Official UK procurement notice
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - HOSTING, LICENSING, SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES
Authority: Coventry University (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionCoventry University Group is seeking proposals from qualified vendors to deliver Hosting, Licensing, Support and Maintenance Services for its Optimizely Digital Experience Cloud (DXC). These services are integral to the Group’s digital transformation efforts, ensuring continuous high performance and secure operations for online content.
This section provides a formal justification for specifying Optimizely CMS as the required platform in this tender. The justification is made in accordance with the reasons below. Coventry University invites for suppliers to submit tender returns based on this justification, within the scope of an open tender.
- Technical Interoperability and Continuity
The existing digital infrastructure, including CRM, analytics, identity management, and content delivery systems, is tightly integrated with Optimizely CMS. Optimizely’s API-first architecture and support for headless delivery are essential for maintaining seamless interoperability with legacy systems and third-party services. Replacing Optimizely would require reengineering multiple integrations, introducing significant risk and cost.
- Operational Efficiency and User Familiarity
Internal teams are trained and certified in Optimizely CMS, and workflows are built around its content management and personalization capabilities. Transitioning to a new CMS would require retraining, reauthoring content, and revalidating accessibility and compliance standards, resulting in operational disruption.
- Cost of Change and Proportionality
A platform change would incur disproportionate University costs, including rebuilding templates and components, revalidating security and GDPR compliance, rewriting content migration scripts, and reintegrating with existing APIs and services. These costs are not justified given the maturity and suitability of the current Optimizely-based architecture.
- Strategic Alignment and Future Scalability
Optimizely CMS aligns with the organisation’s digital strategy, including goals for personalization, A/B testing, and omnichannel delivery. The platform supports future scalability, including cloud-native deployment and integration with AI-driven content tools.
The Estimate value below is based on the initial three year contract. The extension options are two, one year extensions.
Please note that a PME notice was not completed due to the timescales of the project.
To view this notice, please click here:
CPV: Communication and multimedia software package
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1AwardedRenewalPublished value£1,080,000
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (2)
- Quality: 60%
- Commercial: 40%
Published award criteria (2)
- Commercial
- Quality
- Price carries 40 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 4 points. The method statement decides this lot, not the discount.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Goods
- Notice status
- Awarded
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- 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
- 16 Sept 2025, 14:05 BST
- Last source update
- 5 Jan 2026, 12:05 GMT
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 20 Oct 2025
- Authority reference
PA-FRAM-1518-25-WP- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-056969- Latest notice
- Contract details notice (UK7)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-059b59Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 13 Oct 2025, 12:00 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 6 Oct 2025, 12:00 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
16 Sept 2025 → 5 Jan 2026 · 8 dates- Tender notice published16 Sept 2025, 14:05 BST
- Clarification questions by381 days ago6 Oct 2025, 12:00 BST
- Submission deadline374 days ago13 Oct 2025, 12:00 BST
- Assessment summaries sent368 days ago20 Oct 2025, 00:00 BST
- Award decision expected by367 days ago20 Oct 2025, 23:59 BST
- Standstill ends358 days ago29 Oct 2025, 23:59 GMT
- Contract starts309 days ago18 Dec 2025
- Latest notice published290 days ago5 Jan 2026, 12:05 GMT
Notice history
5 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 16 Sept 2025- Tender notice published16 Sept 2025, 14:05 BSTUK4
- Contract award notice published20 Oct 2025, 16:05 BSTUK6
- Status changed to complete20 Oct 2025, 16:05 BST
- Contract signature expected7 Nov 2025, 23:59 GMTscheduled
- Contract details notice published5 Jan 2026, 12:05 GMTUK7
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nexer Digital18 Dec 2025 – 17 Dec 2028 · up to 17 Dec 2030Extensions: Two possible, one year extensions | £1,080,000 inc. VAT | 17 Oct 2025 | Awarded |
Contracts
Contract 1 · Nexer Digital
- Signed
- 7 Nov 2025
- Value
- £899,955
- Period
- 18 Dec 2025 – 17 Dec 2028 · up to 17 Dec 2030 with extensions
- Status
- active
- Extensions
- Two possible, one year extensions
Bid statistics published by the authority
| Bids | SME | VCSE | Valid bid range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9final-stage tenders | 0 | 0 | — |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Bidders & participating suppliers
1 commercial party on the notice- Nexer Digital LimitedAwarded supplier
Official documents & specifications (3)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Contract details notice Contract details notice on Find a Tender
- Contract award notice Contract award notice on Find a Tender
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender