Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 22 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

PME notice for a new Financial Management Software System.

Authority: City College Norwich (Education)

GoodsBelow thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£0pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 30 Sept 2031 · up to 30 Sept 2034 with extensions · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Scope

City College Norwich are seeking to engage the market in advance of a forthcoming tender opportunity for a financial management software system covering but not limited

to:

 Support statutory and regulatory compliance (FE and HE requirements)

 Enable real-time financial visibility and reporting.

 Reduce manual processing and reliance on spreadsheets.

 Improve auditability and financial governance.

 Support multi funding streams and complex reporting requirements.

 General Ledger

 Accounts Payable

 Accounts Receivable

 Budgeting and Forecasting

 Fixed Assets

 Cash and Treasury Management

 Procurement and Expenses

 Reporting and Business Intelligence

The purpose of this early market engagement is to make relevant bidders aware of the upcoming opportunity, gather interest and invite bidders to demonstrate their systems to CCN via Teams or other remote methods between the dates of February 23rd 2026

and March 13th 2026.

The duration of the demonstrations will be one hour.

The number of demonstrations will be limited up to 6 suppliers selected on a first responder basis, this is purely for Pre Market Engagement (PME) and if you are not selected at this stage there may be other opportunities during the process.

The contract is likely to last a minimum 5 years, with the intention to have the implementation completed by June 1st 2027, we would like to understand the suppliers required timelines to ensure this is achievable.

CCN's current intention is to procure this through the Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) framework - CPC/JE/02/2025, a PME for this framework is now closed and the tender is due to be launched by the end of March 2026, see links below for more

information.

As a result, the mini competition will be issued on or around 1 September 2025.

Links for the CPC framework are below:

www.thecpc.ac.uk/services/contracting… ↗

Login To MultiQuote (MultiQuote reference CA16588)

Please contact Jane Edwards at CPC for more information - [email protected]

Please note the total value of the contract is not currently known and this will be updated at the mini competition launch.

Contract dates (estimated):

 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2031

 Possible extension to 30 September 2034

 8 years

Main procurement category

Goods

CPV classifications

 48440000-4 (Financial analysis and accounting software package).

Contract locations

 UKH15 - Norwich and East Norfolk (City College Norwich)

Engagement

Engagement deadline:

13 February 2026

Engagement process description

This is not a call for competition.

This notice is intended to alert potential suppliers of the upcoming opportunity and provide some basic information in advance if required about the college.

Contracting authority:

City College Norwich

 Public Procurement Organisation Number: 10047734

City College Norwich,

Ipswich Road,

Norwich,

NR2 2LJ,

United Kingdom

For more information about this opportunity, please express your interest by emailing:

Mr Shane Smith

Telephone: +44 1603 773171

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.ccn,ac,uk ↗

Region: UKH15 - Norwich and East Norfolk (City College Norwich)

Organisation type: Further education

CPV: Financial analysis and accounting software package

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 5 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Oct 2026 – 30 Sept 2031 (5 yrs) · up to 30 Sept 2034 with extensions
Delivery: East of EnglandEligibility: SME eligible
Extensions: Extension options published

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How City College Norwich buys Financial analysis and accounting software package (CPV 4844), and who usually turns up

City College Norwich’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Financial analysis and accounting software package (CPV 4844) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerCity College Norwich · 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: 0 of 9 known-size awards · market: CPV 4844 · East of England, n=12
0%17%

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.

Here, local means registered in East of England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 6 known-location awards · market: CPV 4844 · East of England, n=16
17%6%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside East of England.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: no decision dates published · market: CPV 4844 · UK-wide, n=17
—52 days

Half of these awards were announced within 52 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 1 of 10 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4844 · East of England, n=17
10%53%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

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 buyer5 lots with bid counts · all categories
0% had one bid
The market32 lots with bid counts · CPV 4844 · UK-wide
13% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid0% / 13%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
2–30% / 16%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
4–680% / 41%
Buyer: 4 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 13 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
7+20% / 31%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 10 of 32 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 buyer3 lots with estimate and award · all categories · too few to chart
The market16 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4844 · UK-wide
56% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate56%
Market: 9 of 16 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%31%
Market: 5 of 16 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate13%
Market: 2 of 16 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 484460 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 43 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet19% single-bid risk
Past bids on 43 similar lots
1 bid19%
8 of 43 similar past lots received 1 bid (19%).
2–323%
10 of 43 similar past lots received 2–3 (23%).
4–642%
18 of 43 similar past lots received 4–6 (42%).
7+16%
7 of 43 similar past lots received 7+ (16%).
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.

—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
Below threshold
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
22 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMT
Last source update
22 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMT
Authority reference
PME notice 22/01/2026
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-005949
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Financial analysis and accounting software package
Delivery area
East of England (UKH15)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060cbb Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

22 Jan 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published271 days ago
    22 Jan 2026, 16:46 GMT
  2. Market engagement248 days ago
    13 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Software demonstrations will follow between the dates of February 23rd 2026 and March 13th 2026.

  3. Contract starts19 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    22 Jan 2026, 16:46 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

City College Norwich

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PDXW-8962-LXMJ · GB-UKPRN: 10004772 Ipswich Road, Norwich, East of England, NR2 2LJContact name, email, phone

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure