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Online Digital Catalogue and Archive Management Solutions (ERO Online Digital Catalogue)

Essex County Council

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

14 Sep 2026 at 14:03

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Essex County Council, through Essex Record Office (ERO), is exploring services to replace its in-house archive management system and modernise digital preservation and public access. The proposed service would combine archive, records management and civil registration functions with digital preservation, digital asset management, public catalogue and online archive access, preservation storage or hosting, legacy-system migration, and integration services. It would support on-site and online catalogue viewing, free and subscription-based access to digital collections, user accounts, payments and paywalled content. The solution would also improve search, discovery, customer journeys and public engagement, while supporting income-generating services. Work would be delivered for Essex Record Office in Essex and would cover staff and public-facing services, including access to digital and digitised collections.

This procurement is at the planning and early market engagement stage, not a call for competition. ERO expects to use supplier responses to develop its requirements, procurement approach, solution design and business case. Interested suppliers are asked to complete an early market questionnaire by 5 October 2026 at 5pm; ERO may then hold virtual or in-person discussions, demonstrations and solution workshops. Any future procurement is expected to run from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2032, with a possible renewal extending the maximum period to 31 March 2035. The proposed procedure and commercial model are still being explored, including SaaS, cloud-hosted or hybrid delivery, phased implementation and migration. There is one planned lot, considered suitable for SMEs.

The engagement will suit suppliers able to combine archive management, digital preservation, digital asset management, public access platforms, hosting and migration, or to provide strong integration and API capability. ERO is seeking secure, scalable and standards-compliant services able to preserve varied file formats, including proprietary, sound and moving-image files, for very long retention periods. Relevant solutions should support multiple geographically separated copies in the UK or EU, permissions control, audit trails, preservation metadata such as METS, PREMIS, BagIt or Dublin Core, integrity checks, disaster testing and records of access and preservation actions. Suppliers should also be able to provide intuitive staff and public interfaces, redaction and access controls, protection against unauthorised change or loss, legacy migration, regulatory compliance, and architecture that can accommodate substantial long-term growth.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Online Digital Catalogue and Archive Management Solutions (ERO Online Digital Catalogue)

Notice Description

Description Essex Record Office (ERO) is seeking to engage with the market to understand available solutions and supplier capabilities that can support the modernisation of its archive management, digital preservation and public access services. ERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions. ERO is looking to understand the market's ability to provide solutions that can deliver the following outcomes: * Replacement of the current in-house developed Archive Management System (SEAX), which underpins over 80% of ERO's operations and public-facing services, including income-generating online services. * The archive management system will need to: o facilitate viewing the catalogue on-site at Essex Record Office locations and online o provide free access to digital and digitised collections on-site at Essex Record Office locations o provide online access, outside of ERO locations, to digital and digitised collections via a subscription service o facilitate the creation of user accounts with role dependent security/access levels o provide a paywall to access certain collections o manage the personal data of users of the service, including taking payments from them * Support for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions. * Secure, scalable and standards-compliant digital preservation capabilities to support the long-term preservation, integrity and accessibility of digital records. We require a solution for preserving digital records with retention periods of 100 years or more, as well as potentially shorter retention periods. The solution must be able to deal with a variety of file formats including proprietary software files and a range of sound and moving image files. * Progression towards National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Level 4 digital preservation maturity. Specifically, we require: o For digital records storage: three copies in at least two geographic locations (storage will need to be in the UK or EU) o A means of controlling, auditing, and recording file permissions o A means of recording sufficient metadata about the files using an appropriate metadata standard e.g. METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard), PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies), BagIt (BagIt File Packaging Format) and/or Dublin Core o Periodic integrity checking and disaster simulation, and a means of regularly updating the results of these checks o A means of recording details of people and software that have accessed or taken preservation actions on files. * Improved management and discovery of digital assets through modern digital asset management capabilities. * Enhanced public access, search and discovery through modern online archive and catalogue services. * Improved customer journeys and increased public engagement. * Support for current income generating services and potential for enhanced income generation opportunities. * Integration capabilities with existing and future corporate platforms and digital services. * Modern, intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for both staff and public users. As a minimum, we will need: o The ability to allow members of the public to access suitable digital preservation files o A means of providing redacted access copies of the content where necessary o A means of recording when files have been accessed and by whom o A means of ensuring the content is protected from unauthorised changes and any loss * Scalable architecture capable of supporting current digital holdings of 88.8TB and significant future growth over the coming decades. * Strong governance, audit, compliance and security features to support statutory and regulatory requirements, including the Public Records Act, Freedom of Information legislation and Data Protection requirements. Background Archive Management System It is estimated that over 80% of the work of the ERO is currently managed through an in-house developed tool called SEAX. SEAX was created by Essex County Council as a bespoke system. It was created over 25 years ago in a now archaic programming language. Seax Explorer was written in VB (Visual Basic) and uses forms to create the different screens of its various modules (e.g. Catalogue Manager, Accession Manager, etc.). These forms have been written in a custom language based loosely around XML and are stored within the Seax Explorer database. The online element of the system is known internally as Seax PAM and to the public as Essex Archives Online. This includes our online catalogue and income-generating subscription service and income-generating single-image service. Seax PAM was written using .NET framework and C# and is currently using an old version of .NET framework. We are seeking a modern, sustainable and future-proofed solution for managing our requirements for accessioning, cataloguing, storage locations, document production, reader management and user access (at the ERO and online). The ERO has a staff of around 25 people. Up to 12 users are likely to require login access to the staff side of the AMS, including generic logins for Searchroom staff, document production staff, volunteers, etc. Digital Preservation As of July 2026, the ERO has 88.8TB of digital data. This figure is expected to grow at an estimated rate of 5TB per year. Within the 88.8TB of data, 3.3TB consists of born-digital records; the other 85.5TB being content the ERO has digitised from its manuscript, image, sound and video collections. This data is all currently stored on Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage. Most of the content is listed in basic form on a spreadsheet. Detailed metadata at file level is being added as resources allow. Further documentation about rights is kept in separate filing and on our archive management system (alongside information about our paper and analogue collections). The ERO has a dedicated ingest PC through which we process digital collections as they arrive. We are able to take images of disks using ISO Buster software, transfer files as they are or transfer them to a file format with greater longevity. Transfers can be made using Teracopy software and we can interrogate the files we receive using TNA's Droid software. The main element of NDSA (National Digital Stewardship Alliance) Digital Preservation Level 1 we are not currently achieving is the requirement to have two complete copies of our digital content in separate locations. Our aim is to progress through the NDSA digital preservation levels to meet NDSA Level 4. Areas of Interest ERO is particularly interested in understanding solutions relating to: * Archive Management Systems (AMS) * Digital Preservation Management Systems (DPMS) * Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS) * Preservation storage and hosting solutions * Public catalogue and online archive access platforms * Migration services from legacy archive systems * Integration and API capabilities Contract Considerations At this stage, ERO is seeking supplier feedback on: * Appropriate contract lengths and commercial models * Implementation and migration timelines * SaaS, cloud-hosted and hybrid delivery models * Opportunities for phased delivery across AMS, DPMS, DAMS and public access capabilities * Scalability to support long-term digital preservation requirements. The information gathered through this PME will help shape ERO's future procurement strategy, solution design and business case development.

Planning Information

Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach. Please note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME. Suppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below. https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u Responses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us. Following a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices. Please note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead. Participation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-06f937
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086898-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

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

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems

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

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

92 - Recreational, cultural and sporting services

CPV Codes

48610000 - Database systems

48810000 - Information systems

72317000 - Data storage services

72320000 - Database services

72512000 - Document management services

79995100 - Archiving services

92500000 - Library, archives, museums and other cultural services

Notice Value(s)

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

Notice Dates

Publication Date
14 Sep 2026Yesterday
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
1 Apr 2027 - 1 Apr 2032 Over 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
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
Postcode Area
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
TLH3 Essex
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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