Executive Summary
The Cabinet Office partnered with Goaco to improve the Find a Tender service, delivering at pace a new Central Digital Platform for UK public sector procurement. This new, innovative, user-centred platform simplifies supplier engagement, improves transparency, and reduces procurement cycle times. Delivered through exceptional cross-functional collaboration between Cabinet Office, Goaco, and hundreds of stakeholders and users, the service already supports over 2,600 contracting authorities, 38,000 suppliers and 57,000 users, helping to modernise £300 billion worth of UK public sector procurement annually. It marks a critical step in transforming and future-proofing UK public sector procurement with enhanced digital capability, in line with the Procurement Act 2023.
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The problem to solve
The UK’s public procurement system required significant enhancement to support the Procurement Act 2023, which introduced sweeping legislative reforms. Procurement platforms were fragmented, supplier data was duplicated, the functionality of the existing system was limited, and compliance with transparency standards was inconsistent. Suppliers, especially SMEs, faced barriers to participation due to repetitive data entry and complex onboarding processes across multiple systems and services.
There was a critical need for a unified, secure, and user-friendly platform to manage supplier data, enable seamless sharing of supplier information, and ensure compliance with new legislation and the Open Contracting Data Standard. Any delays in delivery could have stalled the Procurement Act’s implementation, putting £300 billion in public procurement at risk.
Moreover, the compressed timeline of less than 9 months created an extraordinary delivery challenge that required not just technical excellence, but agile innovation, legal compliance, and broad stakeholder alignment across public bodies and the supply chain ecosystem.
To deliver on the ambitious vision of the Procurement Act 2023, Goaco and the Cabinet Office adopted a user-first, agile delivery model. The new Central Digital Platform was developed with modular architecture, continuous integration, and rapid feedback cycles. This allowed the service to scale quickly and adapt quickly to emerging policy and user needs.
Our Approach
Our approach centred on five core principles:
Policy-supported design: Legal and policy colleagues were embedded into multi-disciplinary scrum teams to translate complex legislative requirements into functional digital components. This enabled policy to shape design iteratively.
Collaborative co-design: Over 400 stakeholders, including procurement professionals, suppliers, SMEs, local government, and blue light services, participated in research, testing, and private beta programmes. Their insights shaped everything from core workflows to the design of the user interface.
Smart reusability: Creating a reusable supplier information profile allows users to input their data and create a reusable share code for use on multiple bids, significantly reducing repetitive tasks across procurement opportunities, especially benefiting SMEs.
Open and interoperable standards: The platform adheres to the Open Contracting Data Standard, maximising transparency and enabling future interoperability with other government systems.
Scalable and future-proofed architecture: Built on secure, cloud-native infrastructure, the platform ensures 99.9% availability, strong cybersecurity protocols, and the flexibility to integrate automation, predictive analytics, and AI in future releases.
This was not simply a digital upgrade—it was a rethinking of how procurement services should operate in a modern, digital-first public sector. The service was launched on time on 24 February 2025, fully aligned with the Procurement Act coming into force.
The Challenges
Delivering such a complex national platform under exceptional time constraints involved overcoming several significant challenges:
Delivery at pace
The platform needed to be fully operational within 9 months – agile sprints were structured for rapid prototyping and parallel development streams. Milestones were defined fortnightly, enabling progress without sacrificing quality.
Aligning diverse stakeholders/users
Government departments, procurement teams, legal experts, and suppliers all had their own needs. Cabinet Office introduced an extensive communication and stakeholder engagement plan, segmentation strategy, and regular communication via digital forums, newsletters, and targeted workshops to ensure alignment.
Legal and policy complexity
The Procurement Act introduced new obligations. Instead of slowing down development, policy and legal colleagues were embedded in product teams, enabling “policy by design” and streamlining decision making.
Legacy system integration
Many public sector bodies were still reliant on outdated procurement systems. To ease transition, the platform supported parallel operation during rollout, access to an integration environment was given to critical stakeholders (eSenders) enabling them to test and build in parallel and a dedicated communication portal was built to support quick resolution of eSenders queries. Integrating Gov.UK One Login as well as Notify further enhanced capability and improved the user experience.
