Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 22 Jan 2026, 19:14 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

PREVENTATION & PROTECTION CASE MANAGEMENT/WORKFLOW SOLUTION

Authority: NI Fire and Rescue Service (Central government)

GoodsBelow thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 7 Jun 2031 · up to 7 Jun 2036 with extensions · starts 8 Jun 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This Preliminary Market Engagement is being for the purposes of informing and engaging with potential service providers regarding the upcoming public competition for Prevention, Protection and Planning case management/workflow solution and associated services to be procured for Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) (the Buyer). NIFRS are seeking to replace their currently software.

Any Suppliers who are interested in taking part in the PME please contact Dawn Bradley (Procurement and Contracts Manager) on [email protected] to express interest. EoI will close on Friday 30th January at 5pm (GMT)

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software package and information systems

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 5 yrsSME
Contract period: 8 Jun 2026 – 7 Jun 2031 (5 yrs) · up to 7 Jun 2036 with extensions
Delivery: Northern IrelandEligibility: 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 NI Fire and Rescue Service buys Software package and information systems (CPV 48), and who usually turns up

NI Fire and Rescue Service’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: 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 buyerNI Fire and Rescue Service · 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: 1 of 7 known-size awards · market: division 48 · Northern Ireland, n=15
14%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.

Here, local means registered in Northern Ireland.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 0 of 7 known-location awards · market: division 48 · Northern Ireland, n=15
0%27%

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: no decision dates published · market: division 48 · Northern Ireland, n=5
—29 days

Half of these awards were announced within 29 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 11 of 12 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: division 48 · Northern Ireland, n=21
92%48%

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 buyerNo bid counts published
The market405 lots with bid counts · division 48 · UK-wide
15% had one bid
Market · select a colour for counts
1 bid15%
Market: 59 of 405 lots with published bid counts.
2–331%
Market: 127 of 405 lots with published bid counts.
4–632%
Market: 128 of 405 lots with published bid counts.
7+22%
Market: 91 of 405 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 buyerNo estimate-and-award pairs published
The market235 lots with estimate and award · division 48 · UK-wide
54% below estimate
Market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate54%
Market: 127 of 235 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%25%
Market: 58 of 235 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate21%
Market: 50 of 235 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 #160 monthsSME suitableEstimate not published
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 405 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet15% single-bid risk
Past bids on 405 similar lots
1 bid15%
59 of 405 similar past lots received 1 bid (15%).
2–331%
127 of 405 similar past lots received 2–3 (31%).
4–632%
128 of 405 similar past lots received 4–6 (32%).
7+22%
91 of 405 similar past lots received 7+ (22%).
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.

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, 19:14 GMT
Last source update
22 Jan 2026, 19:14 GMT
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-005994
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportSoftware package and information systems
Delivery area
Northern Ireland (UKN)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060cd9 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

22 Jan 2026 → 8 Jun 2026 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published271 days ago
    22 Jan 2026, 19:14 GMT
  2. Market engagement262 days ago
    30 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT

    Formal PME is due to take place in Feb 2026 via eTendersNI.

  3. Contract starts134 days ago
    8 Jun 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    22 Jan 2026, 19:14 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

Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PLBR-6377-MHGZ 1 Seymour Street, Lisburn, Northern Ireland, BT27 4SXContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure