Three potential bidders were initially interested but only two submitted proposals

2.9  The Department did not formally carry out a full market survey to establish how many companies would be interested in the project and to assess whether its proposals for the project were likely to be attractive to potential bidders. The Department chose instead to approach a number of IT providers informally to assess potential interest. The Department received 19 expressions of interest in response to the notice in the Official Journal of the European Communities but only three responded to the Business Prospectus. These were (i) ICL and Unisys, with ICL eventually taking the prime contractor role; (ii) EDS, with STL Technologies as subcontractor; and (iii) TRW/Bull. The latter dropped out after being shortlisted as it felt it did not have sufficient resources in this country to undertake the project.