Official UK procurement notice
ID 6421140 - DoF - IT Assist - Provision and Support of a Server Patch Management Solution
Authority: Department of Finance (Central government)·On behalf of: CPD
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionIT Assist require the provision of a Server Patch Management Tool to patch approximately 2400 servers. IT Assist (The Buyer) has responsibility for the delivery of common IT systems and services to support the business objectives of the 9 Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) Departments and approximately 40 Arms-Length organisations. Services are delivered to approximately 28000 NICS staff and customers located across Northern Ireland. The Buyer is responsible for the hosting, administration and maintenance of both virtual and physical server infrastructure. It is anticipated the Contract will be awarded in September 2026, with a 2 week implementation period prior to the Licencing period commencing on 11th October 2026 for an initial period of 3 years with the option to extend for 2 further periods of up to 12 months each for the supply and delivery of a patch management system. Please see document entitled “ID 6421140 – Specification” for full details of the requirement.
- The authority expects to re-tender this requirement around 31 Jul 2031, 23:59 BST.
- How the procedure runs: Before the intention to award phase, as part of the verification process, the tenderer with the highest scoring compliant bid will be required to provide a working demonstration of their proposed solution to verify some technical requirements by way of a verification exercise. The solution must be demonstrated comprehensively against the requirements marked with (Y) within the detailed requirements in Schedule 2 (Specification). This is to ensure that the solution meets the requirements. NOTE: the requirements indicated by (Y) for verification, it is only the areas within that requirement marked with a (Y) that will require to be verified. In the event that the Tenderer's proposed system is determined not to comply with any Requirement of the specification following the verification exercise, the tenderer will be considered eliminated from the tender exercise and the next highest scoring tenderer will be asked to undertake verification.
CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Information systems and servers · Software package and information systems · Software package utilities · Software-related services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedWhat 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 (3)
- AC1 - Usability, User Experience (UX) and Accessibility: 10%
- AC2 - Service Delivery and Contract Management: 10%
- AC3 - Price: 80%
Published award criteria (3)
- AC1 - Usability, User Experience (UX) and Accessibility: As per Tender documentation.
- AC2 - Service Delivery and Contract Management: As per Tender documentation.
- AC3 - Price: As per Tender documentation.
- Price carries 80 of 100 points: a 10% discount moves about 8 points. This one is won on the number: sharpen the price before polishing the prose.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Cancelled
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Yes (GPA)
- Recurring procurement
- Yes · next expected 31 Jul 2031
- First published
- 31 Jul 2026, 17:37 BST
- Last source update
- 28 Sept 2026, 13:51 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 7 Sept 2026
- Authority reference
ID 6421140- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-072920- Latest notice
- Procurement termination notice (UK12)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d954Find a Tender- Contract terms summary
For ANI clients insert: For further details on invoicing procedures please see : www.finance-ni.gov.uk/ar ↗ ticles/account-ni-good-invoicing-practice
The estimated value figure indicated in the Scope Section represents an overall estimated contract value. This value reflects the potential scale of the contract and takes into account potential optional extension periods and the uptake of potential optional services as detailed in the tender documents. This figure does not however take into account the application of indexation or increases to charges due to increases in the Real Living Wage. Neither CPD nor the contracting Authority can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. The Contracting Authority does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender. Suppliers remain responsible for all costs and expenses incurred by them or by any third party acting under instructions from the Supplier in connection with taking part in this procurement process regardless of whether such costs arise as a consequence, directly or indirectly of any amendments made to the procurement documents by the Contracting Authority at any time. No legally binding contract shall arise (and a Supplier shall have no legitimate expectation that a contract will be entered into) until such time as entry into the Contract has been confirmed by the Contracting Authority.
- How it runs
Before the intention to award phase, as part of the verification process, the tenderer with the highest scoring compliant bid will be required to provide a working demonstration of their proposed solution to verify some technical requirements by way of a verification exercise.
The solution must be demonstrated comprehensively against the requirements marked with (Y) within the detailed requirements in Schedule 2 (Specification). This is to ensure that the solution meets the requirements. NOTE: the requirements indicated by (Y) for verification, it is only the areas within that requirement marked with a (Y) that will require to be verified.
In the event that the Tenderer's proposed system is determined not to comply with any Requirement of the specification following the verification exercise, the tenderer will be considered eliminated from the tender exercise and the next highest scoring tenderer will be asked to undertake verification.
- Risks
The Contracting Authority has identified the following risks as risks that satisfy the criteria of Schedule 8 sub-paragraph (6)(a) of the Procurement Act 2023 i.e. that the risk/s could jeopardise the satisfactory performance of the contract but, because of its/their nature, cannot be addressed in the contract as awarded:
- Defining future licence requirements in line with changing priorities of the contracting authority.
- Delays to the delivery of services.
The contract Authority has concluded that there is a possibility that the contract may have to be modified as a result of a materialisation of the known risk/s at a later date in accordance with Schedule 8 paragraph 5 of the Procurement Act 2023.
Exclusions
If at any time during the procurement, or post award, it comes to the attention of the Contracting Authority (CA) or CPD, by whatever means, that a Supplier has become 'excluded' or 'excludable' as per Sec 57 of the PA 2023, the CA, after compliance with its obligations under the PA 23, reserves the right to exclude said Supplier from the procurement procedure or terminate any contract they have been awarded. Insert appropriate reservations of rights and disclaimers of liability here consider - e.g.
The Contracting Authority expressly reserves the rights:
(I). not to award any contract as a result of the procurement process commenced by publication of this notice;
(II). to make whatever changes it may see fit to the content and structure of the tendering Competition;
(III). to award (a) contract(s) in respect of any part(s) of the [services] covered by this notice; and
(IV). to award contract(s) in stages.
and in no circumstances will the Authority be liable for any costs incurred by candidates.
This tender competition includes a verification stage;
Before the intention to award phase, as part of the verification process, the tenderer with the highest scoring compliant bid will be required to provide a working demonstration of their proposed solution to verify some technical requirements by way of a verification exercise. The solution must be demonstrated comprehensively against the requirements marked with (Y) within the detailed requirements in Schedule 2 (Specification). This is to ensure that the solution meets the requirements. In the event that the Tenderer's proposed system is determined not to comply with any Requirement of the specification following the verification exercise, the tenderer will be considered eliminated from the tender exercise and the next highest scoring tenderer will be asked to undertake verification. Suppliers should note that all dates, time periods and figures in relation to values and volumes specified in this notice and the procurement documents are approximate only
and the Contracting Authority reserves the right to change any or all of them.
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 26 Aug 2026, 15:00 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 18 Aug 2026, 15:00 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Tenders must be submitted electronically via the relevant Call for Tender (CfT) opportunity on eTendersNI, website details immediately below.
Paper submissions will not be accepted or considered and will be rejected by the Contracting Authority / Buyer.
The tender documents are available with unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at: URL etendersni.gov.uk/epps ↗
Timeline
31 Jul 2026 → 28 Sept 2026 · 6 dates- Tender notice published83 days ago31 Jul 2026, 17:37 BST
- Clarification questions by65 days ago18 Aug 2026, 15:00 BST
- Submission deadline57 days ago26 Aug 2026, 15:00 BST
- Award decision expected by44 days ago7 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts38 days ago14 Sept 2026, 00:00 BST
- Latest notice published24 days ago28 Sept 2026, 13:51 BST
Notice history
3 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 31 Jul 2026- Tender notice published31 Jul 2026, 17:37 BSTUK4
- Procurement termination notice published28 Sept 2026, 13:51 BSTUK12
- Status changed to complete28 Sept 2026, 13:51 BST
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast| Awarded to | Value | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| supplier not published | — | 4 Sept 2026 | CancelledThe Procurement competition was terminated following the outcome of an open procurement exercise, where no compliant tender responses were received. |
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
3 public bodies on the noticeOther public bodies
- CPDBeneficiary authority
- CPD - Supplies & Services DivisionProcess contact pointProcuring entitySummary of their role in this procurement: Construction and Procurement Delivery - Supplies and Services Division, is a Centre of Procurement Expertise and provides a central procurement function for central government in Northern Ireland
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Procurement termination notice Procurement termination notice on Find a Tender
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender