active testing group made up from procurement and commercial professionals across Wales. We’re talking to them regularly and work with them to develop the Cyd service offer from an idea through to tangible things that people can use and engage with.
This includes the website, social media accounts, our Cydrannu knowledge sharing series and show & tells. There are common themes from the feedback we get and the community is telling us they need:
“Simple, interactive content that’s scalable and easy to engage with”
“Guidance that’s usable by all, not just commercial and procurement professionals”
“Templates and examples of previous projects and case studies”
“Written, video and other media”
“Insights into future trends”
It’s really important that we get continuous feedback to make sure we meet the needs of the community. This approach helped us shape the first stage and is now integral to our future planning, we know there is more to do, and we have the plans to do it!
We’re always looking for more people to get involved in our testing group so whether you’re new to procurement and commercial or an experienced practitioner please let us know if you’d like to get involved.
Alpha report findings
The Alpha report has 9 main recommendations, all of which have been accepted and will be the basis of our next stage of planning and delivery.
Based on stakeholder engagement, responses from surveys conducted and iterative testing with the community, the following recommendations were proposed to extend the Cyd Alpha until end of March 2024:
- Develop and establish Cyd governance and operating model – quality assurance, social media comms and engagement plan and approach, interfaces with other commercial groups, staffing, etc;
- Monitor and evaluate the net zero outcomes and impact enabled by Cyd and use these insights to continuously improve Cyd;
- Progress the carbon emissions reporting service development with the aim to move organisations from Tier 1 reporting (spend-based proxy) to Tier 2 (improved estimated CO2e in addition to improved Tier 1 data) and, possibly, Tier 3 (actual CO2e);
- Progress the case study templates and build out the procurement journey knowledge hub – iterating services to widen the breadth of online content, aligning with the team working on the policy mapping tool;
- Systematically work through the prioritised backlog of further service options to develop (as at 27 January 2023);
- Alignment with Welsh Government activities more broadly – complementary work areas underway on digital / sustainable procurement, and digital and technology;
- Alignment with regulatory change teams and activities;
- Apply the methodology more broadly to other Welsh procurement policy areas, and continue to test and refine this methodology;
- Expand the community to include:
- groups that are convening on these policy areas;
- other practitioner functions who are focusing on these procurement policy areas; and
- private and third sector organisations.
We plan to respond to these recommendations incrementally over the coming months, continuously evolving the Cyd service as we go.
Having Cyd as a focus will allow us to continue working with practitioners across Wales to make it easier for them to deliver better outcomes. It will also allow us to support the systemic change management required to create opportunities and realise the benefits of these activities.
Working in the open
Working in the open has been a core principle of Cyd from the outset and we’ll continue to share progress, content and services. It allows us to share our journey, get feedback from a broad range of users and stakeholder as we go. It also helps us deliver solutions that meet the needs of users, the Welsh public sector and, ultimately the people of Wales.
We’ll continue to seek input and ideas and provide the opportunities for communities to come together to achieve better outcomes.
We have a clear focus for the next 9 months but know we need the flexibility to respond as needs evolve and emerge.
It’s been great watching Cyd develop from an early concept into something that is tangible and has demand. I’m now looking forward to seeing Cyd support the work we are all doing to deliver better outcomes through procurement and commercial for a better Wales.
David Nicholson
Senior Responsible Owner – Cyd Alpha project