Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 9 Jan 2026, 21:46 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Early Market Engagement - SOUTH YORKSHIRE BUS NETWORK PASSENGER DEMAND & LOAD INSIGHT

Authority: South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (Local council)

GoodsSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£0pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 1 Sept 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrs 1 moends 31 Jan 2030 · starts 1 Jan 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Following the decision in March 2025 SYMCA are seeking information from the market regarding third party passenger counting technologies.

PLEASE NOTE; THIS IS A MARKET TEST EXCERCISE

CPV: Data-processing machines (hardware) · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 3 yrs 1 moSME

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority buys Data-processing machines (hardware) (CPV 3021), and who usually turns up

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’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: Data-processing machines (hardware) (CPV 3021) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bidWhat to do with it
How often do SMEs win?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 4 known-size awards · market: CPV 3021 · Yorkshire and the Humber, n=13
0 of 431%

No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.

How often do local suppliers win?
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. The market figure counts awards delivered in Yorkshire and the Humber.

A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 2 known-location awards · market: CPV 3021 · Yorkshire and the Humber, n=13
2 of 28%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 3021 · UK-wide, n=9
—25 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 25 days of the bid deadline.

How often single-bid or direct?
i

How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.

Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.

The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.

Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: exactly 5 of 5 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 3021 · Yorkshire and the Humber, n=21
100%24%

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer26 lots with bid counts · all categories
4% had one bid
The market5 lots with bid counts · CPV 3021 · Yorkshire and the Humber
0% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid4% / 0%
Buyer: 1 of 26 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
2–323% / 0%
Buyer: 6 of 26 lots with published bid counts. Market: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
4–635% / 20%
Buyer: 9 of 26 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts.
7+38% / 80%
Buyer: 10 of 26 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 5 lots with published bid counts.

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.

Last 36 months.

This buyer20 lots with estimate and award · all categories
50% below estimate
The market10 lots with estimate and award · CPV 3021 · UK-wide
50% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate50% / 50%
Buyer: 10 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 10 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%45% / 40%
Buyer: 9 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 4 of 10 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate5% / 10%
Buyer: 1 of 20 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 1 of 10 lots with an estimate and award.
2

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.

Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list

Lot #1CPV 302137 monthsSME suitableNo real estimate
Expected competition
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 10 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet30% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 10 similar lots
1 bid30%
3 of 10 similar past lots received 1 bid (30%).
2–30%
0 of 10 similar past lots received 2–3 (0%).
4–620%
2 of 10 similar past lots received 4–6 (20%).
7+50%
5 of 10 similar past lots received 7+ (50%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 6 bids.
Commercial price forecast
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.

—No real estimate
The buyer published £0 as the estimate (a placeholder, not the contract’s value), so there is nothing to forecast against.

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.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

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.

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
Unspecified in notice
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
9 Jan 2026, 21:46 GMT
Last source update
9 Jan 2026, 21:46 GMT
Authority reference
ProContract Ref: DN802720
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-002078
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Data-processing machines (hardware)IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Delivery area
Yorkshire & Humber (UKE3)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060350 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

9 Jan 2026 → 1 Jan 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published287 days ago
    9 Jan 2026, 21:46 GMT
  2. Market engagement277 days ago
    19 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Further details and the opportunity to respond to this market test can be found via ProContract:

    procontract.due-north.com ↗

    Ref DN802720.

  3. Tender notice expected52 days ago
    1 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Today
    24 Oct 2026
  5. Contract startsin 69 days
    1 Jan 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    9 Jan 2026, 21:46 GMT
    UK2

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

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PDBT-6675-QXPN 11 Broad Street West, Sheffield, Yorkshire & Humber, S1 2BQContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure