Pre-procurement intelligence is a vital tool for work-winning teams, with insights into potential opportunities months or years before they go to market meaning that suppliers can get ahead of their competitors to secure contracts.
Whether it is a budget allocation, a new project proposal or a discussion of procurement plans, there is a wealth of information to be found, and used as part of your early engagement outreach with buyers.
When looking to win work, teams need to know which buying authorities are making plans to procure – and the earlier, the better. Pre-procurement opportunities go beyond the basic facts that may be found in a pipeline notice, with the most valuable insights providing further intel on project scope, budgets and funding streams, timelines, routes to market, key contacts and more. With this knowledge, suppliers can ensure they are best equipped to make connections and bid for contracts.
Drawing upon a range of sources, pre-procurement means not only identifying early opportunities but situating them within a broader context and illuminating exactly what suppliers need to know in order to win work.
Without blowing our own trumpet too much, Oxygen Insights first established the concept of pre-procurement intelligence over a decade ago, building deep expertise in uncovering early signs of upcoming opportunities – often many months, sometimes even years, before they appear on the procurement team’s radar.
In this breakdown, we explain how pre-procurement intel works and why it matters so much to the clients who trust us to underpin their early engagement outreach efforts.
What makes public sector pre-procurement possible
Pre-procurement insights are enabled by public sector transparency obligations, which mean that buying authorities are required to publish how they are spending their money. The necessity for transparency from the public sector is only increasing, with the Procurement Act 2023 introducing further requirements that emphasise publishing pipeline data.
The sources of pre-procurement information can vary across the type of organisation. For central government, this typically means farsighted pipelines, whilst for the NHS and local government, the reports and minutes from Board and Committee meetings offer a detailed look into the pre-procurement process.
A pre-procurement opportunity is built from one or several of the following sources:
- Budgets and capital programmes
- Commercial pipelines
- Board, Cabinet or Committee meetings
- Decision records
- Business cases
- Masterplans and strategies, such as digital strategies or transformation plans
- News releases
The opportunities that may be found from these sources come in various forms – for example, a Council’s Net Zero Strategy may identify housing decarbonisation as a priority for the coming years, which could then lead to a Cabinet paper discussing the procurement of a contractor, or a news release may report on the award of grant funding which will prompt the development of a business case for a new project. In some cases, an opportunity may begin as a single line in a commercial pipeline or a budget allocation, before developing in more depth over the course of multiple updates.
Pre-procurement opportunities in practice: Two recent examples
A pre-procurement opportunity can trace a journey over several years, particularly in the case of long-term projects like construction-based regeneration.
Two illustrative examples are the procurements for a residential regeneration scheme by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council and a business park development by Durham County Council, which demonstrate the progression of an opportunity over time and the lead that can be given to suppliers with access to pre-procurement insights.
Tower Hamlets’ £215m Harriott, Apsley & Pattison House Regeneration Scheme
This opportunity was first identified in December 2021, with a Cabinet report seeking agreement to deliver a major housing regeneration project. Already, this report had established what the project would entail, as well as the proposed procurement route for a development partner or build contractor, an initial budget allocation, the estimated total scheme costs, and the project timeline. A further Cabinet report in February 2023 provided confirmation that a procurement would take place to secure a development partner, alongside an updated timeline and a key contact:
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The Council first notified the market of the opportunity in January 2024, issuing an invitation to attend an engagement event via Contracts Finder. At this stage, any teams using pre-procurement insights to shape their engagement, having already had a chance to reach out before other suppliers and being able to approach the formal engagement with a fuller knowledge of how the project had progressed so far.
Finally, a tender notice was published in March 2024, with a December 2024 news release confirming the signing of a Pre-Construction Services Agreement with a preferred partner and noting the plans for progressing the project.
Visualising pre-procurement: The timeline of an emerging opportunity – Tower Hamlets
Over three years, this opportunity developed from the pre-approval stage through to the design and enabling works, providing a two-year head start for interested suppliers seeking to get ahead of the tender, as well as setting the scene for any opportunities that may arise in the future stages of the regeneration.
Durham’s Aykley Heads Business Park Development
Spanning almost five years, this opportunity for the creation of a business park is part of Durham County Council’s broader project for the delivery of an innovation district. The opportunity was identified from a news release in August 2020, which noted the award of government funding for the first phase, establishing the proposed project value and scope:
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In March 2022, an update from a performance management report provided a revised commencement date for soft market testing and clarified that a development partner would be procured in the future. The plans were more fully fleshed out in September 2023, as a Cabinet paper sought approval for the Outline Business Case and to procure a Joint Venture partner. This update provided further context, with notes on the planning application, the impact of a local election and the soft market testing that had taken place to date. Key intel for suppliers included the procurement timeline and the details of three Council contacts.
Following the Cabinet update, the Council notified the market of the opportunity via Find a Tender in September 2023, confirming the information that had been established during the pre-procurement stage. This was followed by an invitation to tender in October 2023, then a news release reporting the appointment of the Joint Venture partner in March 2025.
Visualising pre-procurement: The timeline of an emerging opportunity – Durham
Whilst the Joint Venture has been established at this stage, the latest update looks forward to the Council’s wider regeneration plans, meaning that this opportunity remains valuable beyond the appointment of a preferred partner by providing additional context for any supplier looking to bid for future opportunities relating to the innovation district scheme.
These examples highlight the way in which pre-procurement intelligence can develop and update prior to the publication of an engagement or tender notice, showing that the tender stage is only part of the story when it comes to procurement.
The value of pre-procurement to work-winning teams within suppliers
As demonstrated, pre-procurement opportunities allow for early engagement long before a buyer notifies the market of an upcoming contract or live tender, meaning a significant advantage over competitors who are only seeing the tender. By getting involved early, suppliers can qualify their interest and potentially help shape the tender specifications.
For example, in the case of the Tower Hamlets regeneration scheme, the first information snippet in December 2021 describes an intention “to secure a suitable development partner or build contractor” and, by February 2023, the Council has considered its options and concluded that “a development partnership is now recommended”. This indicates that the early notice given in 2021 provided a chance for a prospective supplier to build a connection with the Council and inform its considerations of the best route for delivering the works.
Taking full advantage of the early engagement stage is crucial – following the notification of a potential future opportunity, the Insights Bid Prompts for Buyer Early Engagement are a helpful tool in ensuring effective engagement. As suggested by the prompts, building an understanding of the buyer’s priorities and procurement history is essential when looking to commence engagement – in this way, the benefits of pre-procurement insights go beyond just initial notifications.
As well as offering the fundamentals, such as key dates, values and contacts, pre-procurement can be used to help work-winning teams understand what is driving the procurement and what the buyer is looking for in a future supplier, which can be worked into engagement calls or the development of case studies.
For example, pre-procurement sources may include references to underperformance from an existing contract, a need to save money or a keenness to innovate beyond the current service scope. The details found in specific opportunity threads can also be cross-referenced with contextual information, such as council budgets, to equip teams with a fuller understanding of the buyer’s needs and motivations.
The curated, actionable intel offered by Insights, using a wide range of sources to identify tailored opportunities, provides a unique value to teams looking to win public sector contracts. Beyond just displaying documents, Insights gives an inside look into the pre-procurement process, tracking the development of potential opportunities and the decision processes behind them all the way through to the contract award.
With buying authorities frequently spending several months or longer developing their procurement plans before going out to tender, there is a considerable opportunity for suppliers to undertake constructive and advantageous early engagement – so if your team isn’t seeing this kind of insight, you’re already behind.