Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 6 May 2026, 15:49 BST

Official UK procurement notice

School Finance & Budgeting System

Authority: Lancashire County Council (Local council)

GoodsAbove thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline value£540,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 6 Jul 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 2 yrsends 30 Sept 2028 · up to 31 May 2030 with extensions · starts 1 Oct 2026

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This Request for Information (RFI) seeks information relating to LCC's intention to procure a future finance and budgeting system for schools in Lancashire. The Schools Finance Team offers a wide range of professional support services to assist schools in managing their budgets. Provided by experienced Finance Officers, the team enable each individual school access to a breadth of skills and knowledge to fit their needs. The team have developed strong working relationships with schools, helping to ensure improved financial management throughout the County's schools which are currently circa 482 schools.

CPV: Financial analysis and accounting software package

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1PlannedRenewal 2 yrsSME
Contract period: 1 Oct 2026 – 30 Sept 2028 (2 yrs) · up to 31 May 2030 with extensions
Delivery: North WestEligibility: 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 Lancashire County Council buys Financial analysis and accounting software package (CPV 4844), and who usually turns up

Lancashire County Council’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: 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 buyerLancashire County Council · division 48
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 1 known-size awards · market: CPV 4844 · North West England, n=14
1 of 114%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered. The market figure counts awards delivered in North West England.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 1 of 5 known-location awards · market: CPV 4844 · North West England, n=20
20%5%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
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.

Last 36 months.

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

Half of these awards have an award date 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 6 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 4844 · North West England, n=19
17%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 buyer70 lots with bid counts · all categories
20% 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 bid20% / 13%
Buyer: 14 of 70 lots with published bid counts. Market: 4 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
2–330% / 16%
Buyer: 21 of 70 lots with published bid counts. Market: 5 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
4–624% / 41%
Buyer: 17 of 70 lots with published bid counts. Market: 13 of 32 lots with published bid counts.
7+26% / 31%
Buyer: 18 of 70 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 buyer56 lots with estimate and award · all categories
29% below estimate
The market16 lots with estimate and award · CPV 4844 · UK-wide
56% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate29% / 56%
Buyer: 16 of 56 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 9 of 16 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%52% / 31%
Buyer: 29 of 56 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 5 of 16 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate20% / 13%
Buyer: 11 of 56 lots with an estimate and award. 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 484424 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£540k
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 61 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet13% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 61 similar lots
1 bid13%
8 of 61 similar past lots received 1 bid (13%).
2–326%
16 of 61 similar past lots received 2–3 (26%).
4–636%
22 of 61 similar past lots received 4–6 (36%).
7+25%
15 of 61 similar past lots received 7+ (25%).
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 model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £540k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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
Above threshold (FTS publication)
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
6 May 2026, 15:49 BST
Last source update
6 May 2026, 15:49 BST
Authority reference
JB/ICT/LCC/26/R0676
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-041587
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Financial analysis and accounting software package
Delivery area
North West (UKD)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06928e Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

6 May 2026 → 1 Oct 2026 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published171 days ago
    6 May 2026, 15:49 BST
  2. Market engagement141 days ago
    5 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST

    Lancashire County Council (LCC) is undertaking supplier engagement activities to support the gathering of insights into our future requirements. The RFI documentation provide further detail on the background, scope and initial requirements. A returnable form has been provided to allow interested supplier's to share their feedback. LCC reserves the right to contact interested supplier's to further understand their system and service offering following the end of the early market engagement exercise. Copies of the RFI documentation can be found on our tender opportunities page (www.lancashire.gov.uk/business/tenders-and… ↗) .

  3. Tender notice expected110 days ago
    6 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
  4. Contract starts24 days ago
    1 Oct 2026, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    6 May 2026, 15:49 BST
    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

Lancashire County Council

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PBBJ-2179-TNXM PO Box 100, County Hall, Preston, North West, PR1 0LDContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure