The procurement contact named on the official notice.

https://etendersni.gov.uk/epps/getHomeDashboard.do Under no circumstances will EA or its advisors be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by economic operators, their funders and/or their respective advisors arising directly or indirectly from the procurement process, their participation in or termination thereof, including, without limitation, preparation and submission of responses, as a result of any changes or adjustments made to the procurement documents or the exclusion/disqualification of an economic operator. Only the express terms of the contractual documents, if and when executed shall have any contractual effect in connection with the matters to which this procurement process relates. Neither the issue of the procurement documents, nor any of the information presented in them, should be regarded as a commitment or representation on the part of EA (or any other person) to enter into a contractual arrangement. Nothing in the procurement documents should be interpreted as a commitment by EA to award a contract to an economic operator as a result of this procurement process, nor to accept the lowest price or any tender. No legally binding contract shall arise (and a tenderer shall have no legitimate expectation that a contract will be entered into) until such time as entry into the contract has been confirmed by EA. As such, EA reserves the right at any time to cancel, withdraw or amend the procurement process at any stage. Continued from; Competitive flexible procedure description * [FRM03.N21] In accordance with section 24 of the PA 2023, the EA reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to further refine the above Award Criteria and/or weightings in the ITPD that is issued to the shortlisted Suppliers at the Pre-Initial Tender Dialogue Stage and/or in the Invitation to Submit Initial Tender (ISIT) that is issued to the shortlisted Suppliers at the Initial Tender Stage. Examples of how the Authority might wish to refine the Award Criteria and/or weightings include; (a) adding new sub-criteria to those criteria set out in the tender notice/associated procurement documents, with a proportionate reallocation of sub-criteria weightings; (b) adding more detail to existing criteria set out in tender notice/associated procurement documents; (c) adding more detail to existing sub-criteria set out in the tender notice/associated procurement documents; and/or (d) changing the weightings of existing primary, secondary or tertiary criteria within a range of not more than +/- 5% of the current weighting in circumstances where there are no new criteria being added (for example, if a current weighting is 15%, the new weighting could not be less than 10% and not more than 20%). Suppliers should note that the EA reserves the right to amend or adjust the stages of this Competitive Flexible Procedure at any time at its discretion, including but not limited to in the ITPD that is issued to the shortlisted Suppliers at the Pre-Initial Tender Dialogue Stage, in accordance with the PA 2023 and the PR 2024. Suppliers should note that the EA wishes to conduct an efficient, effective and streamlined Competitive Flexible Procedure and does not wish to engage in any unnecessary dialogue which imposes costs on all parties and causes delay. Accordingly, it is envisaged that certain limits will be placed on the extent of dialogue that will be permitted. Further information on how the Initial Tender Stage and Final Tender Stage (as applicable) will be structured will be set out in the Invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD) that is issued to the shortlisted Suppliers at the Pre-Initial Tender Dialogue Stage.

The submission route named on the official notice.

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).

Under this procurement the successful Supplier will be required to support EA's social value objectives.

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.