Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 18 Feb 2026, 14:34 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Grants Management System - Soft Market Testing

Authority: Cheshire west and Chester Borough Council (Local council)

GoodsSME suitableVCSE suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term Ends 4 Mar 2026starts 19 Feb 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Grants Management System - Soft Market Testing.

Please find the advert details and attached document published on The Chest: www.the-chest.org.uk ↗.

CPV: Software package and information systems

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedSMEVCSE
Contract period: 19 Feb 2026 – 4 Mar 2026
Delivery: North WestEligibility: SME eligibleVCSE eligible

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Cheshire west and Chester Borough Council buys Software package and information systems (CPV 48), and who usually turns up

Cheshire west and Chester Borough Council’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: Software package and information systems (CPV 48) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCheshire west and Chester Borough Council · all categories
What 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: 87 of 120 known-size awards · market: division 48 · North West England, n=457
73%33%

Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.

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 North West England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 94 of 179 known-location awards · market: division 48 · North West England, n=593
53%11%

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: 10 decided notices · market: division 48 · North West England, n=44
54 days56 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 54 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.

Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: at least 88 of 184 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 48 · North West England, n=702
48%67%

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 buyer25 lots with bid counts · all categories
4% had one bid
The market61 lots with bid counts · division 48 · North West England
13% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid4% / 13%
Buyer: 1 of 25 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 61 lots with published bid counts.
2–320% / 26%
Buyer: 5 of 25 lots with published bid counts. Market: 16 of 61 lots with published bid counts.
4–644% / 36%
Buyer: 11 of 25 lots with published bid counts. Market: 22 of 61 lots with published bid counts.
7+32% / 25%
Buyer: 8 of 25 lots with published bid counts. Market: 15 of 61 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 buyer19 lots with estimate and award · all categories
21% below estimate
The market36 lots with estimate and award · division 48 · North West England
56% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate21% / 56%
Buyer: 4 of 19 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 20 of 36 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%63% / 22%
Buyer: 12 of 19 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 8 of 36 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate16% / 22%
Buyer: 3 of 19 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 8 of 36 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 48SME suitableEstimate not published

This lot lists more than one class in CPV 48. The comparison uses that group.

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 61 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet13% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 61 similar lots
1 bid13%
8 of 61 similar past lots received 1 bid (13%).
2–326%
16 of 61 similar past lots received 2–3 (26%).
4–636%
22 of 61 similar past lots received 4–6 (36%).
7+25%
15 of 61 similar past lots received 7+ (25%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 4 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.

—Estimate not published
The buyer published no estimate for this lot, so there is nothing to forecast against. A price prediction here would be a number about a number we do not have.

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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueWhy listed
Aareon UK LtdEarlier contractHousing Management Systemstarted Nov 2025——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.

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.

What this replaces
i

Who has done similar work for this buyer.

Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.

42% title match.

A past supplier may not bid again.

The prior contract this notice most likely re-tenders · matched by title and category (42% title match), the holder is not guaranteed to re-bid

Housing Management System — held by Aareon UK Ltd; no contract end date published.

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
18 Feb 2026, 14:34 GMT
Last source update
18 Feb 2026, 14:34 GMT
Authority reference
DN807415
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-014833
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Software package and information systems
Delivery area
North West (UKD63)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06572f Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

18 Feb 2026 → 4 Mar 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published251 days ago
    18 Feb 2026, 14:34 GMT
  2. Contract starts250 days ago
    19 Feb 2026
  3. Market engagement236 days ago
    4 Mar 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Please find the advert details and attached document published on The Chest: www.the-chest.org.uk ↗.

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    18 Feb 2026, 14:34 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

Cheshire West and Chester Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PCJB-2814-BHZP The Portal, Wellington Road, Ellesmere Port, North West, CH65 0BAContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure