Planning

Merchant Services Card Acquisition

ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

08 Nov 2024 at 14:59

Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Essex County Council is conducting a pre-market engagement in preparation for procuring a Merchant Services Solution, focusing on acquiring card services that can handle various payment types. The contract falls under the banking services industry category and is located in the East of England, specifically Chelmsford. The procurement process is currently in the planning stage, with an engagement end date set for 22nd November 2024. This process aims to identify suppliers capable of providing comprehensive solutions, including the capacity to handle electronic payments, supply a variety of hardware terminals, and integrate with the council's finance systems.

This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses specialising in merchant services, particularly those offering innovative and versatile payment processing solutions. Companies that provide secure and diverse hardware solutions, possess compatibility with finance systems like Access Suite/Group/PaySuite, and can deliver high transaction volumes are well-suited to compete. The engagement is valuable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as voluntary, community, and social enterprises (VCSEs), offering a platform for such entities to contribute to and grow within the public sector market by supplying back-end merchant card acquiring services to Essex County Council.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

Merchant Services Card Acquisition

Notice Description

Pre-market Engagement for the Provision of a Merchant Service for Essex County Council Essex County Council (ECC) is at an early stage in procuring a Merchant Service Solution, and prior to formulating any formal procurement opportunity, seeks input from the market. The council is looking for the intended solution to provide the following: a. Provide back-end Merchant Card Acquiring Services to take all ECC card and wallet type, including but not limited to ApplePay, AndroidPay and SamsungPay or take card payments as part of the day-to-day services provided by ECC. These include but are not limited to all electronic payments, ECC Registration Services, ACL, Blue Badge, Libraries, County Parks and Outdoor Centres and many more. b. needs to be able to supply a variety of hardware solutions including: Fixed terminals, Mobile terminals, Bluetooth terminals, Contactless terminals, Unattended terminals, P2PE terminals, Virtual terminals. c. Need to have accreditation with our Finance System provider Access Suite/ Access Group/ PaySuite as part of the interface. d. Provide any current and upcoming innovations on a quarterly/ annual basis. e. Potential and/or known demand/volumes for requirement, e.g. Six training courses for 10 attendees or volume of goods. Currently, we have 40+ merchant IDs. 29 MIDs are used for terminals supplied by current Merchant Acquirer and rest of them are used for terminals supplied by Access Group and average volume of transaction per annum is c480,000. f. Anticipated interfaces within ECC systems, specifically software/hardware which may need to work on ECC's infrastructure. We will require an interface for reporting purposes. This would be required via HTTPS API, SFTP and secured email with the option for access via Single Sign on access. Answers to questions submitted should be no more than 500 words per question and should be submitted your response via MS Form no later than 5:00 p.m. on 22/11/2024.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-b5fd17-c5ecc90a-fb80-4a6a-9144-d14fba6f6977
Publication Source
Contracts Finder
Latest Notice
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/cdb1f0b8-3f03-44c0-96d2-823fe78e0682
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Not specified
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
SME, VCSE
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

66 - Financial and insurance services

CPV Codes

66110000 - Banking services

66121000 - Mergers and acquisition services

66122000 - Corporate finance and venture capital services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
8 Nov 20241 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
22 Nov 2024Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Planning
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Not Specified
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
CHELMSFORD
Postcode
CM1 1QH
Post Town
Chelmsford
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLH East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLH3 Essex
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLH36 Heart of Essex
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
Chelmsford
Electoral Ward
Moulsham and Central
Westminster Constituency
Chelmsford

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

View full OCDS Record for this contracting process

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The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) is a framework designed to increase transparency and access to public procurement data in the public sector. It is widely used by governments and organisations worldwide to report on procurement processes and contracts. 

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