Official UK procurement notice
***Pre-Market Engagement *** ICT-26-009 Catering Management Tool
Authority: The Education Authority (Central government)
What is being bought
Published requirement description**This is not a tender exercise*** The Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) would like to invite participation in a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to seek the views of the market for the provision, in the first instance, of a Catering System within Northern Ireland schools, supporting modern, secure and efficient payment methods and managing risks associated with special diets within schools. The purpose of this PME exercise is for EANI to gain an understanding of the latest developments and innovative solutions available for school settings and will be used to assist EANI in gaining a better understanding of the feasibility of the requirements, the most appropriate procurement and operational approach, the capacity of the market to deliver the requirements and an opportunity for the market to highlight any possible risks or issues. This PME exercise also seeks to identify indicative costs to help inform the business case on the commercial aspects for the delivery and implementation of solution(s). For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of any formal procurement process and there is no commitment at this stage to carry out such a process. Any information gathered will not be considered in any future tender exercise. Please note that participation or non-participation in this PME exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any future procurement process, nor is it intended that any information provided shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any future procurement exercise. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from the documents section of the CfT on eTendersNI. Suppliers who wish to participate in the PME exercise must return the completed questionnaire via the messaging function of the CfT on eTendersNI no later than 15:00 on Friday 29th May 2026. As part of the PME exercise, participants may be invited to attend a follow-up session with EANI to explore and discuss the information provided in their response, this will be at the discretion of EANI.
For reference, the eTendersni reference number for this PME exercise is 6527440
CPV: Canteen and catering services · Canteen management services · Financial information systems · Financial systems software development services · Financial systems software package · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Industry specific software package · School catering services · Software package and information systems
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How the Education Authority buys Canteen and catering services (CPV 5550), and who usually turns up
the Education 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: Canteen and catering services (CPV 5550) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 43 days of the bid deadline.
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.
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.
1 bid17% / 22%
2–318% / 59%
4–622% / 19%
7+42% / 0%
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.
Below estimate36% / 46%
Within ±2%52% / 46%
Above estimate12% / 8%
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.
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 7221Published estimate£5.0m
This lot is listed as CPV 7221. The table above uses the notice category.
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 55 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid27%
2–338%
4–622%
7+13%
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.
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.
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.
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
- Services
- 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
- 8 May 2026, 15:37 BST
- Last source update
- 27 May 2026, 11:00 BST
- Authority reference
ICT-26-009 Catering Management Tool- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-049474- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0694f6Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
8 May 2026 → 1 Apr 2027 · 5 dates- Planning notice published169 days ago8 May 2026, 15:37 BST
- Latest notice published150 days ago27 May 2026, 11:00 BST
- Market engagement141 days ago5 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
Suppliers who wish to participate in the PME exercise must return the completed
questionnaire via the messaging function of the CfT on eTendersNI no later than 15:00 on
Friday 29th May 2026
- Tender notice expected85 days ago31 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today24 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 158 days1 Apr 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 8 May 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published8 May 2026, 15:37 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published27 May 2026, 11:00 BSTUK2
Published amendments (1)
The deadline for this Pre-market Engagement has now been extended to Friday 5th June @3pm
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
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender