--- title: "Pegasystems lost HMRC's CRM deal, up to £2 billion, to Salesforce but kept a $419 million Army award" description: "The case-management software vendor kept its installed Army base without a contest and lost HMRC's open two-bid CRM final to Salesforce. Which door a booking enters through now matters more than its size." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Platforms" published: 2026-11-02T15:31:21.735Z modified: 2026-11-02T15:31:21.735Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pegasystems-lost-hmrc-s-crm-deal-up-to-2-billion-to-salesforce-but-kept-a-419-million-army-award language: en keywords: "Pegasystems, Salesforce, Government Contracts, Enterprise Software, CRM" --- # Pegasystems lost HMRC's CRM deal, up to £2 billion, to Salesforce but kept a $419 million Army award > The case-management software vendor kept its installed Army base without a contest and lost HMRC's open two-bid CRM final to Salesforce. Which door a booking enters through now matters more than its size. [Pegasystems](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/pegasystems) took both sides of a verdict in the same fortnight: the US Army agreed to pay it up to $419 million over 10 years without a rival in the room [1], while HM Revenue & Customs, Britain's tax authority, passed it over for [Salesforce](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/salesforce) in an open, two-bid final worth up to £2 billion [2]. Revenue that arrives because a customer has no alternative is priced differently from revenue that survives a contest, and investors should track which of the two doors Pega's future bookings come through. | | US Army award | HMRC award | | --- | --- | --- | | Vendor won | Pegasystems | Salesforce | | Ceiling | $419 million [1] | £2 billion before VAT [2] | | Term | 10 years, to October 2036 [1] | 15 years, options to 2041 [2] | | Bids | One, sole-source [1] | Two, contest won [2] | *The two doors: the US Army award Pega took without a contest, and the HMRC contract it lost to Salesforce. Sources: GovConWire [1], VETTDD [2].* ## The Army bought from Pega without a competition [The Army's award](https://www.govconwire.com/articles/pegasystems-419m-army-enterprise-software-contract), announced Thursday, is a firm-fixed-price indefinite-delivery vehicle covering Pega software subscriptions, Tier-3 support and professional services for case management, low-code development and business process work, running to October 2036 [1]. Army Contracting Command-Rock Island bought directly from Pegasystems as the original equipment manufacturer under a sole-source exception, citing a regulation that allows it when only one responsible source can meet the need; the solicitation drew exactly one bid [1]. The Army did not test Pega against anyone; it kept the vendor it already has. ## HMRC ran a contest and chose the other vendor Weeks earlier, HM Revenue & Customs chose Salesforce over Pega as its enterprise CRM provider: [a contract that started September 30, runs to at least September 2036](https://vettdd.com/hmrc-picks-salesforce-over-pega-in-crm-deal-worth-up-to-2bn/) with options to 2041, worth up to £2 billion before VAT, and scored 70% on quality against 20% on price [2]. The platform will hold the customer records behind services for more than 34 million individuals and 5 million businesses [2]. Salesforce's Agentforce AI agents will automate routine administration, triage inbound queries and route complex cases to specialists under human oversight [2]. Pega's prior foothold there was a five-year agreement announced in May 2024 [2]; Salesforce displaced it and locked the tax agency into its data model and agent platform into the 2040s, alongside a separate contact-center contract worth up to £600 million led by Capgemini, the French IT services consultancy [2]. ## The open-competition record is what carries the growth question The loss lands on a company already straining. [Pega's third quarter, reported October 20, missed on revenue and earnings](https://247wallst.com/cards/pegasystems-q3-2026-earnings-pega-01m5df9cejpv441f8ejke67s8h), with revenue up about 3% and management blaming go-to-market execution for slowing [annual contract value growth](https://theinference.org/article/pegasystems-drops-its-15-growth-target-as-customers-delay-software-buys-to-test-ai) [3]. *Chart: **Pega's growth rate is fading: 3.1% year-over-year revenue in the Q3 miss** Column chart of Pegasystems quarterly revenue, Q4 2024 through Q3 2026, showing growth slowing to 3.1% year over year in Q3 2026* *Quarterly revenue in US$ millions, with year-over-year change in the second series, Q4 2024 through Q3 2026. Source: Pegasystems, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 2 November 2026 [4]. [4]* Against that, the sole-source Army award plus the January agreement under which the Army may buy up to $500 million of [Appian](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/appian), the rival low-code platform vendor, say the US government continues to buy this category at scale [1]; what they do not say is that Pega wins it when alternatives are on the table. Salesforce's HMRC win also hands every large CRM buyer, public and private, a reference price and a reference term [2]. For investors, the question is not whether government software demand exists; it plainly does. It is whether Pega's edge holds outside relationships where it is already installed. Watch its next open, multi-bid enterprise award as the test that matters. ## Takeaway Pegasystems kept the Army as a sole-source customer but lost HMRC's open contest to Salesforce, and the gap between those two doors is now the number investors should track on every future booking. ## Sources 1. [GovConWire, Pegasystems Books $419M Army Enterprise Software IDIQ, 2 November 2026](https://www.govconwire.com/articles/pegasystems-419m-army-enterprise-software-contract) 2. [VETTDD, HMRC picks Salesforce over Pega in CRM deal worth up to £2bn, 1 November 2026](https://vettdd.com/hmrc-picks-salesforce-over-pega-in-crm-deal-worth-up-to-2bn/) 3. [24/7 Wall St., Pegasystems Q3 2026: EPS and Revenue Both Miss as Growth Stalls, 20 October 2026](https://247wallst.com/cards/pegasystems-q3-2026-earnings-pega-01m5df9cejpv441f8ejke67s8h) 4. [Pegasystems, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 2 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001013857) --- Pegasystems lost HMRC's CRM deal, up to £2 billion, to Salesforce but kept a $419 million Army award — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pegasystems-lost-hmrc-s-crm-deal-up-to-2-billion-to-salesforce-but-kept-a-419-million-army-award