Software Contracts and Tenders

Buying or renewing a software product counts: a SaaS subscription, a software licence, a G-Cloud Cloud Software call-off, or a bespoke build like a case management or asset management system. Support desks, network contracts and general cloud hosting are a different category and have their own page, IT Contracts and Tenders.

Councils, NHS trusts, central government departments, universities, colleges and housing associations all run software tenders. Finance, HR and payroll systems and case management platforms come up often, and a growing share is bought as a SaaS subscription rather than a one-off licence.

A SaaS contract buys access to software the supplier hosts and runs, usually as an ongoing subscription with updates and support built in. A software licence more often buys the right to install and run software the buyer hosts itself, sometimes as a one-off cost with support and maintenance billed separately. Both routes now sit side by side on the same G-Cloud framework.

Software tenders are published on Find a Tender and Contracts Finder, and through G-Cloud, where the Cloud Software lot is the main route for SaaS products.

Software notices carry 48000000 (Software package and information systems), 72260000 (Software-related services) and 72268000 (Software supply services).

G-Cloud, the Crown Commercial Service framework for cloud services, is a common route. Its Cloud Software lot covers software as a service and licensed packages, and buyers use it for case management, payroll and HR, finance, document and compliance, project management and e-sourcing systems.

Councils, NHS trusts, colleges, fire and rescue authorities and central government bodies such as the Ministry of Defence and the National Audit Office call off from it, either by direct award or through a further competition between the listed suppliers.