The Competence Centre is a partner-based, organisationally functional, adequately resourced network of public actors bringing together diverse expertise in innovative and sustainable procurement. The development of KEINO’s service portfolio would not have been possible with the expertise of one organisation only. Further, it would have been very difficult to recruit sufficiently diverse and high-quality experts to one organisation. Network based models allows experts to work in a flexible way with KEINO activities along with their regular activities.

The aim of the KEINO Competence Centre is to continuously develop its operations to address the needs of its customers. In order to develop operations, the effectiveness of operations are regularly assessed. The effectiveness is monitored, for example, by conducting surveys of contracting entities on their competence level and the number of innovative and sustainable procurements. The ministry that steers the operations carries out external evaluations of the effectiveness of the Keino Competence Centre's operations.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment invited representatives of the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Finance to a joint consultation and discussed the network with potential organisations. A call for funding was then opened for the project. The consortium organised itself and drew up a three-year action plan. The action plans have been updated following up on funding. Keino is mainly an operational tool for implementing the objectives, strategies and programmes.

Motiva brings to the Competence Centre in particular its expertise in sustainable procurement and procurement criteria, as well as experimentation and scaling. Motiva's role is to act as the coordinator of KEINO and ultimately is responsible for the centre's services. In addition, the organization coordinates change agent activities. Hansel brings its expertise in developing and influencing (joint) procurement in central government and municipalities to all the necessary functions of KENIO. VTT Technical Research Center of Finland participates extensively in the operations of KENIO with its own expertise in research, especially regarding the innovativeness of procurement, as well as measuring impacts and assessing effectiveness.

The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE produces research information related to the management, implementation and measurement of procurement. SYKE develops tools suitable for assessing the environmental impact of procurement and calculating carbon footprint. Business Finland (BF) role is to support the networking of procurement units in business ecosystems and corporate networks, and to provide information and examples on how procurement can act as a developer of markets in growth sectors.

The services of the KEINO are intended for those making and planning public procurements and for the management of public organizations. The direct beneficiaries are public organizations, government officials and the indirect beneficiaries are the entire Finnish people. Companies are involved in the developer group activities, and the aim is that Keino will intensify cooperation with business organisations. E.g. Finland Chamber of Commerce, Industrial associates and Entrepreneurs of Finland.

The first three years of KEINO’s operations were evaluated in 2020. According to the forward looking evaluation, the KEINO competence centre was assessed to be a nationally significant body for the development of sustainable and innovative in the promotion of procurement. Further the evaluation stated that KEINO produces relevant and appropriate services for the benefit of public procurement. Network-based model combined with orientation for continuous learning was seen to include many benefits and positive effects. It provides situational information on the level of competence and development needs of contracting entities in innovative and sustainable procurement.

Examples of what have the KEINO accomplished until now:

• 63 organizations have participated in KEINO Academy (Procurement and procurement management support)
• Two ambitious green deal agreements, which commit to reducing emissions and harmful substances for 10 years. 24 completed public procurements that support the goals and implementation of green deal agreements.
• Hankintakeino.fi: 36 620 website visitors and 239 432 page views
• 180 advisory cases
• 114 examples of procurement implementation and management

KEINO is already reasonably well known nationally, but KEINO's role is not yet sufficiently clear to different parties and the activities themselves are not sufficiently known. The activities of KEINO are subject to very different expectations. Actions to maintaining and further clarifying the strategic position and targeting the measures are particularly important for the future.

A prerequisite for the success of a centre of expertise formed by several organisations is sufficient management and guidance, which is carried out in cooperation with the partners by Motiva Oy, which acts as the coordinating organisation. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment acts as the funding and steering body. The core organisations of KENIO share the goal of the means and are committed to commonly agreed operating models and responsibilities.

Each organization is committed to the implementation of the goals and measures of the annual action plan and reserves sufficient resources for the implementation of the work. From the financial point of view, a significant factor is the continuity of funding, enabling the long-term planning of operations and measures. In order to achieve the goals, customer organisations must also commit to promoting innovative and sustainable procurement, i.e. instilling operating models as part of the organisation's operations and goals.

Keino is the first permanent Competence Centre formed by public organisations. In the future, a similar operating model of the Competence Centre can be used to solve other socially significant challenges and achieve the set goals. Finland's operating model has also raised interest in other EU countries. In order to achieve similar objectives in the field of public procurement, e.g. individual new organizations or tasks have been entrusted to an existing organization.

KEINO has succeeded in promoting its objectives, which are:

1. increase procurement that implements the sustainability target and innovativeness in Finland,
2. promote the identification and active use of public procurement as a management tool, and
3. help contracting entities to openly share information about their own experiences and learn from each other.

In the future, more attention must be paid to disseminating and scaling practices and promoting pioneering procurement. The core organisations are different from each other, both in terms of organisation and in terms of tasks and goals. In order for cooperation between different organisations to work, there must be clear jointly drawn up and agreed operating models, goals and responsibilities.