Case StudiesCreating a user‑centred future model for Cyd: Wales’ Procurement Centre of Excellence
- CYD
- Delivery
- Service Design
In 2022, the Welsh Government’s Commercial and Procurement Directorate (CPD) commissioned Posterity Global and Perago to design, develop and deliver the Cyd service. Cyd was established as Wales’ Procurement Centre of Excellence to provide a community–led service for procurement and commercial practitioners to support collaboration, shared learning, and implementation of procurement policy across the Welsh public sector. We were also tasked with evaluating the service to understand the value it has delivered to date, assess how effectively it serves the Welsh procurement community, and determine its future direction. Several years after Cyd’s launch, our review has produced a clear, user-focused picture of the most critical practitioner needs along with recommendations on how to further strengthen the Cyd service and enhance its positive impact across the community.
We took a user‑centred, discovery‑style approach to understand the needs, expectations and challenges of the procurement community. Engagement included semi‑structured interviews with stakeholders across local authorities, fire and rescue services, higher education, arms‑length bodies and Welsh Government networks, giving us a clear picture to develop a roadmap which meant that over the last few years Cyd developed a supportive community and a website containing the tools, resources, guidance and areas that users identified as their highest priorities.
The last phase of the project included a review that enabled us to conduct in-depth research, which we synthesised to identify recurring themes, pain points, and opportunities, mapped against Cyd’s original vision and the wider procurement reform landscape.
Since 2022, we have delivered events, forums, workshops, and training to engage and support a procurement community, and developed a website with tools, resources, and platforms for procurement practitioners. Cyd has been recognised for its innovative, collaborative approach, being a finalist in the ‘Collaborative Procurement Initiative Award’ at the Go Awards Cymru in 2023 and 2024.
Our final review produced recommendations and a proposed 36-month roadmap for the Welsh Government to support development of the future of Cyd, with a focus on community-led development, hybrid service delivery, and building capability across the Welsh public sector.
The impact
Cyd has delivered real efficiencies by giving procurement practitioners access to practical tools, templates, and resources, saving time and reducing duplication. It has also provided the building blocks for the development of a collaborative community where professionals can support one another, share expertise and solve problems together. This impact and Cyd’s community-led approach have been recognised and rewarded both in Wales and internationally.
The recent review provides the Welsh Government with clear, evidence-based direction for Cyd’s next phase, grounded in practitioners’ lived experience. It positions Cyd as a service that helps people do procurement, not just learn about it; reinforces the importance of community, collaboration, and shared tools; and sets out a practical blueprint for a more visible, more useful, and more trusted service.
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