Provision for Education Technology Managed Services

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