Planning

002562 - Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) for an Electoral Management System (EMS)

DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL

This public procurement record has 2 releases in its history.

PlanningUpdate

12 Aug 2025 at 08:58

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Planning

08 Aug 2025 at 08:09

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Durham County Council is in the planning stage of a procurement process for an Electoral Management System (EMS), tagged as contract ID 047867-2025. This initiative is aimed at overhauling their electoral management infrastructure by moving to a cloud-based solution. The procurement focuses on the category of industry-specific software and seeks to address the council’s need to replace their current on-premises system to manage electoral registration and election processes efficiently across six parliamentary constituencies. A key date for interested suppliers is the extended deadline for written responses to the preliminary market engagement, now set to 5th September 2025, with system demonstrations anticipated in September 2025 in Durham, UK.

This tender opens up substantial business growth opportunities for companies specialising in cloud-based electoral management systems that comply with legislation like GDPR. Providers that can supply flexible, secure, and user-friendly software enabling efficient communication with electors, support staff recruitment, and management, and offer agile working practices will find this contract particularly suitable. The council's push towards reducing security risks associated with on-premises systems underlines an opportunity for innovative tech firms to leverage their cloud expertise, particularly for sub-central government public authority contracts.

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Notice Information

Notice Title

002562 - Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) for an Electoral Management System (EMS)

Notice Description

The Electoral Services team are currently using an on-premises system that has been in place for fourteen years. The system has been used to maintain electoral registration and election management for six parliamentary constituencies with a total electorate of 396,000. Electoral Services is looking for a system that will allow them to effectively manage all aspects of electoral administration to ensure that the integrity of the process is always met and deliver an efficient year-round service to electors, with functionality to easily communicate with them. In addition to meeting the requirements of running elections, it should enable effective recruitment of election staff as well as providing them with a self-service portal. Our Customer Services team also provide support to the Electoral Services team, so the ability for them to view areas of the system, with limited access to create/edit elector details. This should be intuitive and easy to use. The ideal system will meet current and new changes to legislation, enable the team in successfully and resourcefully managing elections and registration, support canvassing processes. The Council is moving away from on-prem solutions and will be gradually reducing its on-prem server provision. This contract will need to be delivered via the cloud that reduces the security risks of an on-premises system. Scope The Council requires a fully compliant Electoral Management System (EMS) that meets current legislative requirements and will quickly and easily meet any legislative changes as they occur in the future. The software needs to be able to fully support: * the management of the elections process and electoral registration * canvassing processes and mobile working for canvassers * management of elections staffing with a portal to enable self-service and the ability to effectively manage payments and recruitment. * management of election accounts with efficient transaction processes, for the recording of payments for goods and services. * appropriate administrative control to enable the team to manage staffing changes including passwords. * Customer Services to have a view of the EMS to enable them to support general enquires - the viewable information controlled by Electoral Services * any Council IT security requirements * compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) * reporting, immediate and scheduled - can include built-in templates but should provide the option to change or configure customisable reports and allow simple outputting of screens to Word/Excel * accessibility - access must be secure, meet best practice guidelines and facilitate agile working practices.

Planning Information

Written questionnaire available to access free of charge at open-uk.org Deadline for completed written responses is 12 noon on Friday 5th September 2025. Providers who complete a written response questionnaire, and provide satisfactory responses, will be invited to demonstrate their system via Microsoft Teams, based on the scenarios and questions outlined in section 5 of the PME questionnaire. We anticipate system demonstrations to take place in September 2025 and will last 2 hours per provider. *Please note the 1 week extension and new deadline for this PME opportunity.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0583dd
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/047867-2025
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Not Specified
Procurement Method Details
Not specified
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Not specified

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

CPV Codes

48100000 - Industry specific software package

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£300,000 £100K-£500K
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
12 Aug 20256 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
5 Sep 2025Expired
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
31 Mar 2026 - 31 Mar 2030 4-5 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

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

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL
Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
zoe.embleton@durham.gov.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
DURHAM
Postcode
DH1 5WB
Post Town
Durham
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLC North East (England)
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLC4 Northumberland, Durham and Tyne & Wear
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLC41 Durham
Delivery Location
TLC14 Durham
Local Authority
County Durham
Electoral Ward
Framwellgate and Newton Hall
Westminster Constituency
City of Durham

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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