Official UK procurement notice
GWR Time and Attendance System
Authority: FIRST GREATER WESTERN LIMITED (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionThis procurement process is being advertised and run by First Greater Western limited on its own behalf and on behalf of the successor operator of the rail passenger transport services in respect of Great Western Railway (GWR). That successor operator will be a public sector company, is expected to be a wholly owned subsidiary of DfT OLR Holdings Limited and will be ultimately owned by the Secretary of State for Transport. The date for transfer of the current operations to the successor operator is not yet confirmed. Where the transfer is completed before contract award under this procurement process, the successor operator may elect (but will not be obliged) to carry on with this procurement process in place of GWR, by taking on the role of contracting entity from the date of completion of the transfer (with this notice and all other procurement documents to be interpreted accordingly). Where the transfer is not yet completed by the time of contract award, contractual rights may be included in the contractual arrangements to enable transfer to the successor operator. Bidders should note that this procurement process (if ongoing), or any awarded contract, may be included in a transfer scheme made by the Secretary of State under section 12 of the Railways Act 2005, or the transfer may be effected outside of, or separate from, such a scheme.
If transfer takes place before the contract award the successor operator shall assume all the rights of the Client set out in this document. All references to the Client shall be deemed to refer to the successor operator for the purposes of this procurement and the successor operator shall be entitled to continue or terminate this procurement as if it was involved.
This Preliminary Market Engagement will help GWR understand capability in the market and lead to GWR procuring and implementing a new integrated Time & Attendance (T&A) solution that meets GWR's operational, HR, safety, payroll, and organisational requirements.
The overall objective of the procurement is to provide GWR a modern, integrated T&A capability with standardised processes, clear governance, seamless system integration, and improved workforce reporting and analytics.
GWR currently operates 3 different Time and Attendance systems in different business areas.
Proposed system Capabilities must include:
o Rostering & scheduling
o Time capture (mobile, geofencing, clock-in/out)
o Leave & absence management
o Fatigue management & compliance
o Workflow automation (approvals)
CPV: Industry specific software package
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedLot #1PlannedRenewal
Pipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How FIRST GREATER WESTERN LIMITED buys Industry specific software package (CPV 4810), and who usually turns up
FIRST GREATER WESTERN LIMITED’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: Industry specific software package (CPV 4810) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
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.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
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.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners were registered outside the region where that award was delivered.
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.
Half of these awards have an award date within 105 days of the bid deadline.
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.
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.
1 bid17%
2–335%
4–635%
7+13%
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.
Below estimate50% / 75%
Within ±2%29% / 17%
Above estimate21% / 8%
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.
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 4810Published estimate£2.5m
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 23 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid17%
2–335%
4–635%
7+13%
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.
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.
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.
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
- 17 Sept 2026, 08:47 BST
- Last source update
- 17 Sept 2026, 15:09 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-088310- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0773f6Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
17 Sept 2026 → 1 Nov 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published40 days ago17 Sept 2026, 08:47 BST
- Market engagement23 days ago3 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST
GWR want to hear from Suppliers who have capability to provide an enterprise wide Time and Attendance System.
GWR will host a Supplier briefing session with interested parties on the w/c 12th October 2026. This session will be held virtually on Microsoft teams. Exact time/date/length of the session will be confirmed to suppliers in due course.
Registration Link below:
- Today27 Oct 2026
- Tender notice expectedin 95 days30 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 369 days1 Nov 2027
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 17 Sept 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Sept 2026, 08:47 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published17 Sept 2026, 15:09 BSTUK2
Published amendments (1)
Updated registration link https://s2c-uk62.waxdigital.com/FirstGroupPlc/DisplayModules/TradeModules/Negotiations/Opportunities/ViewOpportunityEvent.aspx?EventID=5374&Culture=en-GB
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
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender