***Pre-Market Engagement *** ICT-26-009 Catering Management Tool

**This is not a tender exercise*** The Education Authority Northern Ireland (EANI) would like to invite participation in a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to seek the views of the market for the provision, in the first instance, of a Catering System within Northern Ireland schools, supporting modern, secure and efficient payment methods and managing risks associated with special diets within schools.

The purpose of this PME exercise is for EANI to gain an understanding of the latest developments and innovative solutions available for school settings and will be used to assist EANI in gaining a better understanding of the feasibility of the requirements, the most appropriate procurement and operational approach, the capacity of the market to deliver the requirements and an opportunity for the market to highlight any possible risks or issues.

This PME exercise also seeks to identify indicative costs to help inform the business case on the commercial aspects for the delivery and implementation of solution(s). For the avoidance of doubt, this is the scoping phase of the project and is not part of any formal procurement process and there is no commitment at this stage to carry out such a process. Any information gathered will not be considered in any future tender exercise.

Please note that participation or non-participation in this PME exercise shall not prevent any supplier from participating in any future procurement process, nor is it intended that any information provided shall place any supplier at an advantage or disadvantage in any future procurement exercise. Further information including the questionnaire can be downloaded from the documents section of the CfT on eTendersNI.

Suppliers who wish to participate in the PME exercise must return the completed questionnaire via the messaging function of the CfT on eTendersNI no later than 15:00 on Friday 29th May 2026. As part of the PME exercise, participants may be invited to attend a follow-up session with EANI to explore and discuss the information provided in their response, this will be at the discretion of EANI. For reference, the eTendersni reference number for this PME exercise is 6527440