Scope
Reference
EDIS-25-008
Description
***This is not a tender exercise*** The Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) would like to invite participation in a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to seek the views of the market for the future provision of education technology services (referred to in this PME as the "Education Technology Managed Services") currently included in the EN(ni) contract for all Schools in Northern Ireland including but not limited to infrastructure managed services, supplier and service integration, cyber security operations and management, user experience and schools catalogue services. The purpose of this PME exercise is for EANI to gain a better understanding of the supplier market and the feasibility of its requirements for these services, the most appropriate contracting strategy, procurement strategy and operational approach, the capacity of the market to deliver the requirements. The exercise will also provide an opportunity for the market to highlight any possible risks or issues that may not have previously been considered.
This PME exercise will inform EANI's decision as to whether the Education Technology Managed Services should be procured as a single contract or procured as separate contracts (for example an infrastructure managed services contract plus one or more contracts for cyber security operations and management, user experience, schools catalogue services and supplier and service integration if they are not incorporated in the infrastructure managed services contract). If the Education Technology Managed Services are procured as separate contracts, this PME exercise would act as the PME exercise for the Infrastructure Managed Services contract and EA may, and reserves the right to (or not), conduct separate additional PME exercises in respect of the Supplier and Service Integration Provider, Cyber Security Operations and Management Service, User Experience and Schools Catalogue contracts if and to the extent that these services are not incorporated in the Infrastructure Managed Services contract.
For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of any formal procurement process and there is no commitment at this stage to carry out such a process. Any information gathered will not be considered in any future tender exercise. Please note that participation or non-participation in this PME exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any future procurement process, nor is it intended that any information provided shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any future procurement exercise. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from the documents section of the CfT on eTendersNI. Suppliers who wish to participate in the PME exercise must return the completed questionnaire via the messaging function of the CfT on eTendersNI no later than 30th January 2026.
Please note that the estimated maximum values detailed in this notice are based on an estimated 8 year contract period and the total values comprise (as indicative values):
Infrastructure Managed Services: circa £120m to £130m
Cyber Security: circa £10m
UX Provider: circa £5m to £10m
Schools Catalogue: circa £20m to £30m
Supplier & Service Integration: circa £10m
Total value (estimated)
- £190,000,000 excluding VAT
- £228,000,000 including VAT
Below the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 1 March 2027 to 28 February 2035
- 8 years
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support
- 72200000 - Software programming and consultancy services
- 48200000 - Networking, Internet and intranet software package
- 48600000 - Database and operating software package
Engagement
Engagement deadline
30 January 2026
Engagement process description
Suppliers who wish to participate in the PME exercise must return the completed questionnaire via the messaging function of the CfT on eTendersNI no later than 3pm on Friday 30th January 2026. EA reserves the right to seek additional clarification information in relation to any responses provided by suppliers as part of this exercise. Such clarifications would be limited to those questionnaire responses that require clarification. In addition, EA may invite all suppliers who have expressed an interest in the infrastructure managed services contract (i.e. in response to Question 2.1), to attend an individual PME meeting. The focus of such meetings will be to further clarify (where necessary) each supplier's responses to the PME Questionnaire where such responses relate to the procurement strategy for the infrastructure managed services contract (as this would be the first procurement to follow the PME exercise if the Education Technology Managed Services were to be procured as separate contracts). Such meetings shall take place via MS Teams and are expected to take place between 2nd and 27th February 2026. Suppliers should note that EA is required by the Procurement Act 2023 to keep a record of the information it has shared and received as part of the preliminary market engagement, including information shared and received in such meetings. Accordingly, EA is required to keep a record of the meeting discussions and may be required to share details of such meetings with all suppliers at the commencement of any tender process. EA may be required by the Act to share such information on a non-attributable basis and in such circumstances would exclude any confidential information or commercially sensitive information of the supplier to the extent permitted by the Act.
For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of a formal procurement process.
Contracting authority
Education Authority
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PPHJ-6982-JPXY
40 Academy Street
Belfast
BT1 2NQ
United Kingdom
Email: edis.procurement@eani.org.uk
Region: UKN06 - Belfast
Organisation type: Public authority - central government
Devolved regulations that apply: Northern Ireland