Planning

Ask AI about this notice

Summarise, research or assess it with AI

View Markdown

Share this notice

Send this contract to a colleague

Chelmsford College Website tender

Chelmsford College

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Planning

22 Sep 2026 at 11:50

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

Chelmsford College intends to procure services to design and build a new website for its further education provision. The site will support learner recruitment and serve prospective 16 to 19 learners, parents and carers, adult learners, employers, apprenticeship partners, current students, staff, job seekers and the wider community. The scope includes a mobile-first, accessible website with course search and filtering, application conversion improvements, and content management for college staff. The website has 202 pages, including static content, course information, job adverts and newsletters, and must connect with the college’s internal databases and intranet. The supplier will build the site and hand it over to the college’s dedicated team for day-to-day management. Delivery is for Chelmsford College across its Chelmsford campuses. The service is classified as website design services (CPV 72413000).

This procurement is at planning stage and is currently intended to begin with preliminary market engagement rather than an invitation to tender. Chelmsford College expects to publish the next notice on 23 October 2026, with market engagement responses requested by 16 October 2026. The buyer expects the future contract to run from 1 January to 31 December 2027. The estimated value is being explored through market engagement, and suppliers are asked to provide views on likely project cost and delivery timescales. The consultation also seeks views on building the website in ASP.NET, using Umbraco, internal or external hosting, payment portals and integration with the college’s existing Classic ASP system as it moves towards ASP.NET. The process is marked for SME suitability and is associated with a dynamic purchasing system.

This will suit web design and development companies able to deliver an education-sector website from discovery and technical design through build, integration, testing and handover. Relevant preparation includes ASP.NET development, Umbraco implementation, database and intranet integration, and experience connecting newer platforms with existing Classic ASP systems. Suppliers should be able to advise on suitable payment portal options and the implications of internal or external hosting. The buyer is looking for a mobile-first and fully accessible service, effective course search and filtering, stronger conversion from course pages to applications, and straightforward content publishing by non-technical college staff. Strong information security and data protection capability will be important because the application journey collects personal data. The project is suited to SMEs with the capacity to replace an established, content-rich college website and support a managed handover.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

Chelmsford College Website tender

Notice Description

Chelmsford College is a Further Education college offering a variety of courses, both vocational and professional courses, with c.3500 student and c400 staff members across two main campuses, providing courses to 16-19 learners, apprentices and adult day and evening courses. The College website serves a wide array of people in the community from students & parents to local businesses and so the winning design should reflect that the website needs to appeal and be accessible to multiple stakeholder groups. The website's primary purpose is learner recruitment. Its priority audiences are prospective 16 to 19 learners and their parents and carers, adult learners, and employers and apprenticeship partners. It also serves current students, staff and job seekers. The college's objectives for the new website are to increase applicant conversion from course page to submitted application, to deliver a mobile-first and fully accessible experience, to provide search and filtering across the full course offer, to allow marketing to publish and update content directly, and to meet the college's information security and data protection requirements, including for the personal data collected through the application process. Bidders are encouraged to propose approaches that meet these objectives. Our current website was built 15 years ago and with only minor cosmetic changes since then. We have 202 pages in total 72 static pages and 130 dynamic pages that contain job adverts, course information and newsletters. All of the content on the website is taken from our internal databases and intranet so any company tendering will need to be able to interface with those tables. The college has a dedicated team that can handle the daily maintenance and updating of the new website but does not have the time the develop a new website inhouse which is why this project is going out to tender. We are looking for a company that will be able to build the website and then pass it off to the college to manage the day-to-day activities. You can read more about Chelmsford College on their website: https://www.chelmsford.ac.uk/

Planning Information

We are looking to have our website written in ASP. net, however we understand this in not a popular language to use for websites. We are looking to gauge the level of interest as well as answer a couple of questions before we finalise our documents and go out to tender. We know that Umbraco is the biggest platform for websites written in ASP.net and so want to know a bit more about the system our questions are as follows: If the website is created using Umbraco are we able to host internally or will any site need to be hosted externally? we are looking to add a payment portal but have no fixed idea on what that would be what are the most commonly used ones for you? Our current internal system is Classic ASP, this is being updated to ASp.net do you forsee any issues connecting to our current setup? The value of this tender has been left blank could you advise us what you believe the costing for this project would be? What would be your projected timeline for this project as we want to avoid going live around September when we are busiest? if you are able to answer these questions please drop me an email at MilesC@Chelmsford.ac.uk and i can arrange a chat if necessary

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-077751
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/089546-2026
Current Stage
Planning
All Stages
Planning

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Procurement Type
Dynamic
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

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

CPV Codes

72413000 - World wide web (www) site design services

Notice Value(s)

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

Notice Dates

Publication Date
22 Sep 20262 weeks ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
23 Oct 20263 weeks to go
Award Date
Not specified
Contract Period
1 Jan 2027 - 31 Dec 2027 6-12 months
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
Chelmsford College
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
CM2 0JQ
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
TLH East (England)
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

JSON Markdown

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.

Loading OCDS record...