Procurement for Education Technology Managed Services

The Education Authority (EA) has a requirement to procure a Supplier to provide Education Technology Managed Services (ETMS). The EA is responsible for ensuring that efficient and effective primary and secondary education services are available to meet the needs of children and young people and support the provision of efficient and effective youth services.

As part of this, EA manages an educational technology service for over 1,100 schools, 350,000 pupils, 22,000 teachers and 40,000 non-teaching staff. The ETMS will replace and transform the technical infrastructure and services for schools known as the Education Network for Northern Ireland (ENNI), providing digital services to schools to support teaching and learning.

End users of the ETMS are from primary, post primary, special schools, Education Other than at School (EOTAS) centres and nursery schools (staff only) who all require access to secure and efficient technology infrastructure to support their teaching and learning needs. This includes Controlled Schools, Controlled Integrated Schools, Catholic Maintained Schools, Irish Medium Schools, Grant Maintained Integrated Schools, Controlled and Voluntary Grammar Schools and users from approved education and external stakeholder organisations as further described in the ETMS Technical Specification – PSQ Stage.

The EA is procuring the ETMS as a single integrated ETMS Contract, comprising: • Infrastructure and Network Services (including Integration Services); • Identity Services; • Security Operations Centre Services; • User Experience Services; and • Service Management and Service Desk, including Schools Catalogue. The procurement is being conducted using the Competitive Flexible Procedure, as further described in this notice and in the procurement documents.

The procurement strategy has been informed by preliminary market engagement, which commenced with EA publishing a UK2: Preliminary market engagement notice on 18th December 2025 in Find a Tender Service (FTS) (Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-084518/ Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-05f966. (Provision for Education Technology Managed Services - Find a Tender) Further details are provided in the procurement documents.

The ETMS Contract will be for an initial term that commences on the Effective Date (as defined in the Contract) and ends on 31st March 2035, which is seven years from the planned transition completion date of 31st March 2028. The Contract will also include up to seven extension periods of one year each which may be awarded individually or as multiple years at the EA’s sole discretion (resulting in a latest contract expiry date of 31st March 2042).

The value of the ETMS Contract over its maximum term (i.e. initial term plus extensions) is currently estimated to be circa £851m including allowances for changes / modifications, indexation (i.e. inflation) and VAT in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023. This comprises circa £246m for core services paid for by EA over the initial term of the contract (including contingency/OB, inflation and VAT), and a further circa £605m for contract extensions, schools catalogue and potential Optional Services or Additional Services (including contingency/OB, inflation and VAT).

Accordingly, contract performance conditions and award criteria will relate, in particular, to social value. Further details are provided below and in the procurement documents.

Suppliers should note that this Competition has commenced whilst the business case process is ongoing. The EA is currently working with the Department of Education to secure business case approval prior to the commencement of the Tender Stage. Progression of the Competition to the Tender Stage and Award Stage will be subject to the necessary approvals being in place.