Official UK procurement notice
HCC - 10/25 - Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) for the Hybrid Mail Procurement Project
Authority: Hertfordshire County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionHertfordshire County Council (HCC) is a large user of postal services. It uses printed communications and physical letters to communicate with residents / individuals / businesses within the county and produced approximately 545,000 mail items in 2024/25 necessitating the need for a flexible and forward-thinking approach with the HCC postal system.
The current Hybrid Mail system used by HCC enables the electronic submission of documents for remote printing, enveloping, and posting. In the current year approximately 50% of our outbound mail has been sent via our Hybrid Mail system. The current system was adopted in 2020 and is widely utilised across HCC Services and teams, supporting essential communications such as general mailings, invoices, legal notices, and reminders, and aligns with GDPR and legal compliance standards. The current contract has reached the end of its initial 5-year term, and we have extended the maintenance contract.
Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) seeks to procure a modern, flexible, and scalable Hybrid Mail solution to support its evolving communication needs. The system must enable secure, efficient, and compliant electronic submission of documents for remote printing, enveloping, and posting.
Please refer to the PME document for full details.
The Council is carrying out PME in relation to this project. The Council will consider the feedback received to help inform the Council’s options, requirements and further decision making.
For the avoidance of doubt, this stage of the project is not part of a formal procurement process and the Council is not committing, at this stage, to carrying out such a process.
Participation or non-participation in the PME shall not prevent any supplier participating in a potential future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied as part of the PME shall place any supplier at an advantage in a potential procurement process.
Please make sure that you have submitted your Supplier Questionnaire following the instructions within the PME documentation and e-tendering system. The Council will not be held accountable for any errors made by an organisation in submitting their Supplier Questionnaire.
Please note: The below contract start and end dates may be subject to change
CPV: Electronic mail service provider · Electronic mail services · Electronic mail software package · Mailing services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedProcedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Past planning notice
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- 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
- 22 Oct 2025, 13:58 BST
- Last source update
- 22 Oct 2025, 14:22 BST
- Authority reference
HCC - 10/25 - HM- FTS notice number
2025/S 000-067512- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-05d1a3Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
22 Oct 2025 → 1 Mar 2026 · 3 dates- Planning notice published371 days ago22 Oct 2025, 13:58 BST
- Market engagement343 days ago19 Nov 2025, 23:59 GMT
To access the PME documentation please visit the Council's e-tendering system Supply Hertfordshire, run by Intend at in-tendhost.co.uk/supplyhertfordshire ↗ and follow the on-screen guidance.
To participate in this PME, organisations must return their completed Supplier Questionnaire (Appendix A of the PME Document), together with any supporting documents, through the Correspondence area of the project on Supply Hertfordshire by the return deadline of 12.00 Noon on 19 November 2025, as per the PME documentation and e-tendering system.
Supplier Questionnaires received after the deadline may not be reviewed at the Council's sole discretion.
Please make sure that you have submitted your Supplier Questionnaire following the instructions within the PME documentation and e-tendering system.
The Council will not be held accountable for any errors made by an organisation in submitting their Supplier Questionnaire.
If you are experiencing problems with the Supply Hertfordshire website, In-Tend offer a help section which includes a dedicated UK support desk which can be contacted via email: support@in-tend.co.uk or Telephone: +44 1144070065 for any website/technical questions, Monday to Friday, 8:30-17:00. Participation in the PME will be at each organisation's own cost. No expense in responding to this PME will be reimbursed by the Council.
- Contract starts242 days ago1 Mar 2026
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 22 Oct 2025- Preliminary market engagement notice published22 Oct 2025, 13:58 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published22 Oct 2025, 14:22 BSTUK2
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