Government procurement is rarely short of big priorities. Integrity. Sustainability. Value for money. Reform. Risk. Capability. Most days, procurement teams are balancing all of it at once, often under intense scrutiny, with expectations rising faster than resourcing.

In that environment, it’s understandable that attention gravitates toward the big-ticket categories: major infrastructure, ICT, complex services, and high-profile panels. But one of the most overlooked opportunities in government procurement isn’t sitting in a billion-dollar contract. It’s sitting in the everyday purchasing that happens quietly across every agency, every week.

Office supplies, hygiene consumables, safety essentials, kitchen and facilities products are the categories that keep workplaces functioning. They rarely make headlines and are often treated as routine, but they carry more strategic potential than they’re given credit for. These are the categories where procurement activity is constant, distributed, and deeply tied to how government workplaces actually operate. That raises a simple question: what if everyday procurement is one of the clearest windows we have into efficiency, waste, and organisational behaviour?

The spend that no one talks about

Indirect procurement is sometimes dismissed as “small stuff.” A box of tissues. Printer paper. Hand towels. Cleaning products. PPE. Stationery. Individually, none of it seems particularly strategic. But collectively, it adds up quickly, not just in dollars, but in frequency.

These purchases happen across hundreds of sites, thousands of employees, and countless teams every day. Which means indirect procurement isn’t just a cost centre. It’s a behavioural map. It shows how workplaces run, where friction exists, and where inefficiencies quietly build over time.

Most agencies already have the data, they just aren’t using it this way

Government procurement teams are not lacking information. They are surrounded spend reports, ordering histories, contract usage and supplier data. The challenge is that indirect spend data is often viewed retrospectively. “How much did we spend last quarter?”

But the more valuable question is forward-looking: what is this spend telling us about how our organisation functions?

For example, why does one site order double the consumables of another? Why are certain products being purchased outside preferred arrangements? Where are teams improvising because systems aren’t simple enough? What is being over-ordered, duplicated, or wasted?

Everyday categories are where waste hides best

The biggest inefficiencies in procurement are not always dramatic. They’re often mundane. A different team ordering a different product because they couldn’t find the standard one. A site ordering “just in case” because they’ve been caught short before. Multiple small orders instead of consolidated deliveries. A preference for familiar products even when better-value or more sustainable options exist.

None of this is malicious. It’s human. But across a large government workforce, these patterns create real cost and real waste without anyone noticing. Indirect procurement is where inefficiency becomes normalised simply because it’s dispersed. And that’s exactly why visibility matters.

Sustainability becomes real in the everyday

Government sustainability commitments are growing. Expectations around responsible sourcing, waste reduction, and ESG performance are no longer optional. But sustainability progress isn’t only made through major policy statements or flagship contracts. It is made through everyday decisions repeated at scale.

Recycled-content consumables, reduced packaging, consolidated delivery models, switching to safer or lower-impact alternatives. These categories move in volume. Small changes deliver measurable impact quickly, if procurement teams can see what is being purchased and where.

Without that visibility, sustainability remains an aspiration. With it, sustainability becomes operational.

Social value built through everyday spend

Indirect procurement presents one of the most practical and scalable opportunities to embed commitment to First Nations engagement into everyday operations.

Routine categories such as workplace supplies, safety products, facilities consumables and operational essentials are high-frequency and organisation-wide. When these categories include First Nations suppliers within established procurement frameworks, social value becomes embedded rather than occasional.

The impact of this approach is not symbolic. It is measurable. Supply Nation’s The Sleeping Giant Rises report highlights that for every dollar spent with a First Nations business, approximately $3.66 of economic and social value is generated. That multiplier reflects job creation, community reinvestment, local economic participation and long-term capability building.

Indirect procurement, by its nature, is repetitive and sustained. This makes it one of the most powerful levers available to government agencies seeking to move from policy commitments to consistent, operational impact.

When social procurement is integrated into everyday spend, rather than treated as a standalone initiative, it becomes normalised. It strengthens supplier diversity, supports resilient local supply chains, and reinforces government’s role in enabling inclusive economic growth.

Resilience is built through the basics

Recent years have reminded all of us how quickly disruption can occur. When supply chains tighten, it isn’t always the large projects that feel the pressure first. It’s the essentials, the items workplaces rely on daily to function safely and smoothly.

Procurement resilience is not only about major contingency planning. It’s also about knowing your everyday supply needs well enough to forecast, standardise, and avoid reactive purchasing. Data is what makes that possible.

The next shift in procurement maturity

Government procurement has spent years strengthening governance, probity, and strategic capability. The next opportunity may be simpler than it sounds: taking indirect procurement seriously enough to treat it as a source of insight, not just supply.

Everyday purchasing touches workforce experience, operational efficiency, sustainability outcomes, compliance and consistency, and service continuity. Perhaps most importantly, it is one of the few areas where improvement is both achievable and measurable.

Sometimes the biggest gains aren’t found in the most complex categories. They’re found in the ones we’ve always considered routine.

For organisations that support government workplaces every day, this shift is already underway. At COS, we work with government teams across Australia to deliver the everyday workplace essentials that help to keep people healthy, safe and productive. 

We believe indirect procurement is one of the most practical places to unlock measurable value through better visibility, smarter standardisation, and supply decisions that support sustainability and performance.

Sometimes the biggest opportunities for progress are often hiding in plain sight, in the orders we place every week.

Hear more from Daniel O’Halloran at GovProcure 2026

Join Daniel O’Halloran and a host of other thought leaders at GovProcure 2026, 10th-12th March 2026, Sydney.