---
title: "WP2248.1 & WP2248.2: SMS Provider(s) for GOV.UK Notify"
ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-688e05e0-2ffc-47d3-9102-752d3805df22"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-688e05e0-2ffc-47d3-9102-752d3805df22"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-688e05e0-2ffc-47d3-9102-752d3805df22.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-688e05e0-2ffc-47d3-9102-752d3805df22.json"
source: "Contracts Finder"
current_stage: "Tender"
buyer: "GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE"
published: "2024-09-24"
---

# WP2248.1 & WP2248.2: SMS Provider(s) for GOV.UK Notify

Buyer: GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE  
Current stage: Tender  
OCID: ocds-b5fd17-688e05e0-2ffc-47d3-9102-752d3805df22

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## Summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is seeking SMS providers for the GOV.UK Notify platform, which helps public sector teams send notifications to users through various methods, including text messages. The procurement, classified under Telecommunications network and IT services, entails a two-year contract starting from 3rd December 2024 to 2nd December 2026, with potential extensions. The procurement method is a selective, competitive procedure with negotiation, and the tender period closes at 5pm on 25th September 2024. The project involves providing over 3.8 billion SMS fragments annually, covering services across central and local government, as well as the NHS. The response deadline for updated documentation has been extended to 31st September 2024.

This tender presents significant opportunities for businesses experienced in SMS services, especially those with robust infrastructure to ensure redundancy and no single points of failure. SUited for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this tender requires suppliers to maintain high performance and reliability standards, such as high message delivery rates and rapid processing speeds. The competitive nature and potential for long-term partnership make this an excellent prospect for businesses looking to expand their public sector engagement and secure substantial, steady work volumes subject to government policies and service team usage.

## Notice

GOV.UK Notify is a digital communications platform, developed and run by the Government Digital Service (GDS). Notify allows public sector service teams to send notifications (text message, email and post) to their users. The notifications are typically status updates, requests for action, MFA codes, receipts of applications or supporting information, and reminders. The messages are sent via an API or manually through a web interface. Currently there are over 8,700 service teams using GOV.UK Notify, from over 1,500 public sector organisations across central and local government and the NHS. Notify sends an average of 3 million SMS fragments a day, regularly achieving peaks of 7 million. Current forecasting work indicates that Notify will send 3.8 billion SMS fragments during FY 25/26 and 3.9 billion SMS fragments during FY 26/27, as Notify continues to work closely with the NHS, however this figure may vary significantly due to changes in demand. Many Notify services send messages that are longer than one fragment and the average message sent via Notify is 2 fragments long. Notify SMS messages have a high average delivery rate of 95.7%. Notify uses two concurrently integrated SMS suppliers to ensure a resilient service. Typically, traffic is shared between the two based on supplier performance (speed of processing) and load. Ultimately GDS reserves the right to allocate work between suppliers at its absolute discretion and there is no guarantee of volume as it's influenced by both government policy and how the services choose to use Notify. We're looking to procure SMS suppliers for 2 years, with options for contract extension. The unit price for a single SMS fragment will be fixed throughout the duration of the contract, independent of volume. To meet Notify's SMS redundancy requirements the suppliers should utilise independent computing and network infrastructures throughout their respective end-end services, avoiding any single points of failure that could simultaneously impact both providers. Suppliers are asked to provide sufficient information in their responses to enable GDS to evaluate this. In the event the top 'two' scoring suppliers share the same sub-processors, The Contracting Authority reserve the right to either; (a) Withdraw the second contract from this competition and re-tender, or (b) Award the second contract to the next best scoring supplier that uses a different sub-processor. This is to ensure service resilience is maintained through use of different sub-processors to the top scoring tenderer. Prospective tenderers must read the attached documentation and return via email as per instructions, to gds-digital-buyer@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk Additional information: *Updated document. * Criteria 10.04 has been amended to; "Are you signed up to, or agree to follow, the A2P Code of Conduct https://mobileecosystemforum.com/programmes/future-of-messaging/fraud-management/trust-in-enterprise-messaging/ ?" Please either use the updated response sheet provided or amend our working bid document to reflect the change. The deadline for responses has been extended to 5pm on Monday 31 September to accommodate the change(s).

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Contracts Finder |
| Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9afefb6-26b6-4102-b081-e226304b837f |
| Notice type | Tender Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Selective |
| Procurement method details | Competitive procedure with negotiation (above threshold) |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | Not specified |
| All stages | Tender |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 24 Sep 2024 |
| Submission deadline | 30 Sep 2024 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | Not specified |
| Contract period | 3 Dec 2024 - 2 Dec 2026 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | £1 |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Active |
| Lots status | Not specified |
| Awards status | Not specified |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | GOVERNMENT DIGITAL SERVICE |
| Locality | LONDON |
| Post town | East London |
| Postcode | E1 8QS |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLI London |
| ITL 2 | TLI4 Inner London - East |
| ITL 3 | TLI42 Tower Hamlets |
| Local authority | Tower Hamlets |
| Electoral ward | Whitechapel |
| Westminster constituency | Bethnal Green and Stepney |
| Delivery location | Not specified |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 32 - Radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment
- 72 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

### Codes

- 32412100 - Telecommunications network
- 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

## Release History

- 24 Sep 2024 at 15:42 - TenderAmendment - Tender Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9afefb6-26b6-4102-b081-e226304b837f
- 10 Sep 2024 at 17:19 - TenderAmendment - Tender Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9afefb6-26b6-4102-b081-e226304b837f
- 5 Sep 2024 at 16:40 - TenderAmendment - Tender Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9afefb6-26b6-4102-b081-e226304b837f
- 22 Aug 2024 at 18:42 - TenderAmendment - Tender Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9afefb6-26b6-4102-b081-e226304b837f
- 22 Aug 2024 at 18:21 - Tender - Tender Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9afefb6-26b6-4102-b081-e226304b837f

## Documents

- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9afefb6-26b6-4102-b081-e226304b837f
  24th September 2024 - Opportunity notice on Contracts Finder
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/360a4c3c-b371-4eed-ab18-7e87c0d8ee39
  Instructions to Participants (ITP)
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/294a7191-c844-4950-aeef-8f9735a21bb6
  Technical Envelope
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/034dc12f-f54d-4c23-b97b-6a1a74a75042
  Scoring Criteria and Guidance
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/b585c6cc-610f-48af-83d7-c5cd61657b7f
  Commercial Envelope
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/103175ef-1e4c-40ee-86c0-a613d0d43420
  Social Value Envelope
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/4a3f50cd-447d-4d2c-ace6-8634c7435348
  Selection Questionnaire (SQ)
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/64cf25f9-fed0-400f-b050-ec43ad1d7bc8
  Clarification question responses
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/0396bbd7-0e8a-48be-84be-1b7555eabe3d
  Award Form
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/15cb431a-0c06-4af5-9ab6-6f3065455cc2
  Core Terms
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/e940204f-2c39-408f-a418-21f5de83146f
  Service Levels
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/bdce47cd-6668-40dd-98d8-e837398aff5c
  Security Schedule in conjunction with details requirements (ITT) - Draft
- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/Attachment/3451d7e6-dae0-4b53-b343-a209a7746f5b
  *Updated document. * Criteria 10.04 has been amended to; "Are you signed up to, or agree to follow, the A2P Code of Conduct https://mobileecosystemforum.com/programmes/future-of-messaging/fraud-management/trust-in-enterprise-messaging/ ?" Please either use the updated response sheet provided or amend our working bid document to reflect the change. The deadline for responses has been extended to 5pm on Monday 30 September to accommodate the change(s).

## Notice URLs

- https://mobileecosystemforum.com/programmes/future-of-messaging/fraud-management/trust-in-enterprise-messaging/

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-688e05e0-2ffc-47d3-9102-752d3805df22. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-688e05e0-2ffc-47d3-9102-752d3805df22.json.