RFP QuestBeta
OpenStage · tender 21 days to close

the Education Authority

Online Payments

IT ServicesCPV 72000000
Value£15.0m
Deadline14 Aug 2026
Published18 Jun 2026
RegionNationwide
Timeline
Published 18 Jun 202621 days leftCloses 14 Aug 2026
Who to contact
edis.procurement@eani.org.uk

The procurement contact named on the official notice.

How to submit
Open the submissions portal

Tender must be submitted electronically via the following; https://etendersni.gov.uk/

The submission route named on the official notice.

Contract value in context
£15.0mtotal contract value
median £120k
this tender£0£16.2m

This is a large award for IT Services — above three-quarters of comparable contracts. Based on 36,449 valued IT Services tenders in our corpus.

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The brief

The EA invites tenders for a Provision of an Online Payment Solution.

The scope of this procurement is to provide an accessible, secure Online Payment Solution (OLP) for schools, minimising the need for and risks and costs associated with cash handling in these schools.

The legacy process of schools receiving monies from parents is one that involves sending cash or cheques with pupils to school.

Payments cover a range of items and activities e.g. school meals, milk, school trips, clubs, and equipment purchase.

The OLP system will facilite usage by parents to pay for a range of activities for the duration of the Contract.

The Contract will be valid for a period of five years, with the option to extend for period / s up to 24 months, subject to funding.

At the time of tender issue (June 2026) there is no formal EA wide contract to provide online payment facilities to the schools by the EA, however, some schools have independently procured and implemented their own solutions over recent years.

This Contract is let by the Northern Ireland Education Authority (“EA”) and is open to the EA, including the NI educational bodies listed below.

At some point during the life of the Contract these bodies may wish to utilise the Contract (though they are not obligated to do so) and must have access, at any point, with the permission of EA.

This Contract is not intended to replace any current agreements that participating or non-participating institutions may already have in place.

These bodies include; Primary, Post Primary and Special schools under the control of the EA, Catholic Maintained Schools, Independent Schools in NI, Irish Medium Schools in NI, both Controlled and Voluntary Grammar Schools, Nursery School for NI (both controlled and Catholic Maintained) (https://www.education-ni.gov.uk/services/schools-plus)

Key requirements

What the supplier must deliver

01

The scope of this procurement is

The scope of this procurement is to provide an accessible, secure Online Payment Solution (OLP) for schools, minimising the need for and risks and costs associated with cash handling in these schools.

02

At the time of tender issue (June

At the time of tender issue (June 2026) there is no formal EA wide contract to provide online payment facilities to the schools by the EA, however, some schools have independently procured and implemented their own solutions over recent years.

03

At some point during the life

At some point during the life of the Contract these bodies may wish to utilise the Contract (though they are not obligated to do so) and must have access, at any point, with the permission of EA.

Derived from the notice text — always confirm against the original documents.

What it takes to bid this

4580 daysof bid-team effort
£30.8k£54.8kat typical UK bid-team rates
Compressed window — start the same week

Typical UK bid effort for the £10m+ band — an estimate, not a quote.

Qualify & bid/no-bid ~10% · SQ / PQQ ~20% · Written response ~55% · Review & presentation ~15%

Typical for this category — confirm against the ITT pack

  • Hold at bidCyber Essentials Plus (often mandatory for gov IT)
  • Hold at bidISO 27001 (information security)
  • Plan for deliveryData protection / DPIA readiness
  • Show at bidComparable references / case studies
  • Hold at bidFinancial standing (accounts, often ~2× contract value turnover)
  • Hold at bidInsurance cover (PL / EL, often PI)
  • Show at bidSocial value commitments

Hold at bid = pass/fail conditions of participation. Show at bid = scored in the quality response. Plan for delivery = contract obligations from day one.

Buyer intelligence

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Source & provenance
OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-0685c1
Stage
tender · Open
Source
Find a Tender
Buyer ref
057787-2026
View the original notice on Find a Tender

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source data © Crown copyright.

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