Computer Hardware Contracts in Québec: 30 Firms for Half the Tenders

The essentials in 30 seconds

Of the eight sectors we measured, computer hardware is the one where the fewest firms share the tenders.
Most computer hardware purchases do not go through a call for tenders.
When a tender is issued, it draws few bidders and is often decided by a few points.

Karim runs an 18-employee IT integration firm in Québec City. He sees public tenders go by now and then, files a few a year, and feels the same names always come back. The data proves him right, and it also explains why he sees so few of them.

We looked at 13,593 computer hardware contracts awarded in Québec between 2021 and 2025.

Tenders shared by few firms

It takes only 30 firms to cover half the computer hardware contracts awarded by tender in Québec. That is the lowest figure of the eight sectors we measured. In building, it takes 410; in maintenance and repair, 657.

The sector's top winner holds 6.5% of contracts awarded by tender.

That half is counted on contracts put out to competition, or 27% of the sector.

One explanation lies in the market itself, and our data does not measure it: hardware resale often runs through framework agreements, authorized distributors and manufacturer certifications, which limit the number of firms able to bid.

An honest caveat on that figure: company names on SEAO are not standardized, and the same firm can appear there under several spellings. Real concentration is therefore at least as strong as what we measure, never weaker.

Most purchases do not go through a call for tenders

73.1% of computer hardware contracts are awarded by mutual agreement. Only 27% are awarded after competition.

The contrast with construction sectors is sharp: in civil engineering, 86% of contracts are put out to competition.

Among the sector's direct awards that declare a reason on SEAO, 54.7% cite an amount below the public tendering threshold. That share is read on the 66.0% of direct awards that actually declare a reason; the rest publish none.

What the sector's 13,593 contracts show
Firms covering half the tenders	30
Share of the sector put out to competition	27%
Average number of bidders per tender	2.3
Tenders that received a single bid	39.4%
On public notices only	24.5%
Contracts awarded by tender that go through an invitation	43.9%

When there is a tender, there are few bidders

A computer hardware tender receives on average 2.3 bids. We do not compare that average with another sector's: the share of tenders by invitation varies too much for two averages to describe the same population.

And 39.4% of those tenders receive a single bid. The contract is put out to competition, and a single firm shows up.

For an integrator hesitating to invest a day in a response, that is useful information: competition in this sector is rarely crowded.

Not all of these tenders are addressed to everyone

The competitive subset is not a homogeneous population. A public notice is addressed to every eligible firm; a call for tenders by invitation is addressed only to the firms that were solicited. In computer hardware, 43.9% of contracts awarded by tender go through an invitation.

That distinction changes which figure to read. On public notices only, the ones you could answer without having been solicited, the share receiving a single bid is 24.5%, against 39.4% once invitations are included.

The overall rate is higher than the public-notice rate: outside public notices, the uncontested share is therefore larger. For a firm that sells hardware, the consequence is concrete: part of the files cannot be seen by watching notices, it is seen by already being registered with the buyer.

What this changes for your next bid

What you see is not the market. Nearly three computer hardware contracts in four are not put out to competition at all. Watching published notices gives a partial view of the sector.

When a notice comes out, competition is thin. Just over two bids on average, and nearly four notices in ten with no competition at all: the return on invested time has to be weighed differently.

Price is decided in points. In a resale market, the difference is made on cost structure and terms, not on estimating.

Method

These figures are measured from the open data of Québec's electronic tendering system (SEAO), covering contracts awarded between 2021 and 2025. A contract is counted once, whatever the number of lots or amendments.

The share put out to competition covers public calls for tenders, calls for tenders by invitation, which are addressed only to the firms that were solicited, and purchases made through a mandated body or a group of organisations.

The single-bid rate is given twice: across all contracts put out to competition, then on public notices only. The second is a subset of the first, the files a firm can answer without having been solicited. The remainder is not only invitations: it also covers purchases run by a mandated body or a group of organisations, and calls for tenders not published on SEAO.

Sources

Data source

Dataset: “Système électronique d’appel d’offres (SEAO)”, published by the Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor (Québec Treasury Board Secretariat), released on Données Québec under the CC BY 4.0 licence.

Processing: data extracted, cleaned and analysed by Adjudica; the figures shown result from this processing and are not an official SEAO publication. See our data.