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Back Office Application Support and Modernisation

Post Office Limited

This public procurement record has 4 releases in its history.

ContractAmendment

13 Aug 2026 at 09:46

UK10 - Contract Change Notice
Award

30 Apr 2026 at 15:28

UK7 - Contract Details Notice
Award

18 Feb 2026 at 09:21

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Award

17 Feb 2026 at 09:57

UK5 - Transparency Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Post Office Limited procured managed back-office IT services covering the end-to-end hosting, operation and maintenance of its core applications and platforms, excluding the Horizon system and services. The scope includes finance and enterprise resource planning, human resources, master and reference data, management information and reporting, integration services and process automation. The supplier is responsible for secure, resilient and high-performing operation of primarily cloud-based applications, data, integrations and platforms, including production support, legacy maintenance, monitoring, incident resolution, change and release activity, and business continuity. The work also covers platform optimisation, automation, application modernisation, migration and decommissioning as the Post Office’s technology environment changes. Delivery is across the United Kingdom.

The procurement is complete and was awarded to Accenture (UK) Limited on 18 February 2026; the contract was signed on 1 April 2026. It runs from 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2029. The awarded value is £45,000,000 excluding VAT, or £54,000,000 including VAT. This was a direct award under the Procurement Act 2023, using the single-supplier justifications for exclusive intellectual property rights and technical reasons. The Post Office stated that Accenture’s proprietary tooling, security operations, bespoke support wrap and embedded operational know-how were essential to continuity, with no safe alternative supplier during the transition period. The award covers one lot and was evaluated through the direct-award route rather than a competitive tender.

This award indicates demand for large-scale managed IT operations supporting business-critical corporate systems in a complex, tightly integrated environment. A credible future competitor would need proven capability in cloud infrastructure and platforms, application support, enterprise resource planning, human resources systems, data management, reporting, integration and process automation. It would also need mature operational monitoring, alerting, patching, incident response, security, identity, networking, logging, release management and business continuity capabilities. Experience maintaining legacy services while modernising, migrating or decommissioning applications would be important, as would the capacity to manage dependencies involving Horizon, internal systems and third-party systems. The buyer’s performance focus includes rapid response to severe incidents, application availability and completion of critical security patches.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Back Office Application Support and Modernisation

Notice Description

The Back Office IT services contract covers the end-to-end hosting, operation and maintenance of Post Office Limited (POL) core applications and platforms (excluding the Horizon System and Services). This includes business-critical systems supporting finance and ERP, human resources, master and reference data, management information and reporting, integration services, and process automation. These workloads are primarily delivered from the cloud and include a mix of applications, data, integration, and platform services that collectively underpin POL's day-to-day operations. The service encompasses responsibility for the secure, resilient, and performant operation of the estate throughout the contract term. This includes the ongoing support of live production services, maintenance of legacy systems where required, operational monitoring, incident resolution, change and release activity, and business continuity arrangements. The service is designed to allow the Post Office to consume these capabilities as a managed outcome, without the need to directly operate or support the underlying applications or infrastructure. Alongside steady-state operations, the service includes working in partnership with Post Office to support continuous improvement and technology evolution. This includes platform optimisation, automation, and prepare and conduct application modernisation, migration or decommissioning as POL's business and technology landscape evolves, while ensuring services remain secure, compliant, and fit for purpose.

Procurement Information

Post Office Ltd intends to directly award this contract under Section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023, relying on Schedule 5 (Direct award justifications) paragraphs 5 and 6 "Single suppliers" grounds because: 1. Only Accenture holds the necessary intellectual property rights for certain proprietary tooling, security operations and bespoke services support wrap that are essential to the safe operation of the current Services . Only Accenture can provide these elements of the Services during the term of the directly awarded contract; and 2. Accenture is the only supplier capable of delivering the Services during the period of the directly awarded contract. No other supplier has the requisite know-how and technical understanding of the bespoke system to support the existing Services during the term of the directly awarded contract. The tooling and support services are deeply embedded into the current operational model, including monitoring, alerting, automation, patching workflows, incident response etc. These services and tools are not currently documented, modularised or abstracted in a way that would allow straightforward transfer to an alternative supplier. Transitioning away from these services and tools would require parallel design, implementation, validation and handover activity, which is non-trivial and could not be safely achieved during the term of the directly awarded contract. Only Accenture could do this work while safely continuing to provide the Services to enable another supplier to take over the system. The direct award is both necessary and proportionate, and limited to the period required for Post Office Ltd to prepare and conduct a competitive procurement for future service transformation. POL requires a supplier to provide the Services while conducting preparatory transformation design work. The Services include a complex mix of infrastructure as a service and platform as a service, components, integrations with Horizon (Post Office's electronic point of sale (EPOS) system) and numerous third party and internal systems, and tightly coupled identity, networking, security, logging, and monitoring dependencies embedded within Accenture's proprietary service wrap. There are no reasonable alternatives to the Services because no alternative provider could technically assume responsibility for the service wrap at this time without substantial redevelopment and high-risk of operational disruption. Initiating a change of provider during a period of significant business and operational change would therefore pose a substantive risk to service continuity and the stable delivery of core functions. The Services are critical to the ongoing operation of POL's business. POL cannot accept any gap in the continuity of the Services. Since only Accenture is capable of providing the Services during the period of the directly awarded contract, there is no reasonable alternative to the direct award.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-0655a0
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/077054-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK10 - Contract Change Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Direct
Procurement Method Details
Direct award
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
Large

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

CPV Codes

72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
£45,000,000 £10M-£100M
Contracts Value
£45,000,000 £10M-£100M

Notice Dates

Publication Date
13 Aug 20262 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
17 Feb 20266 months ago
Contract Period
1 Apr 2026 - 30 Jun 2029 3-4 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
Post Office Limited
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
LONDON
Postcode
EC2V 7ER
Postcode Area
Central London
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLI London
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLI3 Inner London - West
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLI35 Westminster and City of London
Delivery Location
Not specified
Local Authority
City of London
Electoral Ward
Bassishaw
Westminster Constituency
Cities of London and Westminster

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

ACCENTURE (UK) LIMITED

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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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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