Northern Ireland Water is seeking supply chain engagement for an upcoming £9.6 million (inc VAT) Digital Services Platform tender –  today is the deadline for requests to participate in face to face one to one supplier sessions taking place between Monday 27 April and Friday 8 May 2026 at the company's Belfast HQ.

The water company has an established Digital Services platform that underpins high volume, customer facing and internal services, supporting both external users and staff across multiple directorates.

NI Water’s current Digital Services platform comprises:

• a public facing customer self service portal, and
• an enterprise case management and workflow solution, integrated with a range of legacy and modern systems supporting operational, financial and regulatory processes.

With the existing contract for delivery of these services now approaching expiry, NI Water intends to undertake a competitive procurement to appoint a delivery partner to provide ongoing support, maintenance, transition and enhancement services, and to enable the platform to evolve in line with future business needs.

The appointed supplier will be expected to support a live, business critical platform, ensuring continuity of service while enabling controlled change and improvement.

Scope of services is expected to include:

• Application support and maintenance
• Incident, defect and service request management
• Transition and knowledge transfer activities at contract commencement
• Fixed price, milestone based enhancement delivery
• Release, change and testing management in line with NI Water governance
• Information governance, cyber security and regulatory compliance
• Performance reporting and participation in governance forums

NI Water intends to deliver a rolling programme of enhancements over the life of the contract, prioritised in line with business need, funding approval and governance.

NI Water’s aim is to work with a supplier that can:

• take over and operate a live enterprise digital estate with minimal disruption, and
• support the continuous, controlled evolution of the platform over the contract term.

Current estimated start and end contract dates are 2 November 2026 to 1 November 2030 with a further possible extension option up to 1 November 2033.

Prior to the publication of a Participation Stage Questionnaire (PSQ), NI Water intends to undertake pre market engagement in the form of confidential supplier information sessions to:

• provide suppliers with a high level overview of the requirement and procurement approach;
• outline anticipated scope, constraints and timelines; and
• offer an opportunity for clarification at a non binding, pre procurement stage.

NI Water expects to offer a limited number of individual supplier sessions, each of approximately one hour and fifteen minutes as follows:

• Sessions will be allocated on a first come, first served basis
• Sessions will be held in-person at NI Water headquarters, 40 Old Westland Road, Belfast, BT14 6TE
• Attendance is limited to a maximum of two delegates per organisation

Suppliers wishing to register interest in attending a session should email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  - requests must be received no later than Thursday 23rd April 2026.

Current estimated publication date of a formal tender notice is 11 May 2026.