Decision details

To obtain approval to enter into replacement Microsoft Enterprise Licence Agreement via a newly appointed Microsoft reseller

1.         That a three year Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement be entered into to provide a compliant, flexible and cost effective Microsoft licensing solution with an initial value of £1.5m per annum, which is fixed throughout the term if there are no licence volume changes but will increase or decrease in cost with any changes in licence volumes.

2.         That the Council remains compliant under Microsoft licensing terms, and authority be delegated to the Chief Information Officer and Head of Procurement to purchase any additional licences required within the term of the Microsoft Agreement Subscription via the same route, where this provides the most cost effective solution and can be funded.

Reasons for Decisions:

The existing five year Microsoft Enterprise Agreement Subscription expires on 30 June 2016 after which time the Council will no longer be compliantly licenced for the Microsoft applications currently in use including the Microsoft Office suite and associated Microsoft services.

Microsoft only resells the licensing for its products through a network of approved Partners. Purchase of a Microsoft Agreement therefore needs to be completed via the Microsoft Licence Solution Partner contract recently awarded by the Council to Phoenix Software Limited. This ‘nil value’ contract was the result of a further competition under a Government procurement framework, in compliance with the requirements of the Public Contracts Regulations and Procurement Standing Orders.

Following a thorough evaluation process, this further competition demonstrated that the selection of Phoenix Software Limited will provide best value for money for the Council.

[The decision on this item may be called in by the Council Overview Board]