How open is your market?
Pick what you sell. We’ll tell you how often UK public buyers go back to a supplier they already use — measured from published awards, not estimated.
In Digital Services & Web, a UK public buyer returns to a supplier they already use about 1 in 9 times. That is one of the more open markets we measure — 1st most open of 11.
Based on 247 repeat award events — occasions when a buyer awarded in this category having awarded in it before. Measured on the rfp.quest category, not the buyer’s CPV code.
88.3% of repeat awards in Digital Services & Web go to someone new. That is your door.
See who holds it, and what’s open →Every category we can measure
Or just describe what you sell
In your own words — we’ll read it with the same rules we used to classify every tender, show you what we made of it, and answer from there.
Why the same names keep appearing
Resellers and licensing partners — Softcat, Phoenix Software, Insight Direct and others — appear near the top of categories they build nothing in. That is not a classification error: a great deal of UK public software is bought througha reseller on a framework, so the award is recorded against the reseller even when the product is someone else’s. Read them as the buying route, not the competition — the delivery facet is what separates them from the builders.
How this is measured
Every UK public software and IT tender published between July 2023 and July 2026 — 32,940 of them — classified by published rules over the buyer’s own CPV code, title and description. Every label can show the rule that produced it. Retention is counted on canonical supplier identity, so Accenture and Accenture Limited count once.
What we can’t tell you
We resolve supplier identity from published award data using legal-suffix rules and a seeded alias list. We have not verified group structure, joint ventures or delivery partners against Companies House, so a group's true share may be understated. Buyer names are merged where the slug agrees — we cannot tell whether “Hackney Limited” is a council trading arm or an unrelated company, and we do not guess. Our award history begins in June 2015; 0.9% of dated awards predate it, so a “first win” is the first we can observe. Figures are shown with their method and the underlying awards are always one click away.
And 39.6% of public IT tenders don’t say enough for anyone, us included, to tell what is being bought.
Categories not shown above. A category needs at least 60 repeat award events before we will quote a percentage — below that a single contract swings it by double digits. 5 of 18 fall short today and are excluded rather than shown unreliably: IT Hardware & Devices (30), IT Strategy & Consultancy (22), GIS & Spatial Data (20), Carbon & Sustainability Advisory (6), Building Retrofit & Decarbonisation (1).
The UK public IT market, mapped
Two views of the same market: how hard each one is to break into, and what is actually being bought in it.
How open is each market
Share of repeat awards going to a supplier the buyer had already used. Longer bar = harder to break into.
The two most closed rows are delivery models, not products — how a thing is bought predicts retention at least as strongly as what it is.
What is bought, and how
Tender counts by product against delivery model. Darker = more tenders; the hatched column is where the buyer never said how it would be delivered.
| Product | Cloud & Hosting | IT Managed Services & Support | IT Specialist Resource | Software Licensing & Reselling | Not stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Applications | 602 | 71 | 13 | 388 | 1,453 |
| Digital Services & Web | 170 | 28 | 24 | 93 | 456 |
| Cyber Security | 81 | 22 | 7 | 73 | 246 |
| Data Platforms & Analytics | 107 | 9 | 4 | 68 | 189 |
| AI & Machine Learning | 60 | 12 | 3 | 28 | 208 |
| Networks & Connectivity | 50 | 18 | · | 55 | 164 |
| IT Hardware & Devices | 33 | 10 | 1 | 44 | 71 |
| IT Strategy & Consultancy | 33 | 12 | 1 | 24 | 67 |
| Bespoke Software Development | 15 | 3 | 5 | 13 | 59 |
| GIS & Spatial Data | 13 | · | 1 | 12 | 38 |
| Carbon & Sustainability Advisory | 23 | 1 | · | 10 | 10 |
| EV & Fleet Transition | · | · | · | · | 7 |
| Building Retrofit & Decarbonisation | · | · | · | 2 | 4 |
| Energy Efficiency Works | 1 | · | · | · | 5 |
| Heat & Renewables | 1 | · | · | · | 2 |
| Energy Supply & Procurement | · | · | · | · | 2 |
The hatched column is the finding. On most rows it is the largest cell. A seller whose model is managed service or SaaS often cannot tell from the notice whether they are even eligible — that is a measurable defect in how this market is advertised, and it is hatched rather than shaded so it never reads as a low number.
View as a table
| Product | Delivery | Tenders |
|---|---|---|
| AI & Machine Learning | Not stated | 208 |
| AI & Machine Learning | Cloud & Hosting | 60 |
| AI & Machine Learning | Software Licensing & Reselling | 28 |
| AI & Machine Learning | IT Managed Services & Support | 12 |
| AI & Machine Learning | IT Specialist Resource | 3 |
| Bespoke Software Development | Not stated | 59 |
| Bespoke Software Development | Cloud & Hosting | 15 |
| Bespoke Software Development | Software Licensing & Reselling | 13 |
| Bespoke Software Development | IT Specialist Resource | 5 |
| Bespoke Software Development | IT Managed Services & Support | 3 |
| Building Retrofit & Decarbonisation | Not stated | 4 |
| Building Retrofit & Decarbonisation | Software Licensing & Reselling | 2 |
| Business Applications | Not stated | 1,453 |
| Business Applications | Cloud & Hosting | 602 |
| Business Applications | Software Licensing & Reselling | 388 |
| Business Applications | IT Managed Services & Support | 71 |
| Business Applications | IT Specialist Resource | 13 |
| Carbon & Sustainability Advisory | Cloud & Hosting | 23 |
| Carbon & Sustainability Advisory | Not stated | 10 |
| Carbon & Sustainability Advisory | Software Licensing & Reselling | 10 |
| Carbon & Sustainability Advisory | IT Managed Services & Support | 1 |
| Cyber Security | Not stated | 246 |
| Cyber Security | Cloud & Hosting | 81 |
| Cyber Security | Software Licensing & Reselling | 73 |
| Cyber Security | IT Managed Services & Support | 22 |
| Cyber Security | IT Specialist Resource | 7 |
| Data Platforms & Analytics | Not stated | 189 |
| Data Platforms & Analytics | Cloud & Hosting | 107 |
| Data Platforms & Analytics | Software Licensing & Reselling | 68 |
| Data Platforms & Analytics | IT Managed Services & Support | 9 |
| Data Platforms & Analytics | IT Specialist Resource | 4 |
| Digital Services & Web | Not stated | 456 |
| Digital Services & Web | Cloud & Hosting | 170 |
| Digital Services & Web | Software Licensing & Reselling | 93 |
| Digital Services & Web | IT Managed Services & Support | 28 |
| Digital Services & Web | IT Specialist Resource | 24 |
| EV & Fleet Transition | Not stated | 7 |
| Energy Efficiency Works | Not stated | 5 |
| Energy Efficiency Works | Cloud & Hosting | 1 |
| Energy Supply & Procurement | Not stated | 2 |
| GIS & Spatial Data | Not stated | 38 |
| GIS & Spatial Data | Cloud & Hosting | 13 |
| GIS & Spatial Data | Software Licensing & Reselling | 12 |
| GIS & Spatial Data | IT Specialist Resource | 1 |
| Heat & Renewables | Not stated | 2 |
| Heat & Renewables | Cloud & Hosting | 1 |
| IT Hardware & Devices | Not stated | 71 |
| IT Hardware & Devices | Software Licensing & Reselling | 44 |
| IT Hardware & Devices | Cloud & Hosting | 33 |
| IT Hardware & Devices | IT Managed Services & Support | 10 |
| IT Hardware & Devices | IT Specialist Resource | 1 |
| IT Strategy & Consultancy | Not stated | 67 |
| IT Strategy & Consultancy | Cloud & Hosting | 33 |
| IT Strategy & Consultancy | Software Licensing & Reselling | 24 |
| IT Strategy & Consultancy | IT Managed Services & Support | 12 |
| IT Strategy & Consultancy | IT Specialist Resource | 1 |
| Networks & Connectivity | Not stated | 164 |
| Networks & Connectivity | Software Licensing & Reselling | 55 |
| Networks & Connectivity | Cloud & Hosting | 50 |
| Networks & Connectivity | IT Managed Services & Support | 18 |
Who’s winning UK public-sector contracts
The suppliers winning the most public-sector work and the buyers awarding it — built from official UK award notices. Drag to orbit the network; hover a node for detail.
Re-win rates across every market
The categories above cover software and IT services. Across the whole market these are the rates by the buyer’s own CPV code — a different axis from the rfp.quest categories above, over a different population, so the two are not directly comparable.
| CPV division | Someone already used | Previous winner | Repeat events |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPV 45 · Construction | 43.5% | 10.0% | 25,605 |
| CPV 79 · Business Services | 28.8% | 5.9% | 24,033 |
| CPV 72 · IT Services | 34.1% | 4.9% | 19,000 |
| CPV 48 · Software & IT Systems | 30.6% | 5.5% | 17,139 |
| CPV 71 · Engineering & Architecture | 34.2% | 7.8% | 15,070 |
| CPV 85 · Health & Social Care | 21.0% | 3.9% | 10,779 |
| CPV 73 · Research & Development | 39.1% | 7.7% | 9,070 |
| CPV 80 · Education & Training | 24.9% | 4.3% | 8,933 |
| CPV 34 · Transport Equipment | 30.9% | 10.7% | 7,051 |
| CPV 50 · Repair & Maintenance | 26.1% | 7.1% | 6,662 |
| CPV 60 · Transport Services | 65.4% | 20.6% | 5,991 |
| CPV 30 · Office & Computing Equipment | 37.3% | 15.2% | 4,697 |
Both measures shown together, always — either alone misleads. Counted on canonical supplier identity from incumbency_v2.
New — the forward calendar:tenders that don’t exist yet, projected from 29,000+ published re-tender cycles.
See what’s expected in the next 90 days →The response-window league
How much time buyers give suppliers to respond, measured from publication to deadline across every live-competition notice. If you sell to the buyers at the top, have your boilerplate ready — windows here are short.
| Buyer | Median window | Under 2 weeks | Tenders measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post Office Limited | 28 days | 22% | 175 |
| British Council | 27 days | 15% | 308 |
| Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (NMD) | 24 days | 13% | 159 |
| Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 25 days | 10% | 105 |
| NHS England | 30 days | 8% | 174 |
| London Luton Airport Operations Limited | 33 days | 8% | 140 |
| Leeds City Council | 28 days | 7% | 109 |
| Ministry of Defence | 31 days | 7% | 509 |
Buyers with 100+ measured live-competition notices · a short window is a fact about timing, not about intent.
The two buying seasons
Public-sector money and public-sector volume peak at different times of year. The big cheques cluster before the 31 March fiscal year-end (Feb is the value peak); the busiest months for sheer tender count come later (Jul).
Value published, by month
Tenders published, by month
Live-competition notices over complete calendar years · values use the £100m-per-tender display cap.
Top suppliers by contract value
| Supplier | Wins | Buyers | Total value |
|---|---|---|---|
| A list of successful suppliers can be found in the attachments a | 57 | 2 | £239.8bn |
| Royal Bank of Scotland plc | 5 | 5 | £102.0bn |
| List of Successful Suppliers Available Under Attachments | 1 | 1 | £72.0bn |
| Place Group Ltd | 4 | 3 | £70.0bn |
| Mitie Property Services (UK) Ltd,Spetisbury Construction Ltd.,Hampshire Partitioning Contracts Ltd,Corrigenda Limited,Spetisbury Construction Ltd.,D R Jones Yeovil Ltd,Westmade Ltd,Southern Fire Doors Ltd,Spetisbury Construction Ltd,Spetisbury Construction Ltd.,Westmade Ltd,Westmade Ltd,Mountjoy Ltd,Randell & Co Builders Ltd,Countrywide Grounds Maintenance Limited,Spetisbury Construction Ltd.,Corrigenda Limited,Hampshire Partitioning Contracts Ltd,Spetisbury Construction Ltd.,Clearview Surveys Limited,European Asbestos Services,D R Jones Yeovil Ltd,CLC Contractors Limited,Metro Rod Ltd,Hampshire Partitioning Contracts Ltd,KC Carpets and Flooring Ltd,G&L Consultancy Ltd,D&B Mechanical Ltd,NPS Contracts Ltd,Spetisbury Construction Ltd. | 1 | 1 | £67.0bn |
| Clugston Services Ltd,Hi-spec Facilities Support Company PLC,Laker BMS Ltd,SSG Support Services Group Ltd,Norse Commercial Services,J Tomlinson Ltd,Dodd Group (Midlands) Limited,Bouygues E&S FM UK Limited,Bellrock Property and Facilities Management Ltd,FES FM Ltd,ENGIE Regeneration Ltd,Eric Wright FM Limited,Mears Facilities Management (a trading division of Mears Limited | 1 | 1 | £60.0bn |
| Robertson Capital Projects Limited,Aecom Limited | 1 | 1 | £50.0bn |
| Willmott Dixon Construction Limited,GRAHAM,Kier Construction Limited,Laing O'Rourke,Bovis Construction (Europe) Limited,SACYR UK LIMITED,Morgan Sindall Construction and Infrastructure Ltd,Skanska Construction UK Limited,DRAGADOS SOCIEDAD ANONIMA,Integrated Health Projects (IHP) | 1 | 1 | £37.0bn |
| Please refer to the Attachments Section | 1 | 1 | £30.0bn |
| This contract was awarded to 34 suppliers | 1 | 1 | £30.0bn |
| PAGABO LIMITED | 2 | 2 | £20.0bn |
| not applicable | 17 | 16 | £19.6bn |
| Alexander Mann Solutions Limited | 155 | 54 | £18.4bn |
| SEE Services,Drayton Beaumont Services FM Ltd,Greenlight Engineering Limited,BSN Group Construction,BSN Group Construction,Carson Powell Construction Ltd,Carson Powell Construction Ltd,Carson Powell Construction Ltd,Aptus Construction,RenEnergy Ltd,Seddon Construction Limited,Seddon Construction Limited,Solar Power Provider UK Ltd,Greenlight Engineering Limited,Greenlight Engineering Limited,Mercury Construction (South West) Ltd,Mercury Construction (South West) Ltd,Mercury Construction (South West) Ltd,Logan Construction (SE) Ltd,Greendale Construction Limited,Greendale Construction Limited,Rosslee Construction,Rosslee Construction,Huck Construction Ltd,Jarvale Construction Ltd.,Jarvale Construction Ltd.,Ensigna Construction Ltd,Ensigna Construction Ltd,Ensigna Construction Ltd,R J Leighfield & Sons Ltd,Re-Gen (M&E Services) Ltd,MGM Ltd,MGM Ltd,MGM Ltd,Zenith Developments Group,Zenith Developments Group,Zenith Developments Group,E. Manton Ltd,E. Manton Ltd,Etec Contract Services Ltd,Etec Contract Services Ltd,Etec Contract Services Ltd,O&P Construction Services Ltd,O&P Construction Services Ltd,Krol Corlett Construction Limted,Krol Corlett Construction Limted,Krol Corlett Construction Limted,Harrisons EM&PS Ltd,Borras Construction Limited,Borras Construction Limited,Thomas Sinden Ltd,Thomas Sinden Ltd,Thomas Sinden Ltd,Beard,Beard,Beard,Wulfrun Building Solutions Limited,Seddon Construction Limited,M&J Group Construction and Roofing LTD,M&J Group Construction and Roofing LTD,M&J Group Construction and Roofing LTD,R.A. Edwards & Partners Ltd,R.A. Edwards & Partners Ltd,Capewell Contracts Limited,Capewell Contracts Limited,M2 Construction Limited,M2 Construction Limited,Murray & Willis Limited,Clickers Construction Ltd,Greenlight Engineering Limited | 1 | 1 | £18.0bn |
| Elliot Leigh TLC Limited,Netpex Ltd,Youth Reality Homes,Gateway Independent Living,Elliot Leigh TLC Limited,Netpex Ltd,LOOK AHEAD CARE AND SUPPORT LIMITED,Elliot Leigh TLC Limited,Netpex Ltd,Elliot Leigh TLC Limited,Gateway Independent Living,LOOK AHEAD CARE AND SUPPORT LIMITED,Netpex Ltd,Elliot Leigh TLC Limited | 1 | 1 | £15.6bn |
| Engie Power Limited,Gazprom Energy,Total Gas and Power Limited,Total Gas and Power Limited | 1 | 1 | £15.0bn |
| Lifetime Training Group Limited | 14 | 11 | £14.9bn |
| List of successfully awarded suppliers available in Attachments | 1 | 1 | £12.0bn |
| Kier Construction Ltd,Morgan Sindall Construction & Infrastructure Ltd,WILLMOTT DIXON CONSTRUCTION LIMITED,Morgan Sindall Construction & Infrastructure Ltd.,John Graham,McLaughlin & Harvey,JOHN SISK & SON (HOLDINGS) LIMITED,MACE LIMITED | 1 | 1 | £12.0bn |
| Morgan Sindall Construction & Infrastructure Ltd,Kier Construction Ltd,WILLMOTT DIXON CONSTRUCTION LIMITED,Morgan Sindall Construction & Infrastructure Ltd.,John Graham,McLaughlin & Harvey,JOHN SISK & SON (HOLDINGS) LIMITED,MACE LIMITED | 1 | 1 | £12.0bn |
From 20 of thousands of suppliers · public award data under the Open Government Licence.