TECHNICAL / AUDIT EVIDENCE
{
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"id": "03741dd7-faea-4742-89d5-05200e6f329b",
"canonical_key": "commercial-opportunity:v1:dc6b31b8-0889-440c-8f2e-3696b1931bf7",
"organisation_id": "d6418c26-8b3b-47ba-987c-3d990d608e08",
"origin_engine": "TENDER",
"origin_signal_id": "dc6b31b8-0889-440c-8f2e-3696b1931bf7",
"relationship_type": "PUBLIC_BUYER",
"what_happened": "Pipeline notice from Essex County Council. Relevance is supported by notice evidence.",
"why_it_matters": "Evidence strength, addressability and route are evaluated independently of relationship.",
"potential_need": "MEWP inspection and service, Asset compliance portal and QR records",
"current_product_match_json": "[\"MEWP inspection and service\"]",
"capability_match_json": "[{\"capability_id\":\"MEWP\",\"confidence\":\"HIGH\",\"currently_sold\":\"YES\",\"name\":\"MEWP inspection and service\"},{\"capability_id\":\"ASSET_PORTAL_QR\",\"confidence\":\"HIGH\",\"currently_sold\":\"UNKNOWN\",\"name\":\"Asset compliance portal and QR records\"}]",
"new_product_possibility": "NO",
"value_truth": "UNKNOWN",
"value_band": "UNKNOWN",
"probability": "MEDIUM",
"urgency": "BACKGROUND",
"confidence": "HIGH",
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"facts_json": "{\"award_values\":[],\"buyer\":\"Essex County Council\",\"buyer_reference\":\"D142PA\",\"contact_email\":\"charlie.beadle@essex.gov.uk\",\"contact_name\":null,\"contact_restrictions\":[],\"contacts\":[{\"email\":\"charlie.beadle@essex.gov.uk\",\"organisation\":\"Essex County Council\"}],\"contract_terms\":[{\"endDate\":\"2032-03-31T23:59:59Z\",\"maxExtentDate\":\"2035-03-31T23:59:59Z\",\"startDate\":\"2027-04-01T00:00:00Z\"}],\"cpv\":[{\"description\":\"Database systems\",\"id\":\"48610000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Information systems\",\"id\":\"48810000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Data storage services\",\"id\":\"72317000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Database services\",\"id\":\"72320000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Document management services\",\"id\":\"72512000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Archiving services\",\"id\":\"79995100\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Library, archives, museums and other cultural services\",\"id\":\"92500000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"}],\"currency\":null,\"days_to_deadline\":-8,\"deadline\":\"2026-10-05\",\"deadline_conflict\":false,\"deadline_kind\":\"ENGAGEMENT\",\"deadline_narrative\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"deadline_structured\":\"2026-10-05T23:59:59Z\",\"deadline_time_unpublished\":true,\"demo_evidence\":[\"Following a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements.\"],\"direct_contact_evidence\":[],\"engagement_route\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"estimated_value\":null,\"expansion_scope\":\"Complete official OCDS release; linked restricted documents require separate verification.\",\"extensions\":[],\"fully_expanded\":true,\"geographic_scope\":[[{\"country\":\"GB\",\"countryName\":\"United Kingdom\",\"region\":\"UKH3\"}]],\"hidden_opportunity\":true,\"historical_engagement_evidence\":\"\",\"incumbent_evidence\":[],\"linked_documents\":[{\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00\",\"description\":\"Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender\",\"documentType\":\"marketEngagementNotice\",\"format\":\"text/html\",\"id\":\"086898-2026\",\"noticeType\":\"UK2\",\"url\":\"https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086898-2026\"}],\"lot_count\":1,\"lot_scope\":[{\"description\":null,\"id\":\"1\",\"title\":null,\"value\":null}],\"meeting_evidence\":[],\"notice_type\":\"PIPELINE\",\"procurement_method\":\"UNKNOWN\",\"procurement_status\":\"planning\",\"publication_date\":\"2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00\",\"published_corrections\":[],\"published_notice_types\":[\"UK2\"],\"published_requirement\":\"Description\\nEssex Record Office (ERO) is seeking to engage with the market to understand available solutions and supplier capabilities that can support the modernisation of its archive management, digital preservation and public access services.\\nERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions.\\nERO is looking to understand the market's ability to provide solutions that can deliver the following outcomes:\\n\\u2022\\tReplacement of the current in-house developed Archive Management System (SEAX), which underpins over 80% of ERO's operations and public-facing services, including income-generating online services.\\n\\u2022\\tThe archive management system will need to:\\no\\tfacilitate viewing the catalogue on-site at Essex Record Office locations and online\\no\\tprovide free access to digital and digitised collections on-site at Essex Record Office locations\\no\\tprovide online access, outside of ERO locations, to digital and digitised collections via a subscription service\\no\\tfacilitate the creation of user accounts with role dependent security/access levels\\no\\tprovide a paywall to access certain collections\\no\\tmanage the personal data of users of the service, including taking payments from them\\n\\u2022\\tSupport for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions.\\n\\u2022\\tSecure, scalable and standards-compliant digital preservation capabilities to support the long-term preservation, integrity and accessibility of digital records. We require a solution for preserving digital records with retention periods of 100 years or more, as well as potentially shorter retention periods. The solution must be able to deal with a variety of file formats including proprietary software files and a range of sound and moving image files.\\n\\u2022\\tProgression towards National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Level 4 digital preservation maturity. Specifically, we require:\\no\\tFor digital records storage: three copies in at least two geographic locations (storage will need to be in the UK or EU)\\no\\tA means of controlling, auditing, and recording file permissions\\no\\tA means of recording sufficient metadata about the files using an appropriate metadata standard e.g. METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard), PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies), BagIt (BagIt File Packaging Format) and/or Dublin Core\\no\\tPeriodic integrity checking and disaster simulation, and a means of regularly updating the results of these checks\\no\\tA means of recording details of people and software that have accessed or taken preservation actions on files.\\n\\u2022\\tImproved management and discovery of digital assets through modern digital asset management capabilities.\\n\\u2022\\tEnhanced public access, search and discovery through modern online archive and catalogue services.\\n\\u2022\\tImproved customer journeys and increased public engagement.\\n\\u2022\\tSupport for current income generating services and potential for enhanced income generation opportunities.\\n\\u2022\\tIntegration capabilities with existing and future corporate platforms and digital services.\\n\\u2022\\tModern, intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for both staff and public users. As a minimum, we will need:\\no\\tThe ability to allow members of the public to access suitable digital preservation files\\no\\tA means of providing redacted access copies of the content where necessary\\no\\tA means of recording when files have been accessed and by whom\\no\\tA means of ensuring the content is protected from unauthorised changes and any loss\\n\\u2022\\tScalable architecture capable of supporting current digital holdings of 88.8TB and significant future growth over the coming decades.\\n\\u2022\\tStrong governance, audit, compliance and security features to support statutory and regulatory requirements, including the Public Records Act, Freedom of Information legislation and Data Protection requirements.\\nBackground\\nArchive Management System\\nIt is estimated that over 80% of the work of the ERO is currently managed through an in-house developed tool called SEAX. SEAX was created by Essex County Council as a bespoke system. It was created over 25 years ago in a now archaic programming language. Seax Explorer was written in VB (Visual Basic) and uses forms to create the different screens of its various modules (e.g. Catalogue Manager, Accession Manager, etc.). These forms have been written in a custom language based loosely around XML and are stored within the Seax Explorer database.\\nThe online element of the system is known internally as Seax PAM and to the public as Essex Archives Online. This includes our online catalogue and income-generating subscription service and income-generating single-image service. Seax PAM was written using .NET framework and C# and is currently using an old version of .NET framework.\\nWe are seeking a modern, sustainable and future-proofed solution for managing our requirements for accessioning, cataloguing, storage locations, document production, reader management and user access (at the ERO and online).\\nThe ERO has a staff of around 25 people. Up to 12 users are likely to require login access to the staff side of the AMS, including generic logins for Searchroom staff, document production staff, volunteers, etc.\\nDigital Preservation\\nAs of July 2026, the ERO has 88.8TB of digital data. This figure is expected to grow at an estimated rate of 5TB per year. Within the 88.8TB of data, 3.3TB consists of born-digital records; the other 85.5TB being content the ERO has digitised from its manuscript, image, sound and video collections. This data is all currently stored on Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage.\\nMost of the content is listed in basic form on a spreadsheet. Detailed metadata at file level is being added as resources allow. Further documentation about rights is kept in separate filing and on our archive management system (alongside information about our paper and analogue collections). The ERO has a dedicated ingest PC through which we process digital collections as they arrive. We are able to take images of disks using ISO Buster software, transfer files as they are or transfer them to a file format with greater longevity. Transfers can be made using Teracopy software and we can interrogate the files we receive using TNA\\u2019s Droid software.\\nThe main element of NDSA (National Digital Stewardship Alliance) Digital Preservation Level 1 we are not currently achieving is the requirement to have two complete copies of our digital content in separate locations.\\nOur aim is to progress through the NDSA digital preservation levels to meet NDSA Level 4.\\nAreas of Interest\\nERO is particularly interested in understanding solutions relating to:\\n\\u2022\\tArchive Management Systems (AMS)\\n\\u2022\\tDigital Preservation Management Systems (DPMS)\\n\\u2022\\tDigital Asset Management Systems (DAMS)\\n\\u2022\\tPreservation storage and hosting solutions\\n\\u2022\\tPublic catalogue and online archive access platforms\\n\\u2022\\tMigration services from legacy archive systems\\n\\u2022\\tIntegration and API capabilities\\nContract Considerations\\nAt this stage, ERO is seeking supplier feedback on:\\n\\u2022\\tAppropriate contract lengths and commercial models\\n\\u2022\\tImplementation and migration timelines\\n\\u2022\\tSaaS, cloud-hosted and hybrid delivery models\\n\\u2022\\tOpportunities for phased delivery across AMS, DPMS, DAMS and public access capabilities\\n\\u2022\\tScalability to support long-term digital preservation requirements.\\nThe information gathered through this PME will help shape ERO's future procurement strategy, solution design and business case development.\",\"questionnaire_evidence\":[\"ERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions.\",\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire.\",\"Please note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\",\"Suppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\",\"Please note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity.\",\"Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\"],\"reference\":\"086898-2026\",\"registration_evidence\":[\"\\u2022\\tSupport for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions.\"],\"relevance_evidence\":{\"ASSET_PORTAL_QR\":[\"asset management\",\"digital\",\"platform\",\"saas\",\"software\",\"system\"],\"MEWP\":[\"access platform\"]},\"requirement_items\":\"\\n\",\"selection_requirements\":[],\"sme_suitability\":[{\"sme\":true}],\"submission_method\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"value_excluding_vat\":null,\"value_including_vat\":null,\"value_minimum\":null,\"value_scope\":\"TOTAL_NOTICE_NOT_PURA_ADDRESSABLE\",\"vat_basis\":\"\"}",
"inferences_json": "[{\"basis\":{\"ASSET_PORTAL_QR\":[\"asset management\",\"digital\",\"platform\",\"saas\",\"software\",\"system\"],\"MEWP\":[\"access platform\"]},\"type\":\"HIDDEN_ADDRESSABLE_ELEMENT\"}]",
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"status": "EVIDENCED",
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"data_mode": "LIVE",
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"created_at": "2026-10-12T09:00:15+00:00",
"updated_at": "2026-11-05T04:01:06+00:00",
"opportunity_kind": "COMPANY_SPECIFIC",
"addressability": "PARTIALLY_ADDRESSABLE",
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"total_value_min": null,
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"total_value_currency": null,
"addressable_value_truth": "UNKNOWN",
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"first_evidence_at": "2026-09-14T13:03:39+00:00",
"last_evidence_at": "2026-10-30T11:43:04+00:00",
"evidence_recency": "CURRENT",
"contradictory_evidence_json": "[]",
"promotion_evidence_json": "[\"notice text directly evidences a matched Pura capability\"]",
"kill_evidence_json": "[\"source evidence withdrawn\",\"commercial fit contradicted\",\"route proven impossible\"]",
"recurring_revenue_type": "UNKNOWN",
"organisation": "Essex County Council"
},
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{
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"engine": "TENDER",
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"title": "Online Digital Catalogue and Archive Management Solutions (ERO Online Digital Catalogue)",
"summary": "Pipeline notice from Essex County Council. Relevance is supported by notice evidence.",
"observed_at": "2026-10-12T09:00:12+00:00",
"event_at": "2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00",
"source_id": "find_a_tender_ocds",
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"source_permission": "PERMITTED_WITH_CONDITIONS",
"facts_json": "{\"award_values\":[],\"buyer\":\"Essex County Council\",\"buyer_reference\":\"D142PA\",\"contact_email\":\"charlie.beadle@essex.gov.uk\",\"contact_name\":null,\"contact_restrictions\":[],\"contacts\":[{\"email\":\"charlie.beadle@essex.gov.uk\",\"organisation\":\"Essex County Council\"}],\"contract_terms\":[{\"endDate\":\"2032-03-31T23:59:59Z\",\"maxExtentDate\":\"2035-03-31T23:59:59Z\",\"startDate\":\"2027-04-01T00:00:00Z\"}],\"cpv\":[{\"description\":\"Database systems\",\"id\":\"48610000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Information systems\",\"id\":\"48810000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Data storage services\",\"id\":\"72317000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Database services\",\"id\":\"72320000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Document management services\",\"id\":\"72512000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Archiving services\",\"id\":\"79995100\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Library, archives, museums and other cultural services\",\"id\":\"92500000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"}],\"currency\":null,\"days_to_deadline\":-8,\"deadline\":\"2026-10-05\",\"deadline_conflict\":false,\"deadline_kind\":\"ENGAGEMENT\",\"deadline_narrative\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"deadline_structured\":\"2026-10-05T23:59:59Z\",\"deadline_time_unpublished\":true,\"demo_evidence\":[\"Following a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements.\"],\"direct_contact_evidence\":[],\"engagement_route\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"estimated_value\":null,\"expansion_scope\":\"Complete official OCDS release; linked restricted documents require separate verification.\",\"extensions\":[],\"fully_expanded\":true,\"geographic_scope\":[[{\"country\":\"GB\",\"countryName\":\"United Kingdom\",\"region\":\"UKH3\"}]],\"hidden_opportunity\":true,\"historical_engagement_evidence\":\"\",\"incumbent_evidence\":[],\"linked_documents\":[{\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00\",\"description\":\"Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender\",\"documentType\":\"marketEngagementNotice\",\"format\":\"text/html\",\"id\":\"086898-2026\",\"noticeType\":\"UK2\",\"url\":\"https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086898-2026\"}],\"lot_count\":1,\"lot_scope\":[{\"description\":null,\"id\":\"1\",\"title\":null,\"value\":null}],\"meeting_evidence\":[],\"notice_type\":\"PIPELINE\",\"procurement_method\":\"UNKNOWN\",\"procurement_status\":\"planning\",\"publication_date\":\"2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00\",\"published_corrections\":[],\"published_notice_types\":[\"UK2\"],\"published_requirement\":\"Description\\nEssex Record Office (ERO) is seeking to engage with the market to understand available solutions and supplier capabilities that can support the modernisation of its archive management, digital preservation and public access services.\\nERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions.\\nERO is looking to understand the market's ability to provide solutions that can deliver the following outcomes:\\n\\u2022\\tReplacement of the current in-house developed Archive Management System (SEAX), which underpins over 80% of ERO's operations and public-facing services, including income-generating online services.\\n\\u2022\\tThe archive management system will need to:\\no\\tfacilitate viewing the catalogue on-site at Essex Record Office locations and online\\no\\tprovide free access to digital and digitised collections on-site at Essex Record Office locations\\no\\tprovide online access, outside of ERO locations, to digital and digitised collections via a subscription service\\no\\tfacilitate the creation of user accounts with role dependent security/access levels\\no\\tprovide a paywall to access certain collections\\no\\tmanage the personal data of users of the service, including taking payments from them\\n\\u2022\\tSupport for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions.\\n\\u2022\\tSecure, scalable and standards-compliant digital preservation capabilities to support the long-term preservation, integrity and accessibility of digital records. We require a solution for preserving digital records with retention periods of 100 years or more, as well as potentially shorter retention periods. The solution must be able to deal with a variety of file formats including proprietary software files and a range of sound and moving image files.\\n\\u2022\\tProgression towards National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Level 4 digital preservation maturity. Specifically, we require:\\no\\tFor digital records storage: three copies in at least two geographic locations (storage will need to be in the UK or EU)\\no\\tA means of controlling, auditing, and recording file permissions\\no\\tA means of recording sufficient metadata about the files using an appropriate metadata standard e.g. METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard), PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies), BagIt (BagIt File Packaging Format) and/or Dublin Core\\no\\tPeriodic integrity checking and disaster simulation, and a means of regularly updating the results of these checks\\no\\tA means of recording details of people and software that have accessed or taken preservation actions on files.\\n\\u2022\\tImproved management and discovery of digital assets through modern digital asset management capabilities.\\n\\u2022\\tEnhanced public access, search and discovery through modern online archive and catalogue services.\\n\\u2022\\tImproved customer journeys and increased public engagement.\\n\\u2022\\tSupport for current income generating services and potential for enhanced income generation opportunities.\\n\\u2022\\tIntegration capabilities with existing and future corporate platforms and digital services.\\n\\u2022\\tModern, intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for both staff and public users. As a minimum, we will need:\\no\\tThe ability to allow members of the public to access suitable digital preservation files\\no\\tA means of providing redacted access copies of the content where necessary\\no\\tA means of recording when files have been accessed and by whom\\no\\tA means of ensuring the content is protected from unauthorised changes and any loss\\n\\u2022\\tScalable architecture capable of supporting current digital holdings of 88.8TB and significant future growth over the coming decades.\\n\\u2022\\tStrong governance, audit, compliance and security features to support statutory and regulatory requirements, including the Public Records Act, Freedom of Information legislation and Data Protection requirements.\\nBackground\\nArchive Management System\\nIt is estimated that over 80% of the work of the ERO is currently managed through an in-house developed tool called SEAX. SEAX was created by Essex County Council as a bespoke system. It was created over 25 years ago in a now archaic programming language. Seax Explorer was written in VB (Visual Basic) and uses forms to create the different screens of its various modules (e.g. Catalogue Manager, Accession Manager, etc.). These forms have been written in a custom language based loosely around XML and are stored within the Seax Explorer database.\\nThe online element of the system is known internally as Seax PAM and to the public as Essex Archives Online. This includes our online catalogue and income-generating subscription service and income-generating single-image service. Seax PAM was written using .NET framework and C# and is currently using an old version of .NET framework.\\nWe are seeking a modern, sustainable and future-proofed solution for managing our requirements for accessioning, cataloguing, storage locations, document production, reader management and user access (at the ERO and online).\\nThe ERO has a staff of around 25 people. Up to 12 users are likely to require login access to the staff side of the AMS, including generic logins for Searchroom staff, document production staff, volunteers, etc.\\nDigital Preservation\\nAs of July 2026, the ERO has 88.8TB of digital data. This figure is expected to grow at an estimated rate of 5TB per year. Within the 88.8TB of data, 3.3TB consists of born-digital records; the other 85.5TB being content the ERO has digitised from its manuscript, image, sound and video collections. This data is all currently stored on Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage.\\nMost of the content is listed in basic form on a spreadsheet. Detailed metadata at file level is being added as resources allow. Further documentation about rights is kept in separate filing and on our archive management system (alongside information about our paper and analogue collections). The ERO has a dedicated ingest PC through which we process digital collections as they arrive. We are able to take images of disks using ISO Buster software, transfer files as they are or transfer them to a file format with greater longevity. Transfers can be made using Teracopy software and we can interrogate the files we receive using TNA\\u2019s Droid software.\\nThe main element of NDSA (National Digital Stewardship Alliance) Digital Preservation Level 1 we are not currently achieving is the requirement to have two complete copies of our digital content in separate locations.\\nOur aim is to progress through the NDSA digital preservation levels to meet NDSA Level 4.\\nAreas of Interest\\nERO is particularly interested in understanding solutions relating to:\\n\\u2022\\tArchive Management Systems (AMS)\\n\\u2022\\tDigital Preservation Management Systems (DPMS)\\n\\u2022\\tDigital Asset Management Systems (DAMS)\\n\\u2022\\tPreservation storage and hosting solutions\\n\\u2022\\tPublic catalogue and online archive access platforms\\n\\u2022\\tMigration services from legacy archive systems\\n\\u2022\\tIntegration and API capabilities\\nContract Considerations\\nAt this stage, ERO is seeking supplier feedback on:\\n\\u2022\\tAppropriate contract lengths and commercial models\\n\\u2022\\tImplementation and migration timelines\\n\\u2022\\tSaaS, cloud-hosted and hybrid delivery models\\n\\u2022\\tOpportunities for phased delivery across AMS, DPMS, DAMS and public access capabilities\\n\\u2022\\tScalability to support long-term digital preservation requirements.\\nThe information gathered through this PME will help shape ERO's future procurement strategy, solution design and business case development.\",\"questionnaire_evidence\":[\"ERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions.\",\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire.\",\"Please note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\",\"Suppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\",\"Please note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity.\",\"Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\"],\"reference\":\"086898-2026\",\"registration_evidence\":[\"\\u2022\\tSupport for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions.\"],\"relevance_evidence\":{\"ASSET_PORTAL_QR\":[\"asset management\",\"digital\",\"platform\",\"saas\",\"software\",\"system\"],\"MEWP\":[\"access platform\"]},\"requirement_items\":\"\\n\",\"selection_requirements\":[],\"sme_suitability\":[{\"sme\":true}],\"submission_method\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"value_excluding_vat\":null,\"value_including_vat\":null,\"value_minimum\":null,\"value_scope\":\"TOTAL_NOTICE_NOT_PURA_ADDRESSABLE\",\"vat_basis\":\"\"}",
"inferences_json": "[{\"basis\":{\"ASSET_PORTAL_QR\":[\"asset management\",\"digital\",\"platform\",\"saas\",\"software\",\"system\"],\"MEWP\":[\"access platform\"]},\"type\":\"HIDDEN_ADDRESSABLE_ELEMENT\"}]",
"unknowns_json": "[\"estimated_value\"]",
"confidence": "HIGH",
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"value_max": null,
"value_currency": null,
"urgency": "BACKGROUND",
"priority": "WATCH",
"recommended_action": "PREPARE CAPABILITY PACK",
"status": "OPEN",
"notification_state": "NOT_ELIGIBLE",
"feedback_state": "NONE",
"provenance_json": "{\"licence\":\"http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/\",\"ocid\":\"ocds-h6vhtk-06f937\",\"release_id\":\"086898-2026\"}",
"data_mode": "LIVE",
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"updated_at": "2026-10-12T09:00:12+00:00"
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],
"classification_history": [
{
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"new_status": "EVIDENCED",
"occurred_at": "2026-10-12T09:00:15+00:00",
"reason_json": "{\"kill\":[\"source evidence withdrawn\",\"commercial fit contradicted\",\"route proven impossible\"],\"promotion\":[\"notice text directly evidences a matched Pura capability\"]}"
}
],
"feedback_history": [],
"qualified_projection": {
"id": "03741dd7-faea-4742-89d5-05200e6f329b",
"canonical_key": "commercial-opportunity:v1:dc6b31b8-0889-440c-8f2e-3696b1931bf7",
"organisation_id": "d6418c26-8b3b-47ba-987c-3d990d608e08",
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"relationship_type": "PUBLIC_BUYER",
"what_happened": "Pipeline notice from Essex County Council. Relevance is supported by notice evidence.",
"why_it_matters": "Evidence strength, addressability and route are evaluated independently of relationship.",
"potential_need": "MEWP inspection and service, Asset compliance portal and QR records",
"current_product_match_json": "[\"MEWP inspection and service\"]",
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"new_product_possibility": "NO",
"value_truth": "UNKNOWN",
"value_band": "UNKNOWN",
"probability": "MEDIUM",
"urgency": "BACKGROUND",
"confidence": "MEDIUM — notice scope only",
"evidence_json": "{\"independent_identities\":[\"ocds-b5fd17-43878ae5-6381-4dfa-8b3b-ea451610bec6\",\"ocds-h6vhtk-06f937\"],\"signal_id\":\"dc6b31b8-0889-440c-8f2e-3696b1931bf7\",\"source\":\"find_a_tender_ocds\"}",
"facts_json": "{\"award_values\":[],\"buyer\":\"Essex County Council\",\"buyer_reference\":\"D142PA\",\"contact_email\":\"charlie.beadle@essex.gov.uk\",\"contact_name\":null,\"contact_restrictions\":[],\"contacts\":[{\"email\":\"charlie.beadle@essex.gov.uk\",\"organisation\":\"Essex County Council\"}],\"contract_terms\":[{\"endDate\":\"2032-03-31T23:59:59Z\",\"maxExtentDate\":\"2035-03-31T23:59:59Z\",\"startDate\":\"2027-04-01T00:00:00Z\"}],\"cpv\":[{\"description\":\"Database systems\",\"id\":\"48610000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Information systems\",\"id\":\"48810000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Data storage services\",\"id\":\"72317000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Database services\",\"id\":\"72320000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Document management services\",\"id\":\"72512000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Archiving services\",\"id\":\"79995100\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"},{\"description\":\"Library, archives, museums and other cultural services\",\"id\":\"92500000\",\"scheme\":\"CPV\"}],\"currency\":null,\"days_to_deadline\":-8,\"deadline\":\"2026-10-05\",\"deadline_conflict\":false,\"deadline_kind\":\"ENGAGEMENT\",\"deadline_narrative\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"deadline_structured\":\"2026-10-05T23:59:59Z\",\"deadline_time_unpublished\":true,\"demo_evidence\":[\"Following a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements.\"],\"direct_contact_evidence\":[],\"engagement_route\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"estimated_value\":null,\"expansion_scope\":\"Complete official OCDS release; linked restricted documents require separate verification.\",\"extensions\":[],\"fully_expanded\":true,\"geographic_scope\":[[{\"country\":\"GB\",\"countryName\":\"United Kingdom\",\"region\":\"UKH3\"}]],\"hidden_opportunity\":true,\"historical_engagement_evidence\":\"\",\"incumbent_evidence\":[],\"linked_documents\":[{\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00\",\"description\":\"Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender\",\"documentType\":\"marketEngagementNotice\",\"format\":\"text/html\",\"id\":\"086898-2026\",\"noticeType\":\"UK2\",\"url\":\"https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/086898-2026\"}],\"lot_count\":1,\"lot_scope\":[{\"description\":null,\"id\":\"1\",\"title\":null,\"value\":null}],\"meeting_evidence\":[],\"notice_type\":\"PIPELINE\",\"procurement_method\":\"UNKNOWN\",\"procurement_status\":\"planning\",\"publication_date\":\"2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00\",\"published_corrections\":[],\"published_notice_types\":[\"UK2\"],\"published_requirement\":\"Description\\nEssex Record Office (ERO) is seeking to engage with the market to understand available solutions and supplier capabilities that can support the modernisation of its archive management, digital preservation and public access services.\\nERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions.\\nERO is looking to understand the market's ability to provide solutions that can deliver the following outcomes:\\n\\u2022\\tReplacement of the current in-house developed Archive Management System (SEAX), which underpins over 80% of ERO's operations and public-facing services, including income-generating online services.\\n\\u2022\\tThe archive management system will need to:\\no\\tfacilitate viewing the catalogue on-site at Essex Record Office locations and online\\no\\tprovide free access to digital and digitised collections on-site at Essex Record Office locations\\no\\tprovide online access, outside of ERO locations, to digital and digitised collections via a subscription service\\no\\tfacilitate the creation of user accounts with role dependent security/access levels\\no\\tprovide a paywall to access certain collections\\no\\tmanage the personal data of users of the service, including taking payments from them\\n\\u2022\\tSupport for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions.\\n\\u2022\\tSecure, scalable and standards-compliant digital preservation capabilities to support the long-term preservation, integrity and accessibility of digital records. We require a solution for preserving digital records with retention periods of 100 years or more, as well as potentially shorter retention periods. The solution must be able to deal with a variety of file formats including proprietary software files and a range of sound and moving image files.\\n\\u2022\\tProgression towards National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Level 4 digital preservation maturity. Specifically, we require:\\no\\tFor digital records storage: three copies in at least two geographic locations (storage will need to be in the UK or EU)\\no\\tA means of controlling, auditing, and recording file permissions\\no\\tA means of recording sufficient metadata about the files using an appropriate metadata standard e.g. METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard), PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies), BagIt (BagIt File Packaging Format) and/or Dublin Core\\no\\tPeriodic integrity checking and disaster simulation, and a means of regularly updating the results of these checks\\no\\tA means of recording details of people and software that have accessed or taken preservation actions on files.\\n\\u2022\\tImproved management and discovery of digital assets through modern digital asset management capabilities.\\n\\u2022\\tEnhanced public access, search and discovery through modern online archive and catalogue services.\\n\\u2022\\tImproved customer journeys and increased public engagement.\\n\\u2022\\tSupport for current income generating services and potential for enhanced income generation opportunities.\\n\\u2022\\tIntegration capabilities with existing and future corporate platforms and digital services.\\n\\u2022\\tModern, intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for both staff and public users. As a minimum, we will need:\\no\\tThe ability to allow members of the public to access suitable digital preservation files\\no\\tA means of providing redacted access copies of the content where necessary\\no\\tA means of recording when files have been accessed and by whom\\no\\tA means of ensuring the content is protected from unauthorised changes and any loss\\n\\u2022\\tScalable architecture capable of supporting current digital holdings of 88.8TB and significant future growth over the coming decades.\\n\\u2022\\tStrong governance, audit, compliance and security features to support statutory and regulatory requirements, including the Public Records Act, Freedom of Information legislation and Data Protection requirements.\\nBackground\\nArchive Management System\\nIt is estimated that over 80% of the work of the ERO is currently managed through an in-house developed tool called SEAX. SEAX was created by Essex County Council as a bespoke system. It was created over 25 years ago in a now archaic programming language. Seax Explorer was written in VB (Visual Basic) and uses forms to create the different screens of its various modules (e.g. Catalogue Manager, Accession Manager, etc.). These forms have been written in a custom language based loosely around XML and are stored within the Seax Explorer database.\\nThe online element of the system is known internally as Seax PAM and to the public as Essex Archives Online. This includes our online catalogue and income-generating subscription service and income-generating single-image service. Seax PAM was written using .NET framework and C# and is currently using an old version of .NET framework.\\nWe are seeking a modern, sustainable and future-proofed solution for managing our requirements for accessioning, cataloguing, storage locations, document production, reader management and user access (at the ERO and online).\\nThe ERO has a staff of around 25 people. Up to 12 users are likely to require login access to the staff side of the AMS, including generic logins for Searchroom staff, document production staff, volunteers, etc.\\nDigital Preservation\\nAs of July 2026, the ERO has 88.8TB of digital data. This figure is expected to grow at an estimated rate of 5TB per year. Within the 88.8TB of data, 3.3TB consists of born-digital records; the other 85.5TB being content the ERO has digitised from its manuscript, image, sound and video collections. This data is all currently stored on Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage.\\nMost of the content is listed in basic form on a spreadsheet. Detailed metadata at file level is being added as resources allow. Further documentation about rights is kept in separate filing and on our archive management system (alongside information about our paper and analogue collections). The ERO has a dedicated ingest PC through which we process digital collections as they arrive. We are able to take images of disks using ISO Buster software, transfer files as they are or transfer them to a file format with greater longevity. Transfers can be made using Teracopy software and we can interrogate the files we receive using TNA\\u2019s Droid software.\\nThe main element of NDSA (National Digital Stewardship Alliance) Digital Preservation Level 1 we are not currently achieving is the requirement to have two complete copies of our digital content in separate locations.\\nOur aim is to progress through the NDSA digital preservation levels to meet NDSA Level 4.\\nAreas of Interest\\nERO is particularly interested in understanding solutions relating to:\\n\\u2022\\tArchive Management Systems (AMS)\\n\\u2022\\tDigital Preservation Management Systems (DPMS)\\n\\u2022\\tDigital Asset Management Systems (DAMS)\\n\\u2022\\tPreservation storage and hosting solutions\\n\\u2022\\tPublic catalogue and online archive access platforms\\n\\u2022\\tMigration services from legacy archive systems\\n\\u2022\\tIntegration and API capabilities\\nContract Considerations\\nAt this stage, ERO is seeking supplier feedback on:\\n\\u2022\\tAppropriate contract lengths and commercial models\\n\\u2022\\tImplementation and migration timelines\\n\\u2022\\tSaaS, cloud-hosted and hybrid delivery models\\n\\u2022\\tOpportunities for phased delivery across AMS, DPMS, DAMS and public access capabilities\\n\\u2022\\tScalability to support long-term digital preservation requirements.\\nThe information gathered through this PME will help shape ERO's future procurement strategy, solution design and business case development.\",\"questionnaire_evidence\":[\"ERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions.\",\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire.\",\"Please note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\",\"Suppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\",\"Please note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity.\",\"Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\"],\"reference\":\"086898-2026\",\"registration_evidence\":[\"\\u2022\\tSupport for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions.\"],\"relevance_evidence\":{\"ASSET_PORTAL_QR\":[\"asset management\",\"digital\",\"platform\",\"saas\",\"software\",\"system\"],\"MEWP\":[\"access platform\"]},\"requirement_items\":\"\\n\",\"selection_requirements\":[],\"sme_suitability\":[{\"sme\":true}],\"submission_method\":\"Essex Record Office (ERO) is inviting interested suppliers with relevant solutions and services to complete an early market engagement questionnaire. The information gathered will help ERO further develop its requirements, understand available market offerings and shape any future procurement approach.\\nPlease note the contract dates and possible extension dates listed in this Preliminary Market Engagement notice (PME) are estimates only and we are seeking feedback on suggested contract duration as part of this PME.\\nSuppliers are invited to provide information relating to the areas within the scope of this notice by completing our Early Market Questionnaire via the Microsoft Forms link below.\\nhttps://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=TzK0qFwVFUKg8X7YzJqZL55-Tzgo2VlJj9ccUur-poxUMENEWVhDU0k1SVVTNUdaWFZBRU9aUzZLWC4u\\nResponses need to be submitted by 05 October 2026 at 5pm. If you are having any issues using the link, please contact us.\\nFollowing a review of the responses, ERO may invite interested suppliers to participate in follow-up discussions, product demonstrations and/or solution workshops to further explore capabilities and alignment with service requirements. These sessions may be conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams or in person at Essex County Council offices.\\nPlease note this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) notice/request for information is not intended as a call for competition, and as such you will need to express your interest in any potential future tender opportunity. Responding to this PME does not constitute a tender submission, a quotation, or any binding commitment to procure these services. Please note there is no commitment or guarantee that procurement activity will go ahead.\\nParticipation is voluntary and will neither benefit nor disadvantage any supplier in any potential future procurement opportunity. Responses to the questionnaire will be treated confidentially.\",\"value_excluding_vat\":null,\"value_including_vat\":null,\"value_minimum\":null,\"value_scope\":\"TOTAL_NOTICE_NOT_PURA_ADDRESSABLE\",\"vat_basis\":\"\"}",
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"published_requirement": "Description\nEssex Record Office (ERO) is seeking to engage with the market to understand available solutions and supplier capabilities that can support the modernisation of its archive management, digital preservation and public access services.\nERO is undertaking this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform future procurement activity and ensure that any proposed solutions align with the organisation's statutory responsibilities, service requirements and long-term digital preservation ambitions.\nERO is looking to understand the market's ability to provide solutions that can deliver the following outcomes:\n•\tReplacement of the current in-house developed Archive Management System (SEAX), which underpins over 80% of ERO's operations and public-facing services, including income-generating online services.\n•\tThe archive management system will need to:\no\tfacilitate viewing the catalogue on-site at Essex Record Office locations and online\no\tprovide free access to digital and digitised collections on-site at Essex Record Office locations\no\tprovide online access, outside of ERO locations, to digital and digitised collections via a subscription service\no\tfacilitate the creation of user accounts with role dependent security/access levels\no\tprovide a paywall to access certain collections\no\tmanage the personal data of users of the service, including taking payments from them\n•\tSupport for statutory archive, records management and civil registration functions.\n•\tSecure, scalable and standards-compliant digital preservation capabilities to support the long-term preservation, integrity and accessibility of digital records. We require a solution for preserving digital records with retention periods of 100 years or more, as well as potentially shorter retention periods. The solution must be able to deal with a variety of file formats including proprietary software files and a range of sound and moving image files.\n•\tProgression towards National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Level 4 digital preservation maturity. Specifically, we require:\no\tFor digital records storage: three copies in at least two geographic locations (storage will need to be in the UK or EU)\no\tA means of controlling, auditing, and recording file permissions\no\tA means of recording sufficient metadata about the files using an appropriate metadata standard e.g. METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard), PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies), BagIt (BagIt File Packaging Format) and/or Dublin Core\no\tPeriodic integrity checking and disaster simulation, and a means of regularly updating the results of these checks\no\tA means of recording details of people and software that have accessed or taken preservation actions on files.\n•\tImproved management and discovery of digital assets through modern digital asset management capabilities.\n•\tEnhanced public access, search and discovery through modern online archive and catalogue services.\n•\tImproved customer journeys and increased public engagement.\n•\tSupport for current income generating services and potential for enhanced income generation opportunities.\n•\tIntegration capabilities with existing and future corporate platforms and digital services.\n•\tModern, intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for both staff and public users. As a minimum, we will need:\no\tThe ability to allow members of the public to access suitable digital preservation files\no\tA means of providing redacted access copies of the content where necessary\no\tA means of recording when files have been accessed and by whom\no\tA means of ensuring the content is protected from unauthorised changes and any loss\n•\tScalable architecture capable of supporting current digital holdings of 88.8TB and significant future growth over the coming decades.\n•\tStrong governance, audit, compliance and security features to support statutory and regulatory requirements, including the Public Records Act, Freedom of Information legislation and Data Protection requirements.\nBackground\nArchive Management System\nIt is estimated that over 80% of the work of the ERO is currently managed through an in-house developed tool called SEAX. SEAX was created by Essex County Council as a bespoke system. It was created over 25 years ago in a now archaic programming language. Seax Explorer was written in VB (Visual Basic) and uses forms to create the different screens of its various modules (e.g. Catalogue Manager, Accession Manager, etc.). These forms have been written in a custom language based loosely around XML and are stored within the Seax Explorer database.\nThe online element of the system is known internally as Seax PAM and to the public as Essex Archives Online. This includes our online catalogue and income-generating subscription service and income-generating single-image service. Seax PAM was written using .NET framework and C# and is currently using an old version of .NET framework.\nWe are seeking a modern, sustainable and future-proofed solution for managing our requirements for accessioning, cataloguing, storage locations, document production, reader management and user access (at the ERO and online).\nThe ERO has a staff of around 25 people. Up to 12 users are likely to require login access to the staff side of the AMS, including generic logins for Searchroom staff, document production staff, volunteers, etc.\nDigital Preservation\nAs of July 2026, the ERO has 88.8TB of digital data. This figure is expected to grow at an estimated rate of 5TB per year. Within the 88.8TB of data, 3.3TB consists of born-digital records; the other 85.5TB being content the ERO has digitised from its manuscript, image, sound and video collections. This data is all currently stored on Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage.\nMost of the content is listed in basic form on a spreadsheet. Detailed metadata at file level is being added as resources allow. Further documentation about rights is kept in separate filing and on our archive management system (alongside information about our paper and analogue collections). The ERO has a dedicated ingest PC through which we process digital collections as they arrive. We are able to take images of disks using ISO Buster software, transfer files as they are or transfer them to a file format with greater longevity. Transfers can be made using Teracopy software and we can interrogate the files we receive using TNA’s Droid software.\nThe main element of NDSA (National Digital Stewardship Alliance) Digital Preservation Level 1 we are not currently achieving is the requirement to have two complete copies of our digital content in separate locations.\nOur aim is to progress through the NDSA digital preservation levels to meet NDSA Level 4.\nAreas of Interest\nERO is particularly interested in understanding solutions relating to:\n•\tArchive Management Systems (AMS)\n•\tDigital Preservation Management Systems (DPMS)\n•\tDigital Asset Management Systems (DAMS)\n•\tPreservation storage and hosting solutions\n•\tPublic catalogue and online archive access platforms\n•\tMigration services from legacy archive systems\n•\tIntegration and API capabilities\nContract Considerations\nAt this stage, ERO is seeking supplier feedback on:\n•\tAppropriate contract lengths and commercial models\n•\tImplementation and migration timelines\n•\tSaaS, cloud-hosted and hybrid delivery models\n•\tOpportunities for phased delivery across AMS, DPMS, DAMS and public access capabilities\n•\tScalability to support long-term digital preservation requirements.\nThe information gathered through this PME will help shape ERO's future procurement strategy, solution design and business case development.",
"notice_title": "Online Digital Catalogue and Archive Management Solutions (ERO Online Digital Catalogue)",
"requirement_items": "\n",
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"deadline": "2026-10-05",
"publication_date": "2026-09-14T14:03:39+01:00",
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