Risk Management
Delivering new functionality to a procurement service that supports £300bn of procurement activity annually required clinical project management and certainty of delivery. Cabinet Office’s PMO worked collaboratively with Goaco to deliver the enhancements and with hundreds of stakeholders to ensure success. Extensive private beta testing with over 400 users, in-service training, and user-led feedback mechanisms de-risked delivery.
Through trust, transparency, and relentless focus, Goaco and the Cabinet Office turned these challenges into delivery strengths.
The Result
The enhancements to the Find a Tender service and creation of the new Central Digital Platform exceeded objectives, delivering measurable success across user experience, operational efficiency, and legislative compliance. Highlights include:
- Launched on time on the 24th February and in full alignment with the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023.
- 57,000 users, 38,000 suppliers and 2,600 contracting authorities onboarded since the service launched on the 24th February 2025.
- 99.9% system availability since launch, demonstrating robust architecture and reliable infrastructure.
- High user satisfaction, with beta testers praising its simplicity, speed, and intuitiveness. Sample feedback includes:
- “Very easy to use and the setup is straightforward.”
- “The intuitive interface makes the procurement process much less daunting.”
- Designed using a user-centred approach, with extensive research, testing, and co-design sessions ensuring the new capability meets diverse user needs — including full compliance with WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards to support inclusivity and equal access for all.
- Reduction in supplier administrative burden, particularly for SMEs, through the “tell us once” functionality which avoids repetitive data entry.
- Improved data transparency and compliance through adherence to the Open Contracting Data Standard—enabling visibility across the full lifecycle of public contracts.
- Delivery of a unique identifier for all organisations involved in public procurement (The PPON – Public Procurement Organisation Number).
- Lower operational costs via automation, streamlined processes, and cloud-native architecture.
- An anticipated reduction in procurement cycle times, accelerating decision-making and increasing throughput for buyers and suppliers alike.
Additionally, the platform has created a foundation for long-term transformation across the public sector procurement ecosystem:
- The Modular design supports future enhancements that could include predictive analytics, automated due diligence, and AI-driven supplier recommendations.
- Open-source architecture enables code reuse across other departments, promoting cross-government efficiency.
The project has been recognised across the UK public procurement sector and received extensive positive feedback including:
- “This has transformed the way we think about procurement. It’s no longer a bureaucratic hurdle—it’s an enabler.” – Local Authority Procurement Lead
- “We’ve reduced effort on every bid, allowing us to spend more time on quality and innovation.” – SME Supplier
Strategically, the transformation is helping drive the UK Government’s broader goals around –
- SME access to procurement markets
- Data transparency and insight-driven policy
- Reduced cost of procurement
- Improved public trust in contract award processes
The new Central Digital Platform not only meets the immediate requirements of the Procurement Act but establishes a scalable and future-proof digital platform for UK procurement.
Lessons Applied and Learned
This initiative has led to learnings, now embedded across Goaco and Cabinet Office:
- Engage early, design iteratively – Embedding policy colleagues into the delivery team ensures products that are usable, compliant, and widely adopted.
- Co-create with stakeholders – Innovation thrives when stakeholders have ownership.
- Integrating new and legacy systems – Integrating with legacy systems can be time consuming and difficult, requiring continuous testing and collaboration.
- Deliver fast, but don’t compromise on usability – User experience must remain a top priority, even in high-pressure environments.
- Put people first – User needs must be at the forefront of delivery. Equipping teams, partners, and stakeholders with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to succeed, fosters a culture of shared ownership, continuous learning, and meaningful impact.
- Beta testing with real users is invaluable for iterative development and training.
- Open source and modular builds allow for reusability and adaptation across government.
These lessons are now being applied in the ongoing continuous improvement phase of the Central Digital Platform. Additionally, best practices from this project are being shared, with the source code published on GitHub, making the solution reusable and accessible to developers and governments worldwide.