HCC - 10/25 - Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) for the Hybrid Mail Procurement Project

Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) is a large user of postal services. It uses printed communications and physical letters to communicate with residents / individuals / businesses within the county and produced approximately 545,000 mail items in 2024/25 necessitating the need for a flexible and forward-thinking approach with the HCC postal system.

The current Hybrid Mail system used by HCC enables the electronic submission of documents for remote printing, enveloping, and posting. In the current year approximately 50% of our outbound mail has been sent via our Hybrid Mail system. The current system was adopted in 2020 and is widely utilised across HCC Services and teams, supporting essential communications such as general mailings, invoices, legal notices, and reminders, and aligns with GDPR and legal compliance standards. The current contract has reached the end of its initial 5-year term, and we have extended the maintenance contract.

Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) seeks to procure a modern, flexible, and scalable Hybrid Mail solution to support its evolving communication needs. The system must enable secure, efficient, and compliant electronic submission of documents for remote printing, enveloping, and posting.

Please refer to the PME document for full details.

The Council is carrying out PME in relation to this project. The Council will consider the feedback received to help inform the Council’s options, requirements and further decision making.

For the avoidance of doubt, this stage of the project is not part of a formal procurement process and the Council is not committing, at this stage, to carrying out such a process.

Participation or non-participation in the PME shall not prevent any supplier participating in a potential future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied as part of the PME shall place any supplier at an advantage in a potential procurement process.

Please make sure that you have submitted your Supplier Questionnaire following the instructions within the PME documentation and e-tendering system. The Council will not be held accountable for any errors made by an organisation in submitting their Supplier Questionnaire.

Please note: The below contract start and end dates may be subject to change