Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 30 Sept 2026, 16:14 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Configuration Management Database Solution

Authority: Education Authority (Central government)

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Sectors: IT Services & Software (72) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Budget not disclosed£0£0 inc. VAT
Tender notice expected 1 Dec 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsup to 5 yrs with extensions · starts 1 Feb 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The primary purpose of this preliminary market engagement exercise (“Exercise”) is for the Education Authority (EA) to explain, and seek supplier views and feedback on, potential approaches for a Configuration Management Database solution.

EA requires a CMDB to provide a trusted, accurate and near-real-time view of its ICT assets, applications, services and the relationships between them. Acting as the single source of truth for the DTS estate, it will reduce manual data maintenance through automation, support Cyber Essentials accreditation and provide the foundation for EA’s ICT Service Catalogue.

To deliver these outcomes, the CMDB must integrate with EA’s Change Management process and ITSM platform. This integration will ensure that trusted configuration and service data informs change assessment, approval and implementation.

By mapping the relationships between services, applications and infrastructure components, the CMDB will allow proposed changes to be assessed against known dependencies and potential business impacts before implementation. This visibility will support more reliable planning, testing and communication, giving decision-makers greater confidence that changes can proceed safely.

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Lot 1PlannedRenewal 3 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Feb 2027 — 31 Jan 2030 (3 yrs) · up to 5 yrs with extensionsEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions
Extension options published
72000000 IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record
Legal basis
UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
Procurement category
Services
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
No (one-off requirement)
First published
30 Sept 2026, 16:14 BST
Last source update
30 Sept 2026, 16:14 BST
Authority reference
ICT-26-017
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077dfc

How it was run

Submission deadline
—

Timeline

4 published dates · Europe/London
  1. Planning notice publishedjust passed
    30 Sept 2026, 16:14 BST
  2. Market engagementin 21 days
    21 Oct 2026, 23:59 BSTSuppliers who wish to participate in the PME exercise must return the completed questionnaire via the messaging function of the CfT on eTendersNI no later than 15:00 on Wednesday 21 October 2026. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from the CfT Documents area of CfT 6761471 in etendersni.gov.uk ↗.
  3. Tender notice expectedin 62 days
    1 Dec 2026, 23:59 GMT
  4. Contract startsin 123 days
    1 Feb 2027, 00:00 GMT

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Pipeline notice
Awards (0)
No award published
Contracts (0)
No contract published
Bid statistics
No aggregate bid statistics published

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    30 Sept 2026, 16:14 BSTUK2

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

Education Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PPHJ-6982-JPXY 40 Academy STreet, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT1 2NQ

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure