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Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 27 Jul 2026, 10:15 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Pre-Market Engagement - P-3480 Insurance Claims System 2027

Official notice Competition analysis

Authority: Translink (Public body)

ServicesAbove thresholdUtilities
Sectors: IT Services & Software (72) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£1pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 4 yrsends 31 Dec 2031 · starts 1 Jan 2028

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This is a Pre-Market Engagement exercise (PME) that seeks input from the market to inform the upcoming procurement of a replacement Insurance Claims Management System. Translink are seeking to invite suitable suppliers in this sector to register their interest. NOTE : THIS CFT IS NOT A CALL FOR TENDER. Please download and read the Terms of Reference which is available from the "CfT Documents" area. Your response must be submitted via the secure messaging area of the CfT. The deadline for registration of interest is 12:00 on 17th August 2026. Please note: the procedure selected for this Pre-Market Engagement is not indicative of the procurement procedure to follow.

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1Planned 4 yrs
Contract period: 1 Jan 2028 – 31 Dec 2031 (4 yrs)
72000000 IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Who is likely to bid for this lot ↓

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

How Translink buys IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72), and who usually turns up

Translink’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: IT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerTranslink · division 72
The marketIT services: consulting, software, internet (CPV 72) · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
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: 1 of 5 known-size awards · market: division 72 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=143
20%41%

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.

Here, local means registered in Northern Ireland (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 4 known-location awards · market: division 72 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=151
0 of 427%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Northern Ireland.

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: 24 decided notices · market: division 72 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=26
46 days41 days

Half of these awards were announced within 46 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 5 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 72 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=202
20%56%

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 · broad CPV 72
20% had one bid
The market54 lots with bid counts · division 72 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
28% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid20% / 28%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 15 of 54 lots with published bid counts.
2–320% / 37%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 20 of 54 lots with published bid counts.
4–620% / 20%
Buyer: 1 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 11 of 54 lots with published bid counts.
7+40% / 15%
Buyer: 2 of 5 lots with published bid counts. Market: 8 of 54 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 buyer5 lots with estimate and award · broad CPV 72
0% below estimate
The market45 lots with estimate and award · division 72 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
27% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate0% / 27%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 12 of 45 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%100% / 58%
Buyer: 5 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 26 of 45 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate0% / 16%
Buyer: 0 of 5 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 7 of 45 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 #148 monthsNo 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 54 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet28% single-bid risk
Past bids on 54 similar lots
1 bid28%
15 of 54 similar past lots received 1 bid (28%).
2–337%
20 of 54 similar past lots received 2–3 (37%).
4–620%
11 of 54 similar past lots received 4–6 (20%).
7+15%
8 of 54 similar past lots received 7+ (15%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 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 £1 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
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Utilities
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
27 Jul 2026, 10:15 BST
Last source update
29 Jul 2026, 09:29 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-071520
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06d3ef Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

27 Jul 2026 → 1 Jan 2028 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published86 days ago
    27 Jul 2026, 10:15 BST
  2. Latest notice published84 days ago
    29 Jul 2026, 09:29 BST
  3. Market engagement64 days ago
    17 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST

    This is a Pre-Market Engagement exercise (PME) that seeks input from the market to inform the upcoming procurement of a replacement Insurance Claims Management System. Translink are seeking to invite suitable suppliers in this sector to register their interest. NOTE : THIS CFT IS NOT A CALL FOR TENDER. Please download and read the Terms of Reference which is available from the "CfT Documents" area of eTendersNI. Your response must be submitted via the secure messaging area of the CfT. The deadline for registration of interest is 12:00 on 17th August 2026. Please note: the procedure selected for this Pre-Market Engagement is not indicative of the procurement procedure to follow.

  4. Today
    21 Oct 2026
  5. Contract starts
    1 Jan 2028

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 27 Jul 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    27 Jul 2026, 10:15 BST
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    29 Jul 2026, 09:29 BST
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

N.B Information relating to this PME exercise can be accessed via eTendersNI (https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps). Please note that expresses of interest cannot be submitted via email; the messaging function of the CFT must be used.

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

Translink

Contracting authorityPublic undertakingNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PTMT-7134-NRMV 22 Great Victoria Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT2 7LXContact email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure