--- title: "Online Digital Catalogue and Archive Management Solutions (ERO Online Digital Catalogue)" ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-06f937" canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-06f937" markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06f937.md" json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06f937.json" source: "Find A Tender Service" current_stage: "Planning" buyer: "Essex County Council" published: "2026-09-14" --- # Online Digital Catalogue and Archive Management Solutions (ERO Online Digital Catalogue) Buyer: Essex County Council Current stage: Planning OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-06f937 [View canonical contract page](https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-06f937) [Download OCDS JSON](https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06f937.json) ## Summary 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. ## Notice 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. ## Key Details | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication source | Find A Tender Service | | Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086898-2026 | | 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 | | All stages | Planning | ## Dates | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Publication date | 14 Sep 2026 | | Submission deadline | Not specified | | Future notice date | Not specified | | Award date | Not specified | | Contract period | 1 Apr 2027 - 1 Apr 2032 | | Recurrence | Not specified | ## Values | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender value | Not specified | | Lots value | Not specified | | Awards value | Not specified | | Contracts value | Not specified | ## Status | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Tender status | Planning | | Lots status | Planning | | Awards status | Not specified | | Contracts status | Not specified | ## Buyer | Field | Value | | --- | --- | | Main buyer | Essex County Council | | Locality | CHELMSFORD | | Postcode area | Chelmsford | | Postcode | CM1 1QH | | Country | England | | ITL 1 | TLH East (England) | | ITL 2 | TLH3 Essex | | ITL 3 | TLH36 Heart of Essex | | Local authority | Chelmsford | | Electoral ward | Moulsham and Central | | Westminster constituency | Chelmsford | | Delivery location | TLH3 Essex | ## CPV Codes ### 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 ### 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 ## Release History - 14 Sep 2026 at 14:03 - Planning - UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086898-2026 ## Documents - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086898-2026 14th September 2026 - Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender ## Notice URLs - https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u - https://www.essex.gov.uk/ - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/54/contents ## 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-h6vhtk-06f937. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-06f937.json.