Official UK procurement notice
Technology Services Specialist Framework (TSSF)
Authority: Southern Water Services Limited (Public body)
What is being bought10 lots · detail below
Published requirement descriptionThe objective of the tender is to select Specialist service providers who are capable of providing services for a maximum of 3 Lots, to enable SWS, at its election, to award work within a pool of pre-qualified service providers without the need to embark on a formal Procurement Act 23 process at individual project level.
To facilitate this, the intention is that the successful bidders will be awarded a place on the Technology Services Specialist Framework Agreement.
SWS will retain the right to compete work outside the pool of pre-qualified service providers (i.e. Procurement Act ‘23 process) where appropriate (e.g. where the pre-qualified service providers do not have the capability to deliver the services required by SWS or the price secured within the pool is not judged by SWS to be market competitive).
Some of the key objectives of the framework include:
- Establish a single route to market that covers requirements that Southern Water has for Technology Services Specialist providers and resources
- Support quick access to the right resources, in order to support Digital project objectives and deliver ongoing “run” activities
- Modernise contracts
- Increasing the use of outcome-based delivery and managed services
- Deliver the optimum selection of specialist partners
- Support the Digital transformation agenda, including the best partners for future roadmap; updated and flexible engagement models incl. managed services and suppliers aligned to target operating model
- Provide routes to market for Change Portfolio requirements
A key objective of this procurement process for Southern Water is to deliver the optimum selection of specialist partners. We would like to select and work with suppliers, who have deep capabilities in particular areas and domain expertise.
Suppliers can bid on multiple Lots relevant to their capabilities up to a maximum of 3 Lots.
- How the procedure runs: There will be a single PQQ that will qualify Tenderers into the ITT stage. Tenderers must indicate in the PQQ all Lots they are bidding on. Suppliers can bid on multiple Lots relevant to their capabilities up to a maximum of 3 Lots.
CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
How this framework works
From the published notice- Type
- Closed framework · open framework scheme (admission reopens)
- Call-offs
- call-offs may be awarded directly or by further competition
- Framework period
- 3 yrs · up to 8 yrs from 3 Jul 2026
- Scheme runs until
- 2 Jul 2034
Published description of the framework
The process for agreeing Orders will follow that set out in the Technology Services Partner Framework, specifically:
Direct Order/Award - to any Framework Supplier without re-opening competition if the Service Requirements for the proposed Order:
can be met by any of the Framework Suppliers; and
the value of the proposed Order is calculated to be under £250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds).
Competed Order - under this Framework Agreement by re-opening competition (mini-competitions) among the Framework Suppliers
POC/Hothouse selection - service providers may be required to engage in a proof of concept/hothouse selection process in order to secure the identified works
Lots and requirements (10)Procurement structure
10 lots · all with a published value · evaluation weights differ by lotEvery one of these 3 lots carries the same published figure, £32,000,000: it is the framework's maximum for the whole notice, not each lot's own budget, and no share per lot is published. The cards below say ceiling above rather than repeat it.
Lot #1Customer & CorporateRenewalPublished value£40,000,000
SWS seek specialist partners providing deep expertise in Customer & Corporate platforms such as SAP ECC/CRM/BAS, ServiceNow, web channels, and supporting corporate systems. Focused on targeted enhancements, engineering, analysis, support and automation, enabling high‑quality improvements and domain‑specific capability across customer and corporate processes.
Estimated Lot Value £2m to £5m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- Adherence to ISO 27001 and NCSC cloud security principles
- Compliance with UK data protection regulations
- Use of industry best practices for end user compute
- Web accessibility standards and guidelines
Lot #2WholesaleRenewalPublished value£64,000,000
SWS seek specialist partners providing deep expertise in Wholesale platforms and OT‑adjacent technologies—Maximo, ArcGIS, PI, ThingWorx and bespoke operational apps. Focused on targeted engineering, enhancements, data‑driven improvements, smart asset/smart network enablement, and modernisation of legacy systems to elevate operational performance and field service experience.
Estimated Lot Value £4m to £8m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- Adherence to ISO 27001 and NCSC cloud security principles
- Compliance with UK data protection regulations
- Use of industry best practices
Lot #3Data & Analytics & AIRenewalceiling above
SWS seek specialist partners providing deep expertise in data engineering, analytics, BI development, governance and emerging AI capabilities. Focused on targeted delivery of pipelines, models, visualisation, semantic layer enablement, data quality, cataloguing and domain‑specific insights - accelerating the organisation’s shift to data‑driven operations and AI‑ready platforms.
Estimated Lot Value £2m to £4m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- UK GDPR
- Data Protection Act 2018
- EU Data Act
- EU AI Act
- Cyber Essentials / Cyber Essentials Plus
- ISO/IEC 27001
Lot #4Digital Workspace & ColloborationRenewalPublished value£24,000,000
SWS seek specialist partners providing deep expertise in digital workplace technologies, delivering targeted engineering, automation, low‑code solutions, migration support and optimisation across Microsoft 365, SharePoint Online, Windows 11, VDI and collaboration tools. Focus is on shaping user experience, enhancing productivity, modernising legacy estates, enabling citizen developers, and supporting niche workplace capabilities needed across diverse user personas and operational environments.
Estimated Lot Value £1m to £3m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- Adherence to ISO 27001 and NCSC cloud security principles
- Compliance with UK data protection regulations
- Use of industry best practices for end user compute
Lot #5Networks, Compute & Cloud HostingRenewalPublished value£56,000,000
SWS seek specialist partners providing deep expertise across specific network, cloud, compute or security domains - supporting targeted engineering, optimisation, migration, resilience uplift, and niche operational capabilities. This includes specialist skills in Azure, VMware, Cisco/Meraki/ISE, firewalls, storage/backup platforms, Kubernetes/OpenShift, OT‑safe connectivity, observability tooling and security services. Focus is on precision technical delivery, modernisation of legacy infrastructure components, and specialist support for complex hybrid IT/OT environments.
Estimated Lot Value £3m to £7m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- ISO 27001, NCSC Cloud Security Principles, Cyber Essentials Plus
- UK Data Protection legislation including GDPR
- Southern Water’s internal IT governance frameworks
- Industry-standard best practices (e.g., TOGAF, ITIL, DevSecOps and relevant Azure certifications)
Lot #6InfoSec & Cyber Security ServicesRenewalceiling above
SWS seek specialist partners delivering deep cyber expertise, providing targeted services in SecOps, threat intelligence, penetration testing, risk assessments, security architecture, governance & assurance, and OT‑specific NIS compliance activities. Focused on precision technical support—augmenting in‑house teams, improving security posture, and introducing advanced defensive techniques, threat modelling, and security consultancy for complex hybrid IT/OT environments.
Estimated Lot Value £2m to £4m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022
- NIS/CAF Compliance
- ISE/IEC 62443
Lot #7Site Based OTRenewalceiling above
SWS seek specialist partners to modernise and deliver site‑based Operational Technology across Southern Water’s treatment works and network sites. This Lot requires deep expertise in PLC, HMI, SCADA, telemetry, RTUs, Process Control Networks, OT networking, segmentation and NIS‑aligned remediation, as well as hands‑on engineering, installation, commissioning and minor civils. The partner will support the uplift of legacy OT systems to secure, standardised, fully supported platforms - driving improved visibility, governance, resilience, and operational performance across a multi‑site regulated OT estate.
Estimated Lot Value £2m to £4m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- Health & Safety – CDM / ISO / EUSR
- Industrial Standards – IEC 62443 / IEC 61131/ ISA95
- Quality Management
- Electrical Standards – NIC / WIMES
- Compliance with all relevant UK regulation
- Use of industry best practices ICS systems, network and infrastructure security
- SWS MED and standard compliance of solutions
Lot #8Managed ServicesRenewalPublished value£48,000,000
SWS seek specialist partners providing targeted, high‑quality capability augmentation across Project & Programme Management, Agile Delivery, Business Analysis, Solution Architecture and Testing/Quality Assurance. This Lot focuses on supplying skilled practitioners and mature delivery practices to complement Southern Water’s in‑house Digital teams - enhancing capacity, consistency and speed of change across a diverse annual portfolio. Partners bring specialist frameworks, tooling, and domain expertise to uplift delivery maturity, improve outcomes, and strengthen end‑to‑end change capability across all business and technology domains.
Estimated Lot Value £4m to £6m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- Adherence to ISO 27001 and relevant security principles
- Compliance with UK data protection regulations
- Compliance with relevant Southern Water policy and wider legislation
- Use of industry best practices e.g.
o PM: Prince2, MSP etc
o Agile: SAFe, SCRUM, Kanban
o BA: BCS, IIBA
o SA: TOGAF, SABSA, UML
o T&QA: ISO, IEEE
Lot #9IntegrationRenewalPublished value£16,000,000
SWS seek specialist partners to deliver targeted, high‑quality integration services across Southern Water’s digital estate, enhancing and modernising integrations built on WebMethods, SAP PI/PO, API Gateway, MFT and FME. This Lot requires deep technical expertise to design and engineer scalable integrations, reduce technical debt, strengthen API and data security, modernise legacy ESB patterns, and enable cloud‑ready, microservice‑aligned integration approaches - supporting platform teams, improving B2B connectivity and accelerating safe, reliable change.
Estimated Lot Value £1m to £2m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- Adherence to ISO 27001 and NCSC cloud security principles
- Compliance with UK data protection regulations
- Use of industry best practices for end user compute
- ITIL Best practises
Lot #10AutomationRenewalPublished value£16,000,000
SWS seek specialist partners to accelerate automation and AI adoption across Southern Water, delivering high‑quality, scalable automations across Power Platform, RPA tools, Alteryx, Purview‑aligned governance and emerging AI agentic capabilities. This Lot focuses on expert design, build and support of automation solutions, reducing manual effort in systems like Maximo, SAP, ArcGIS and Workday, while helping to mature the Automation & AI CoE through education, enablement, standards, reusable components and responsible AI practices.
Estimated Lot Value £1m to £2m per annum
- Technical & professional ability
- Adherence to ISO 27001 and NCSC cloud security principles
- Compliance with UK data protection regulations (GDPR)
- Use of industry best practices for end user compute
- ITIL and automation best practices
- Use of Microsoft Purview for data classification, lineage tracking, and policy enforcement across automated workflows
- Integration with Power Platform and Azure services to ensure data governance is embedded in automation design
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).
Lots publish different evaluation splits; there is no single procedure weighting.
| Lot | Quality | Price | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Customer & Corporate | 70% | 30% | |
| 2 · Wholesale | 70% | 30% | |
| 3 · Data & Analytics & AI | 70% | 30% | |
| 9 · Integration | 70% | 30% | |
| 10 · Automation | 70% | 30% | |
| 4 · Digital Workspace & Colloboration | 70% | 30% | |
| 5 · Networks, Compute & Cloud Hosting | 70% | 30% | |
| 6 · InfoSec & Cyber Security Services | 70% | 30% | |
| 7 · Site Based OT | 70% | 30% | |
| 8 · Managed Services | 70% | 30% |
- Price carries 30 points on every lot: a 10% discount moves about 3 points.
- “Technology Services Specialist Framework (TSSF)” is a framework: the contest is a place on its panel, not a single contract: call-offs may be direct or by further competition.
Price arithmetic assumes straight proportional scoring; the tender pack may use another formula.
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
- Open framework scheme
- Who may use this agreement
- Not stated in the notice; call-off rights may be limited to the establishing authority
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 16 Jan 2026, 12:33 GMT
- Last source update
- 16 Jan 2026, 12:33 GMT
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end – 11 Jun 2026
- Authority reference
Prj_7033- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-003861- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-060795Find a Tender- Contract terms summary
60 days
- How it runs
There will be a single PQQ that will qualify Tenderers into the ITT stage. Tenderers must indicate in the PQQ all Lots they are bidding on. Suppliers can bid on multiple Lots relevant to their capabilities up to a maximum of 3 Lots.
How it was run
Official notice- Appointment period ends
- 26 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Clarification deadline
- 30 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
The procurement documents are available for unrestricted and full direct access, free of charge, at
southernwater.ukp.app.jaggaer.com
Additional information can be obtained from the above-mentioned address
Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted electronically via
southernwater.bravosolution.co.uk ↗
Tenders or requests to participate must be submitted to the above-mentioned address
If you are interested in bidding for this tender, please be aware that you will need to have registered on the central digital platform before you will be able to bid. This will require you to complete some information and then you will be provided with a unique identifier. For more information on how to register, please follow the below link:
how to register on the CDP
Timeline
16 Jan 2026 → 3 Jul 2026 · 5 dates- Tender notice published278 days ago16 Jan 2026, 12:33 GMT
- Clarification questions by263 days ago30 Jan 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Admission / appointment period ends236 days ago · period end, not a bid countdown26 Feb 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Award decision expected by131 days ago11 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST
- Contract starts110 days ago3 Jul 2026, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Tender notice published16 Jan 2026, 12:33 GMTUK4
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Bidding documents and specificationsAccess: Documents for the ITT Stage will be provided via the Jaggaer Sourcing platform to suppliers who are downselected for this stage.
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender