Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 8 May 2026, 13:20 BST

Official UK procurement notice

UK2 PME - Computer Aided Design Software

Authority: SEVERN TRENT WATER LIMITED (Public body)

GoodsAbove thresholdUtilities
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 5 yrsends 30 Oct 2032 · starts 1 Nov 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

Digital Design and Authoring Software

This PME is intended to understand market capability across digital design and authoring disciplines. Severn Trent does not assume that all disciplines or use cases must be served by a single product suite or vendor. Modular, mixed tool, and discipline specific solutions are explicitly in scope where they integrate effectively with the wider digital delivery environment.

Suppliers are not required to demonstrate full coverage across all capability areas listed below. Responses should clearly indicate which capabilities are supported, for which disciplines, and under what operating assumptions.

The organisation requires digital design and authoring software to support 2D drafting, civil engineering, building information modelling, and multidisciplinary coordination. The following high level capabilities describe the range of functions required across these disciplines:

  • Advanced 2D drafting including dynamic blocks, reusable components, x‑refs, annotation, layers, plot styles, batch publishing, and standards compliance, with dependable behaviour across full, browser‑based, and lite desktop variants
  • Civil engineering design capability, including terrain and surface modelling, survey data import, alignments, corridors, pipe networks, long sections, cross‑sections, swept path analysis, and automated plan/profile/section production with full associativity
  • Robust interoperability, supporting LandXML, IFC, DWG, GIS, survey formats, and reliable bi‑directional data exchange with other civil, building, and asset platforms
  • Model‑based authoring and coordination, including parameter‑driven components, multi‑user collaboration (native or integration-led), clash detection, design validation, and standards‑based classification (e.g. Uniclass)
  • Intelligent MEP and specialist design tools, where relevant, supporting system connectivity, metadata‑driven scheduling, diagrams, and discipline‑specific documentation
  • Automation and extensibility, including scripting, visual programming, custom toolsets, and configurable ribbons to enforce organisational standards and improve productivity
  • Integrated documentation production, with automated annotations, schedules, sheets, title blocks, and associative drawings that remain aligned with live model data
  • Point cloud and reality‑capture support, enabling registration, visualisation, interrogation, feature extraction, and modelling from large scan datasets
  • AI‑assisted capabilities, including feature extraction, automated checking, drafting assistance, and rule‑based model validation. AI assisted capabilities are not expected to be uniformly available across all disciplines and should be described in terms of current, production ready functionality rather than roadmap commitments.
  • Reliable CDE (Common Data Environment) integration, ensuring controlled publishing, metadata preservation, versioning, approvals, and traceable workflows across design and documentation outputs. Integration should support operation with an independent, vendor neutral CDE acting as the system of record for information management. Design and authoring tools should be capable of operating effectively without assuming ownership of information management, workflow control, or data persistence outside the CDE.
  • Visualisation and simulation, including high‑quality rendering and time‑based construction sequencing where required

CPV: Miscellaneous software package and computer systems · Software package utilities · Software-related services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published

How SEVERN TRENT WATER LIMITED buys Software-related services (CPV 7226), and who usually turns up

SEVERN TRENT 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: Software-related services (CPV 7226) →

1

How the contest usually goes

Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.

Question for the bid
This buyerSEVERN TRENT WATER LIMITED · 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: 4 of 7 known-size awards · market: no supplier sizes published
57%—

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.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 2 of 2 known-location awards · market: no winner locations published
2 of 2—

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered in the delivery region.

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: 3 decided notices · market: no decision dates published
60 days—

Half of these awards were announced within 60 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.

The buyer’s share is a minimum: 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 4 of 10 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: no bid counts or routes published
40%—

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 buyer6 lots with bid counts · all categories
17% had one bid
The marketNo bid counts published
Buyer · select a colour for counts
1 bid17%
Buyer: 1 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
2–30%
Buyer: 0 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
4–650%
Buyer: 3 of 6 lots with published bid counts.
7+33%
Buyer: 2 of 6 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 buyer4 lots with estimate and award · all categories · too few to chart
The marketNo estimate-and-award pairs published
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 722660 monthsEstimate 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 73 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet27% single-bid risk
Past bids on 73 similar lots
1 bid27%
20 of 73 similar past lots received 1 bid (27%).
2–330%
22 of 73 similar past lots received 2–3 (30%).
4–621%
15 of 73 similar past lots received 4–6 (21%).
7+22%
16 of 73 similar past lots received 7+ (22%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 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.

SupplierThis buyer’s earlier contractLotAward valueWhy listed
Transcend Software, Inc.Earlier contractAutomated Design Softwarestarted Jul 2026—£510kMatched 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.

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
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
8 May 2026, 13:20 BST
Last source update
8 May 2026, 13:20 BST
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-042502
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Miscellaneous software package and computer systemsSoftware package utilitiesSoftware-related services
Delivery area
North East (UKC)North West (UKD)Yorkshire & Humber (UKE)East Midlands (UKF)West Midlands (UKG)East of England (UKH)London (UKI)South East (UKJ)
+1 moreSouth West (UKK)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0694a9 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

8 May 2026 → 1 Nov 2027 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published165 days ago
    8 May 2026, 13:20 BST
  2. Market engagement134 days ago
    8 Jun 2026, 23:59 BST

    Submissions of interest can be made via SAP Business Network (you can search for, and navigate to the website directly). Once on the SAP website, search for ID - 1110012545, Sourcing ID - Doc3112491201, or "Computer Aided Design Software".

    The direct link is:

    portal.us.bn.cloud.ariba.com/dashboard/public/app… ↗

    You will be able to upload your document explaining how your solutions maps to the specific requirements set out in this PME.

    Digital Design and Authoring Software

    This PME is intended to understand market capability across digital design and authoring disciplines. Severn Trent does not assume that all disciplines or use cases must be served by a single product suite or vendor. Modular, mixed tool, and discipline specific solutions are explicitly in scope where they integrate effectively with the wider digital delivery environment.

    Suppliers are not required to demonstrate full coverage across all capability areas listed below. Responses should clearly indicate which capabilities are supported, for which disciplines, and under what operating assumptions.

    The organisation requires digital design and authoring software to support 2D drafting, civil engineering, building information modelling, and multidisciplinary coordination. The following high level capabilities describe the range of functions required across these disciplines:

    • Advanced 2D drafting including dynamic blocks, reusable components, x‑refs, annotation, layers, plot styles, batch publishing, and standards compliance, with dependable behaviour across full, browser‑based, and lite desktop variants
    • Civil engineering design capability, including terrain and surface modelling, survey data import, alignments, corridors, pipe networks, long sections, cross‑sections, swept path analysis, and automated plan/profile/section production with full associativity
    • Robust interoperability, supporting LandXML, IFC, DWG, GIS, survey formats, and reliable bi‑directional data exchange with other civil, building, and asset platforms
    • Model‑based authoring and coordination, including parameter‑driven components, multi‑user collaboration (native or integration-led), clash detection, design validation, and standards‑based classification (e.g. Uniclass)
    • Intelligent MEP and specialist design tools, where relevant, supporting system connectivity, metadata‑driven scheduling, diagrams, and discipline‑specific documentation
    • Automation and extensibility, including scripting, visual programming, custom toolsets, and configurable ribbons to enforce organisational standards and improve productivity
    • Integrated documentation production, with automated annotations, schedules, sheets, title blocks, and associative drawings that remain aligned with live model data
    • Point cloud and reality‑capture support, enabling registration, visualisation, interrogation, feature extraction, and modelling from large scan datasets
    • AI‑assisted capabilities, including feature extraction, automated checking, drafting assistance, and rule‑based model validation. AI assisted capabilities are not expected to be uniformly available across all disciplines and should be described in terms of current, production ready functionality rather than roadmap commitments.
    • Reliable CDE (Common Data Environment) integration, ensuring controlled publishing, metadata preservation, versioning, approvals, and traceable workflows across design and documentation outputs. Integration should support operation with an independent, vendor neutral CDE acting as the system of record for information management. Design and authoring tools should be capable of operating effectively without assuming ownership of information management, workflow control, or data persistence outside the CDE.
    • Visualisation and simulation, including high‑quality rendering and time‑based construction sequencing where required
  3. Today
    20 Oct 2026
  4. Contract startsin 376 days
    1 Nov 2027

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    8 May 2026, 13:20 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

SEVERN TRENT WATER LIMITED

Contracting authorityPrivate utility GB-COH: 02366686 · GB-PPON: PQQN-5222-QDXR Severn Trent Centre, Coventry, West Midlands, CV1 2LZContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure