Official UK procurement notice
T117 Digital Services Platform Support Maintenance and Enhancement
Authority: Northern Ireland Water (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThe Contract scope covers:
1 Business-as-usual support and maintenance for the live Digital Services platform
2 An initial defined enhancement phase (Digital Version 2)
3 The potential for further governance-approved enhancements over the contract term. Support and Maintenance Services
The Contract includes the provision of support and maintenance services for the Digital Services platform across the contract term. This includes application support for customer facing and staff facing services, incident, problem, and defect management, ongoing maintenance of platform components and integrations, routine release support, minor service requests necessary to keep the platform safe, stable and effective in operation and knowledge retention appropriate to a live business-critical environment.
NI Water’s operational teams perform first-line support, identifying and triaging incoming incidents, supported by established monitoring and documented runbooks. Suppliers should understand that support and maintenance activity will need to operate within NI Water’s established service management processes and involve collaboration with NI Water teams through diagnosis, resolution and controlled release of fixes.
Specific service levels and service management arrangements will be defined at ITT stage.
4.2 Enhancement Delivery
The Contract includes an initial defined enhancement phase (Digital Version 2) together with the potential for further governance-approved enhancement activity over the contract term.
NI Water maintains a prioritised list of potential enhancements for the Digital Services platform. Items on this list have undergone varying degrees of assessment and categorisation and some have progressed through discovery and design.
As part of this procurement, a prioritised set of enhancements referred to as Digital Version 2 will be included as a defined programme of work under the Contract. Digital Version 2 comprises the highest-priority items currently selected from NI Water’s enhancement list. NI Water will issue the relevant design and delivery artefacts to shortlisted Suppliers at ITT stage to inform pricing.
Further enhancement activity may be commissioned under the Contract over time, subject to governance, business case approval, prioritisation, and funding decisions. No commitment is given that any such additional enhancement activity will be commissioned. Any such work will be commissioned under the Contract through governance-approved Statements of Work.
- How the procedure runs: This PSQ is being issued with the objective of shortlisting 5 suppliers to invite to Stage 2 of the process, ITT
CPV: Computer audit and testing services · Computer network services · Computer support and consultancy services · Computer-related services · Data services · Hardware consultancy services · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Software programming and consultancy services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1RenewalPublished value£8,000,000
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published; the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (1)
- Previous Experience: 100%
Published award criteria (1)
- Previous Experience
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Competitive flexible procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Closed
- 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
- 16 Apr 2026, 11:02 BST
- Last source update
- 21 May 2026, 13:05 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 23 Nov 2026
- Authority reference
T117- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-047067- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0683e3Find a Tender
- How it runs
This PSQ is being issued with the objective of shortlisting 5 suppliers to invite to Stage 2 of the process, ITT
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- 19 Jun 2026, 12:00 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 10 Jun 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
16 Apr 2026 → 23 Nov 2026 · 8 dates- Planning notice published193 days ago16 Apr 2026, 11:02 BST
- Market engagement171 days ago8 May 2026, 23:59 BST
Prior to the publication of the Participation Stage Questionnaire (PSQ), NI Water intends to undertake pre market engagement to:
- provide suppliers with a high level overview of the requirement and procurement approach;
- outline anticipated scope, constraints and timelines; and
- offer an opportunity for clarification at a non binding, pre procurement stage.
This engagement will take the form of confidential supplier information sessions.
Supplier Information Sessions
NI Water expects to offer a limited number of individual supplier sessions, each of approximately one hour and fifteen minutes, to be held between:
Monday 27 April and Friday 8 May 2026
Key points:
- Sessions will be allocated on a first come, first served basis
- Sessions will be held in-person at NI Water headquarters, 40 Old Westland Road, Belfast, BT14 6TE
- Attendance is limited to a maximum of two delegates per organisation
- Sessions will be structured and consistent to maintain equal treatment
How to Register Interest
Suppliers wishing to register interest in attending a session should email: [email protected]
Requests must be received no later than Thursday 23rd April 2026.
Important Information
- Participation in pre market engagement is optional and will not confer any advantage in any subsequent procurement process.
- This notice does not constitute a call for competition or a commitment to proceed with any procurement.
- NI Water reserves the right to amend, suspend or cancel its proposed approach.
- Any future procurement will be conducted in accordance with applicable UK procurement legislation, the Procurement Act 2023, and will be advertised via the appropriate procurement portals.
- Next notice expected168 days ago11 May 2026, 23:59 BST
- Tender notice published158 days ago21 May 2026, 13:05 BST
- Clarification questions by138 days ago10 Jun 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission deadline129 days ago19 Jun 2026, 12:00 BST
- Today26 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 27 days23 Nov 2026
- Award decision expected byin 28 days23 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
Notice history
5 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 16 Apr 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published16 Apr 2026, 11:02 BSTUK2
- Tender notice published21 May 2026, 13:05 BSTUK4
- Status changed to active21 May 2026, 13:05 BST
- Procurement method changed21 May 2026, 13:05 BST
- Deadline published: 19 Jun 2026, 12:00 BST21 May 2026, 13:05 BST
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender