DFT Operator Limited (DFTO) is undertaking preliminary market engagement to help inform the procurement strategy, contract scope and specification for a Customer Engagement and Relationship Management (CERM) Solution that will provide the shared capability needed to deliver a consistent, coordinated and personalised customer experience across GBR. Emerging Scope The proposed CERM solution encompasses the following key capability areas: 1. Customer Engagement & Marketing Communications Design, manage and deliver coordinated customer engagement and marketing communications across digital channels and customer lifecycle stages. 2. Service & Journey Communications Deliver timely, relevant rail service, journey and disruption-related communications before, during and after travel, across digital channels. 3. Customer Support & Case Management Manage customer enquiries, complaints, support interactions and case resolution consistently across customer service channels. 4. Customer Data Activation & Personalisation Consume, segment and activate customer data to support personalised engagement, communications and customer experiences. 5. Foundation Customer Data Services Maintain, manage and make available a trusted and unified view of customer identity, profiles, consent, preferences and related customer data across customer engagement and support services and the wider ecosystem. These capability areas represent the current high-level scope and may be refined following market engagement. Purpose of Preliminary Market Engagement DFTO would like to understand what COTS SaaS cover one or more (or all) of the requirements including approach to systems integration to provide a seamless experience to GBR customers and staff and indicative costs to support the development of procurement methodology and business case. DFTO is contemplating utilising suitable framework agreements as a potential route to market.

Procurement Act 2023

To facilitate market engagement, DFTO will hold a webinar for interested suppliers on 04/11/2026 at 11:00 GMT setting out the requirement and approach to procurement. Please register your interest to attend by completing the form located at https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/RePj8T7kWr Following the webinar, you will be invited to respond to a questionnaire with your feedback by 17/11/2026 The purpose of this questionnaire is to understand market capability, delivery models, transition approaches, commercial structures and indicative costings, potential barriers to participation and any factors that may influence supplier interest or ability to bid. Responses will be used to help shape the final procurement approach, tender documentation and contract requirements.