Many IT consultancies look beyond their home market for public contracts: their consultants speak English, some already work for clients in Dublin or London, and UK and Irish public buyers purchase a lot of IT services. You still need to know where to look, because the two countries no longer publish in the same place since Brexit.
Ireland: European tenders, on TED
Ireland is part of the European Union. Its public contracts above the European thresholds are therefore published, like those of France, in the Official Journal of the European Union, available online on TED (Tenders Electronic Daily).
Irish buyers also publish their tenders on the national platform, etenders.gov.ie, where you download the tender documents and submit your bid. Smaller contracts, below the European thresholds, often only appear there.
The United Kingdom: Find a Tender since Brexit
Since 1 January 2021, UK tenders are no longer published on TED. They appear on Find a Tender, the official UK government service. With the UK procurement reform (Procurement Act 2023), Find a Tender became the central platform where buyers publish their notices: tenders, pipeline notices and awards.
A few differences to keep in mind:
- Procedures have new names: you will see « competitive flexible procedures », a fairly flexible negotiated procedure, next to classic open procedures.
- Values are in pounds sterling, often given both net and gross.
- Tender documents live elsewhere: the notice points to the buyer's e-sourcing platform (In-Tend, Proactis, Delta eSourcing, Atamis, Jaggaer, Ariba, eTenderWales for Wales…), where you usually need an account.
- Frameworks are everywhere: many IT services are bought through national or regional framework agreements, which you need to be on.
How to filter notices relevant to an IT consultancy
CPV codes remain the best entry point: division 72 (IT services: consulting, development, maintenance, managed services) and division 48 (software and information systems, to handle with care as it contains many pure licence purchases). Then read the subject: good signals are « software development », « application support », « managed service », « digital services », « systems integration ». Bad ones: « supply of hardware », « laptops », « cabling ».
With StaffKit
StaffKit's public tender watch now covers France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland (through TED) and the United Kingdom (through Find a Tender). Twice a day, IT notices are collected, sorted by CPV codes and keywords in French and English, then scored and summarised by the AI, with a link to the platform holding the tender documents. UK values are shown in pounds sterling.
See the IT tender watch page for details.