Official UK procurement notice
Automated Immunohaematology System · UK public procurement notice
Procurement agent: Regional Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service·On behalf of: Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThis is a Preliminary Market Engagement Notice published by the Business Services
Organisation (BSO) Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS) acting on behalf of the
Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) for the provision of an Automated Immunohaematology solution.
The requirement is expected to include the supply, installation, maintenance and support of automated immunohaematology analyser(s), associated manual microtyping system(s), reagents, consumables, quality control materials, software, hardware, middleware and laboratory connectivity solutions. The scope will also include implementation and validation services, user training, software updates and upgrades, technical support and ongoing maintenance.
Through this engagement, BSO PaLS seeks to obtain information on current market capability, available technologies, commercial models, implementation considerations and innovative solutions to inform the development of a future procurement strategy and specification. Participation in this exercise is for information gathering purposes only and does not form part of any formal procurement process.
Suppliers who choose not to participate in this engagement will still be welcome to take
part in any future procurement process.
CPV: Analysers · Blood analysers · Blood-grouping reagents · Blood-testing reagents · Haematological consumables · Immuno-analysis devices · Laboratory reagents
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service buys Various medicinal products (CPV 3369), and who usually turns up
Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Various medicinal products (CPV 3369) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards have an award date within 32 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid14%
2–314%
4–671%
7+0%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate40%
Within ±2%20%
Above estimate40%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 3843Estimate not published
This lot is listed as CPV 3843. The table above uses the notice category.
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 16 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid38%
2–356%
4–60%
7+6%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical Supply CompanyEarlier contract | Automated Donor and Patient Immunohematology testingstarted Sept 2025 | — | £220k | Matched as the earlier contract |
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 13 Aug 2026, 15:08 BST
- Last source update
- 13 Aug 2026, 15:08 BST
- Authority reference
6381624- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-077321- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06e3c5Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
13 Aug 2026 → 1 Oct 2028 · 3 dates- Planning notice published74 days ago13 Aug 2026, 15:08 BST
- Market engagement46 days ago10 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
This is a Preliminary Market Engagement Notice published by Business Services
Organisation (BSO) Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS) on behalf of Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) to seek engagement with the marketplace as BSO PaLS are commencing work for a tender for the supply an Automated Immunohaematology solution.
The Preliminary Market Engagement questionnaire can be obtained by contacting
[email protected] and requesting a CP12 Preliminary Market Engagement
Questionnaire for Automated Immunohaematology System.
Submission Deadline: Completed questionnaires must be returned via email to
[email protected] no later than 3:00 PM on 10/09/2026.
- Today27 Oct 2026
- Contract starts1 Oct 2028, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published13 Aug 2026, 15:08 BSTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
2 public bodies on the noticeClients of the procurement agent
- Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion ServiceProcuring entityNorthern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) is the buyer in this procurement.
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender