These systems are widely used across the public sector, utilities, universities, and large private corporations to manage tenders, frameworks and supplier relationships more efficiently.

What Are Buyer and Supplier Portals?

Buyer portals are run by procurement platforms such as Delta eSourcing, Proactis, Coupa, and SAP Ariba.
They’re used by public- and private-sector buyers to post tenders, invite bids, and manage contract awards. Once registered, suppliers can access opportunities, submit proposals and track progress — all in one place.

Supplier portals are managed directly by large organisations (for example, utilities, transport authorities, universities, or corporates) to source suppliers and manage approved lists.
These portals are often listed on an organisation’s “Procurement” or “Doing Business With Us” webpage. Registration allows you to receive alerts, qualify for frameworks, and get invited to compete for upcoming work.

Why These Portals Matter

Using buyer and supplier portals can significantly improve how efficiently your business identifies and responds to opportunities.

Key benefits include:

Early access to opportunities: Many tenders are published exclusively through these platforms before appearing elsewhere.

Visibility: Registering puts your business directly in front of procurement teams looking for qualified suppliers.

Streamlined process: You can manage tenders, submissions and messages from a single dashboard.

Compliance support: Built-in templates, forms and audit trails help you meet public-sector standards.

Efficiency: Automated alerts mean you only see tenders that match your services or location.

Common Buyer Portals Used Across the UK

These are some of the main systems used by public-sector and corporate buyers:

Delta eSourcing – Widely used by councils, housing associations and NHS trusts. delta-esourcing.com

Proactis / ProContract – Used by hundreds of local authorities and education institutions. procontract.due-north.com

In-tend – A common platform for universities and local government bodies. in-tendhost.co.uk

Atamis – Used by NHS Supply Chain and some government departments. health.atamis.co.uk

Coupa – Corporate and multinational procurement system for managing supplier networks. coupa.com

SAP Ariba – Global procurement and supplier collaboration platform. ariba.com

Jaggaer (Defence Sourcing Portal) – Used by the Ministry of Defence and other public bodies. defencesourcingportal.mod.uk

Typical Supplier Portals

Many large organisations host their own supplier registration systems. It’s worth checking the procurement section of the websites for any organisations you’d like to work with.

Examples include:

Network Rail – Supplier portal for infrastructure and rail projects.

National Grid – Supplier registration for energy and utilities contracts.

Transport for London (TfL) – Supplier registration and tendering system.

Universities – Each university typically hosts a procurement or supplier portal (often linked to In-tend or Proactis).

Housing Associations – Many use frameworks via Proactis, Fusion21 or regional portals.

Utilities and Corporates – Large companies (e.g., BAE Systems, BT, Siemens) run their own supplier systems or use SAP Ariba for registration.