Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 29 Oct 2026, 14:40 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

Digital Procurement Tooling Solution - RFI

Authority: Financial Conduct Authority

ServicesAbove thresholdSME suitable
Planned pipeline valueValue not publishedpipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected Date not publishedfrom the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 10 Apr 2031 · starts 10 Apr 2028

What is being bought

Published requirement description

The FCA is undertaking this Request for Information (RFI) as part of our Digital Procurement Tooling Solutions project. The project is considering the next iteration of the FCA’s eSourcing platform(s) and wider digital procurement capability.

The RFI commences 02/11/2026 at 9:00am.

CPV: IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · IT software development services · Procurement software package

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How Financial Conduct Authority buys Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221), and who usually turns up

Financial Conduct Authority’s published record next to the market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are left out: they draw different bid counts. Whole-market view: Programming services of packaged software products (CPV 7221) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerFinancial Conduct Authority · 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: 30 of 99 known-size awards · market: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=375
30%39%

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.

Local means the winner is registered in the region where that award was delivered.

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 27 of 36 known-location awards · market: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=230
75%36%

Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered in the region where that award was delivered.

How long to a decision?
i

How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.

Middle value in days from the bid deadline to the award date, on competitions that published both.

Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 7 decided notices · market: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=61
71 days49 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 71 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.

Both shares are minimums: 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 95 of 146 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7221 · UK-wide, n=579
65%65%

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 buyer16 lots with bid counts · all categories
19% had one bid
The market81 lots with bid counts · CPV 7221 · UK-wide
4% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid19% / 4%
Buyer: 3 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 3 of 81 lots with published bid counts.
2–338% / 33%
Buyer: 6 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 27 of 81 lots with published bid counts.
4–613% / 33%
Buyer: 2 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 27 of 81 lots with published bid counts.
7+31% / 30%
Buyer: 5 of 16 lots with published bid counts. Market: 24 of 81 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 buyer9 lots with estimate and award · all categories
33% below estimate
The market57 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7221 · UK-wide
47% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate33% / 47%
Buyer: 3 of 9 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 27 of 57 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%22% / 33%
Buyer: 2 of 9 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 19 of 57 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate44% / 19%
Buyer: 4 of 9 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 11 of 57 lots with an estimate and award.
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 722136 monthsSME suitableEstimate 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 81 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet4% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 81 similar lots
1 bid4%
3 of 81 similar past lots received 1 bid (4%).
2–333%
27 of 81 similar past lots received 2–3 (33%).
4–633%
27 of 81 similar past lots received 4–6 (33%).
7+30%
24 of 81 similar past lots received 7+ (30%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 5 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.

No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.

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
Services
Notice status
Planned procurement
Procurement threshold
Above threshold (FTS publication)
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Competitive procedure
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
29 Oct 2026, 14:40 GMT
Last source update
29 Oct 2026, 14:42 GMT
Authority reference
C4691
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-102708
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportIT software development servicesProcurement software package
Delivery area
Yorkshire & Humber (UKE42)London (UKI)Scotland (UKM75)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0793b2 Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

29 Oct 2026 → 10 Apr 2028 · 3 dates
  1. Planning notice published1h ago
    29 Oct 2026, 14:40 GMT
  2. Today
    29 Oct 2026
  3. Market engagementin 32 days
    30 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT

    This RFI is being used to support preliminary market engagement and to inform the FCA’s sourcing strategy and investment case. In particular, the FCA wishes to:

    • understand the breadth, depth and maturity of current digital procurement solutions;
    • assess whether end-to-end capability is available through a single product, a modular suite, an ecosystem or a combination of products and services;
    • understand how solutions support compliant, transparent and auditable procurement under relevant UK public procurement legislation;
    • explore practical and emerging AI capabilities, including controls, explainability, human oversight, data protection and auditability;
    • understand implementation approaches, integration requirements, operating models, indicative timescales and commercial models;
    • identify where capability is generally available, configurable, partner-delivered, dependent on custom development or on a supplier roadmap; and
    • identify market developments that the FCA should consider over the next 1-2 years and 3-5 years.

    This RFI will not be used to down-select suppliers, evaluate bids or award a contract. Participation, or non-participation, will not advantage or disadvantage an organisation in any future procurement. The FCA does not guarantee that a procurement exercise will follow this market engagement.

    The accompanying Atamis opportunity sets out high-level functional and non-functional requirements. A high-level requirement may contain more than one sub-feature.

    The opportunity distinguishes:

    • Core functionality - capabilities expected to be central to the FCA’s future operating model and assessed as the primary basis of the response.
    • Edge case functionality - less frequent, specialist or developing capabilities which remain relevant but may have a different maturity or delivery approach.

    You can register to the Atamis Supplier Portal to engage with this RFI by using the following link: atamis-fca.my.site.com/s/Welcome ↗

    If you are already registered, you can access the Supplier Portal using this link:

    atamis-fca.my.site.com/login ↗

  4. Contract starts
    10 Apr 2028, 00:00 BST

Notice history

2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 29 Oct 2026
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    29 Oct 2026, 14:40 GMT
    UK2
  2. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    29 Oct 2026, 14:42 GMT
    UK2
Published amendments (1)

Update Notice Name

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

FCA

Contracting authorityPublic authority - sub-central government GB-PPON: PTYH-4442-XPRH 12 Endeavour Square, London, London, E20 1JNContact name, email

Official documents & specifications (2)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure