Official UK procurement notice
Provision of a White Label Jobs Board Solution for WMjobs.co.uk (W198)
Authority: West Midlands Employers (Public body)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionWest Midlands Employers is undertaking preliminary market engagement in relation to the potential procurement of a white-label jobs board platform to support the continued operation and future development of WMJobs.
WMJobs is an established public sector job board operated by West Midlands Employers (WME). The service supports local authorities, education providers, emergency services, charities and other public sector and not-for-profit organisations across the West Midlands and beyond.
To assist suppliers in understanding the scale of the service, WMJobs currently supports approximately 3,600 recruiting organisations, publishes around 21,000 job advertisements annually, attracts over 334,000 monthly unique visitors, and has more than 632,000 registered job seeker accounts. These figures are indicative only and are provided to support supplier understanding during this Preliminary Market Engagement exercise.
WME is seeking early market input to help refine its requirements and understand available delivery models.
The purpose of this engagement is to gather information regarding:
- Supplier Capability and relevant experience
- Potential delivery Approaches and Market readiness
- Future development considerations
The engagement is intended to support market understanding only and does not constitute a call for competition, invitation to tender, or commitment by WME to proceed with any procurement. Participation in this engagement will not give any supplier an advantage in any future procurement, and non-participation will not prevent a supplier from bidding should a procurement be launched. WME will manage the engagement in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023.
Interested Organisations are invited to complete the accompanying supplier questionnaire.
CPV: Database and operating software package · Industry specific software package · Networking, Internet and intranet software package · Software package and information systems · Software supply services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How West Midlands Employers buys Industry specific software package (CPV 4810), and who usually turns up
West Midlands Employers has little published record in this market. 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.
No small-firm winners recorded among this authority’s published awards in this sample.
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 West Midlands.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
No winner locations published for this authority. Local means a registered address in 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 42 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.
The market share is a minimum: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Awards are recorded, but published direct routes and bid counts do not establish this buyer’s share.
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 estimate75%
Within ±2%17%
Above estimate8%
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 7226Estimate not published
This lot is listed as CPV 7226. The table above uses the notice category.
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 82 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid7%
2–327%
4–629%
7+37%
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
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- 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
- 23 Sept 2026, 15:47 BST
- Last source update
- 30 Sept 2026, 10:34 BST
- Authority reference
W198- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-092211- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0778e6Find a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
23 Sept 2026 → 1 Jul 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published35 days ago23 Sept 2026, 15:47 BST
- Latest notice published29 days ago30 Sept 2026, 10:34 BST
- Market engagement23 days ago5 Oct 2026, 23:59 BST
The PME opens on Wednesday 23rd September 2026 and suppliers will have until 17:00 on Monday 05 October 2026 to respond. The PME questionnaire can be accessed here:
forms.cloud.microsoft/e/ysdzhWm7u5 ↗
Suppliers may raise clarification questions by emailing yannick@icosa.uk All clarification questions must be received by 12h00PM Friday 2nd October 2026.
All information provided by suppliers will be used to inform WME’s procurement preparation. Where relevant, information gathered through PME may be reflected in future procurement documents, shared with the market on an equal basis, or used to refine the proposed specification, Conditions of Participation, award criteria, timetable or contract approach.
- Today29 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 244 days1 Jul 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
2 events · 2 releases on Find a Tender · since 23 Sept 2026- Preliminary market engagement notice published23 Sept 2026, 15:47 BSTUK2
- Preliminary market engagement notice published30 Sept 2026, 10:34 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