SSE Services Awards £4M iHawk SaaS Contract to Cyberhawk
Summary
SSE Services PLC has awarded a £4,000,000 contract to Cyberhawk Innovations Limited for the iHawk SaaS platform covering asset inspection, UAS imagery management, and condition-based reporting. The direct award (justified on IP and technical grounds) runs from April 2026 to March 2031. The standstill period ends 21 April 2026, with contract signature expected from 22 April 2026.
What changed
SSE Services PLC formally awarded the iHawk SaaS contract to Cyberhawk Innovations Limited for £4,000,000. The award is classified as a direct award under the Utilities special regime of the Procurement Act 2023, justified by single-supplier protections: Cyberhawk holds intellectual property or exclusive rights over the platform, and the technical integration (customised workflows, historical data, re-engineering costs) makes substitution impractical. The contract period is approximately 5 years (April 2026 to March 2031).
Affected parties include competing UAS-data management and visual-asset platform vendors, who are effectively barred from this contract due to the proprietary nature of iHawk and absence of like-for-like alternatives. Energy sector utilities and other regulated entities awarding infrastructure inspection contracts should note the use of IP and technical justifications to support direct awards, which under the Procurement Act 2023 may be challenged during the standstill period ending 21 April 2026.
What to do next
- Monitor standstill period ending 21 April 2026
- Review direct award justifications (IP and technical reasons) for competitive benchmarking
- Assess any implications of proprietary platform lock-in for future procurement strategy
Archived snapshot
Apr 9, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
Award
OO Services - iHawk SaaS Distribution & Transmission
- SSE SERVICES PLC UK6: Contract award notice - Procurement Act 2023 - view information about notice types
Notice identifier: 2026/S 000-032594
Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-066f8a (view related notices)
Published 9 April 2026, 4:49pm
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Contents
Scope Contract 1 Procedure Supplier Contracting authority
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Description
The iHawk service supports both Distribution and Transmission business units, enabling efficient management of infrastructure risk and compliance with regulatory requirements.
The iHawk platform is materially embedded within existing operational processes for asset inspection, UAS imagery management, geospatial analysis and condition based reporting. Over several years, Cyberhawk has developed customised workflows, dashboards and reporting modules specifically for our operational environment, meaning that substitution would require wholesale transition to a new platform, re engineering of data ingestion models, re training teams, and conducting large scale re processing of historical asset imagery and asset condition information.
A technical review was conducted of comparable UAS‑data management and visual‑asset platforms currently on the market. Although several vendors offer generic imagery repositories or GIS‑adjacent tools, none provide a like‑for‑like replacement for iHawk’s integrated inspection, analytics, condition assessment and reporting capabilities, nor can they ingest existing structured datasets without a bespoke and cost‑prohibitive redevelopment programme. Engagement with Cyberhawk has also confirmed that the proprietary nature of their platform prevents direct replication by any other supplier.
Commercial tool
Establishes a framework
Contract 1
Supplier
Contract value
- £4,000,000 including VAT Above the relevant threshold
Award decision date
9 April 2026
Standstill period
- End: 21 April 2026
- 9 working days
Earliest date the contract will be signed
22 April 2026
Contract dates (estimated)
- 22 April 2026 to 31 March 2031
- 4 years, 11 months, 9 days
Main procurement category
Services
CPV classifications
Information technology services
Procedure
Procedure type
Direct award
Special regime
Utilities
Direct award justification
- Single supplier - intellectual property or exclusive rights
- Single supplier - technical reasons Single supplier - intellectual property or exclusive rights and technical reasons
Supplier
Cyberhawk Innovations Limited
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PLZC-6662-MXPZ EICA 5th Floor, South Platt Hill
Edinburgh
EH28 8AA
United Kingdom
Email: info@thecyberhawk.com
Region: UKM75 - Edinburgh, City of
Small or medium-sized enterprise (SME): Yes
Voluntary, community or social enterprise (VCSE): No
Supported employment provider: No
Public service mutual: No
Contract 1
Contracting authority
SSE SERVICES PLC
- Companies House: 02366879 No.1 Forbury Place
Reading
RG1 3JH
United Kingdom
Email: procurement.notices@sse.com
Website: http://www.sse.com
Region: UKJ11 - Berkshire
Organisation type: Private utility
Named provisions
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