Official UK procurement notice
Scheduling and Metering Software
Authority: United Utilities Water Limited (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionUnited Utilities (UU) is undertaking a review of its billing platform and future scope requirements. The purpose of this PME is to understand the capability and capacity of the scheduling and metering tools in the market in order to inform any future billing platform procurement strategy. Interested parties will be required to complete an NDA and attend a supplier session.
The objectives and requirements of scheduling and metering are outlined as below.
Objectives
- Consolidate field operations into a single platform
Reduce fragmented tools and manual processes with one system managing all FMO, proactive and reactive jobs, from booking through to close.
- Improve appointment efficiency
Reduce failed visits and wasted field resource through better pre-appointment information, skill-matched scheduling and real-time engineer comms.
- Create end-to-end visibility across the meter lifecycle
Give operations, field teams and management a real-time view of jobs status, asset health and SLA performance - with automated workflows to support jeopardy scenarios.
- Automate/ Improve payment and performance management
Reduce manual effort from third-party payment validation and processing by generating accurate, evidence-backed payment information.
Current metrics for appointments and installations:
- Service Appointments, circa 1 million per year
- Cancelled Appointment circa 170,000 per year
- New Meter installations circa 215,000 per year
- Cases Completed circa 500,000 per year
Key Requirements
M001 Planning & Scheduling
The ability to book, manage, and dispatch planned and reactive jobs across multiple appointment types (Eg installations, exchanges, meter reads, audits), with appointment optimisation performed against defined parameters. Including ability for customer to self-serve.
M002 Appointment Management
The capability to manage the complete appointment life cycle, from scheduling through completion, including proactive in day jeopardy identification and management. Including ability for customer to self-serve.
M003 Field Workforce Management
The ability to manage engineer availability, skills and real-time job status - including two-way comms with the handheld device in the field for multiple work types (Eg operative reinstatement and supervision).
M004 Asset & Meter Lifecycle
The ability to track a meter from installation through to decommission, including all activity, reads and changes against the asset record and the ability to manage asset health.
M005 Data & Billing Accuracy
The ability to ingest, validate and output meter read accuracy to support billing - and water demand initiatives.
M006 Third Party Management
The ability to manage contracted third parties within a single platform, with enforced data segregation and validated outpayments (E.g. automated reconciliation and exception management).
M007 Integrations & Automation
The ability to integrate with external systems (e.g. Billing, Street Works, video and photograph capture, handheld devices) and automatically automate scheduling, alerts and workflows based on configurable rules.
M008 Customer Management
The ability to manage customer cases, including complaints, enquiries, and operational issues, from initiation to resolution.
Data Location and Processing Restrictions
Interested Supplier should note: the mandatory requirement, that all personal data processed under this Contract is hosted, stored, accessed, and otherwise processed solely within the United Kingdom. No personal data shall be transferred, accessed, or processed outside the UK.
The Supplier shall implement and maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure compliance with this requirement and shall provide evidence of such measures upon request by the Company.
Next Steps
- United Utilities will set up Meet the Supplier sessions. These will be held over 2 weeks, week commencing 11th May 2026 and 18th May 2026.
- Prior to invitation to a Supplier session, all interested parties will be required to complete an NDA.
- Upon receipt and acceptance of the NDA, supplier sessions will then be made available. These will be scheduled over a period of 2 weeks commencing 11th May 2026.
CPV: Scheduling software package
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How United Utilities Water Limited buys Scheduling and productivity software package (CPV 4833), and who usually turns up
United Utilities Water Limited’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: Scheduling and productivity software package (CPV 4833) →
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.
No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.
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 the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside North West England.
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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.
Half of these awards were announced within 89 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.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
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?
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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 bid13%
2–325%
4–637%
7+25%
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 estimate54%
Within ±2%23%
Above estimate23%
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 4833Estimate not published
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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 60 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid13%
2–325%
4–637%
7+25%
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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.
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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.
| Supplier | This buyer’s earlier contract | Lot | Award value | Why listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bentley Systems UK Ltd.Earlier contract | Engineering Softwarestarted Sept 2025 | — | — | Matched as the earlier contract |
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
- Goods
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 1 May 2026, 14:09 BST
- Last source update
- 7 May 2026, 09:00 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-041704- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-069068Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
1 May 2026 → 22 May 2026 · 4 dates- Planning notice published172 days ago1 May 2026, 14:09 BST
- Latest notice published166 days ago7 May 2026, 09:00 BST
- Contract starts163 days ago11 May 2026, 00:00 BST
- Market engagement151 days ago22 May 2026, 23:59 BST
Supplier sessions will be held in United Utilities offices in Warrington or via Teams.
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 1 May 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published1 May 2026, 14:09 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published7 May 2026, 09:00 BSTUK2
Published amendments (1)
Updated contact email at Contracting Authority.
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