Find a TenderPlanned procurementPreliminary market engagement notice
Published 21 Sept 2026, 15:52 BST

Official UK procurement notice

Legal Case Management System

Authority: the Education Authority (Central government)

ServicesBelow thresholdSME suitable
Sectors: IT Services & Software (72)Business Services & Consultancy (79) Delivery: Delivery location not published
Planned pipeline value£125,000pipeline notice, not a live tender
Tender notice expected 23 Nov 2026from the planned procurement notice
Contract term 3 yrsends 31 Jul 2030 · up to 31 Jul 2032 with extensions · starts 1 Aug 2027

What is being bought

Published requirement description

To provide legal staff with access to a specialised software platform designed to help law firms and legal departments manage their cases, clients, and operations more efficiently. It is the digital backbone of a modern legal practice.

Its core functions include:

  • Matter Management: Organises all case-related information—documents, deadlines, contacts, and communications in one place.
  • Client Relationship Management (CRM): Tracks client details, interactions, and billing history.
  • Document Automation: Generates legal forms and templates quickly, often with built-in compliance checks.
  • Time & Billing: Records billable hours, creates invoices, and integrates with accounting systems.
  • Task & Workflow Automation: Assigns tasks, sets reminders, and automates routine processes to reduce admin time.
  • Calendaring & Scheduling: Manages court dates, appointments, and deadlines with alerts and shared calendars.
  • Compliance & Security: Ensures data protection and regulatory compliance, including GDPR and AML requirements.

CPV: Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security · Computer-related management services · Computer-related services · IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support · Legal services · Software programming and consultancy services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published

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

How the Education Authority buys Legal services (CPV 7910), and who usually turns up

the Education 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: Legal services (CPV 7910) →

1

How the contest usually goes

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

Question for the bid
This buyerthe Education Authority · division 79
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: 1 of 6 known-size awards · market: CPV 7910 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=6
17%83%

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. The market figure counts awards delivered in Northern Ireland (authority’s region).

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

Last 36 months.

Buyer: 5 of 6 known-location awards · market: CPV 7910 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=6
83%83%

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: no decision dates published · market: CPV 7910 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region), n=5
—54 days

Half of these awards have an award date within 54 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 1 of 6 procurements with awards had no recorded rival · market: CPV 7910 · UK-wide, n=342
17%57%

Missing bid counts may hide more single-bid awards. This share is a minimum.

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 buyer76 lots with bid counts · all categories
17% had one bid
The market10 lots with bid counts · CPV 7910 · Northern Ireland (authority’s region)
10% had one bid
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
1 bid17% / 10%
Buyer: 13 of 76 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 10 lots with published bid counts.
2–318% / 60%
Buyer: 14 of 76 lots with published bid counts. Market: 6 of 10 lots with published bid counts.
4–622% / 20%
Buyer: 17 of 76 lots with published bid counts. Market: 2 of 10 lots with published bid counts.
7+42% / 10%
Buyer: 32 of 76 lots with published bid counts. Market: 1 of 10 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 buyer58 lots with estimate and award · all categories
36% below estimate
The market35 lots with estimate and award · CPV 7910 · UK-wide
20% below estimate
Buyer / market · select a colour for counts
Below estimate36% / 20%
Buyer: 21 of 58 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 7 of 35 lots with an estimate and award.
Within ±2%52% / 57%
Buyer: 30 of 58 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 20 of 35 lots with an estimate and award.
Above estimate12% / 23%
Buyer: 7 of 58 lots with an estimate and award. Market: 8 of 35 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 725136 monthsSME suitablePublished estimate£125k

This lot is listed as CPV 7251. The table above uses the notice category.

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 55 past lots.

A forecast, not a list of bidders.

—No model forecast yet27% chance of a single bid
Past bids on 55 similar lots
1 bid27%
15 of 55 similar past lots received 1 bid (27%).
2–338%
21 of 55 similar past lots received 2–3 (38%).
4–622%
12 of 55 similar past lots received 4–6 (22%).
7+13%
7 of 55 similar past lots received 7+ (13%).
Comparable past lots usually drew 3 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.

—No model forecast yet
No comparable awards on record for this lot’s category yet. The published estimate is £125k, and the forecast stays empty until the market has a record to read.

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
Below threshold
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
21 Sept 2026, 15:52 BST
Last source update
21 Sept 2026, 15:52 BST
Authority reference
ICT-26-004
FTS notice number
2026/S 000-089296
Latest notice
Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
Classification (CPV)
Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and securityComputer-related management servicesComputer-related servicesIT services: consulting, software development, Internet and supportLegal servicesSoftware programming and consultancy services
Delivery area
Not published
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0776bf Find a Tender

How it was run

Official notice
Submission deadline
—

Timeline

21 Sept 2026 → 1 Aug 2027 · 4 dates
  1. Planning notice published35 days ago
    21 Sept 2026, 15:52 BST
  2. Market engagement13 days ago
    13 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST

    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 15:00 on

    Tuesday 13th October 2026

  3. Today
    27 Oct 2026
  4. Tender notice expectedin 27 days
    23 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
  5. Contract startsin 277 days
    1 Aug 2027, 00:00 BST

Notice history

1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender
  1. Preliminary market engagement notice published
    21 Sept 2026, 15:52 BST
    UK2

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

Education Authority

Contracting authorityPublic authority - central governmentNorthern Irish devolved regulations apply GB-PPON: PPHJ-6982-JPXY 40 Academy Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT1 2NQContact email

Official documents & specifications (1)

Official links; attachments are not copied

Notices published for this procedure