Microsoft Enterprise Agreement

Report: 11
Date: 15 December 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

Approval is sought to sign a new Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft.

A. Recommendation

That

1. Members give approval for the signing of a Microsoft Enterprise Home Office Agreement for a period of three years, replacing the current Office of Government Commerce (OGC) agreement.

B. Supporting information

Objective

1. To sign an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft, under the auspices of the Home Office Master Agreement over three years for 30,000 workstations. Annual payments will be made from central funds administered by the Directorate of Information’s (DoI’s) Service Delivery Group. The MPS Catalogue’s purchase prices for products (including Microsoft software) incorporate a cost recovery element so that Cost Centres fund the true cost. The Agreement will be backdated to 1 April 2005 and a credit will be given for the sums previously paid relating to the period April 2005 to January 2006.

Background

2. Microsoft is a key strategic supplier of software to the MPS with the whole of the AWARE infrastructure built upon their products. It is essential therefore that we have arrangements in place to provide the ability to:

• Obtain updated versions of their software, as part of our life cycle maintenance programme, to ensure that we always have in place supported products.
• Exploit new capabilities provided as part of the ongoing development of the products.

Enterprise agreement

3. The current OGC Microsoft enterprise agreement, which provides for the updated versions of software, is due to expire at the end of January 2007.

There are two options available to us in moving forward; we can either:

• Carry on with the current agreement until January 2007, at which time a new agreement must be signed or the current one extended.
• Sign a new three-year agreement based upon the more favourable terms negotiated by Home Office to provide software updates and product exploitation support capabilities at a more cost effective rate and increase coverage to 30,000 workstations.

It is recommended that the Committee adopt the second option, for the reasons outlined in this report.

Current situation

4. As a result of the continuing success of the Aware network, and its growth in support of the operational business, the number of desktop licenses to be provided by an agreement must be done in a cost efficient manner to deal with an increase from 23,832 (January 2005 figure) units to reflect the number of units connected at future “true-ups”. It is also anticipated that the number of desktop units will continue to increase to approximately 30,000 by January 2008, as more of the “standalone” machines are connected to the network and the number of mobile devices increases.

Additional benefits

5. As part of the new agreement the MPS will be able to continue taking advantage of Microsoft's software assurance for automatic access to new technology and productivity benefits.

These facilities are as follows:

• Home Use Program (HUP): MPS employees could have copies of the products in the Microsoft Office System (Microsoft Office, OneNote™, FrontPage®, InfoPath™, Publisher, Visio®, and Project) for which the MPS has licenses, to install on their home computers for personal use.
• New Version Rights: With Software Assurance, MPS would receive access to new versions of licensed software released during the term of the agreement to deploy at our own pace. New Version Rights simplifies the procurement process and shortens the business process cycle. We could reduce the costs associated with acquiring new version releases and immediately take advantage of the latest technology.

Impact of not awarding contract

6. If we did not award this contract, the Authority would incur additional costs over the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2008.

C. Legal implications

None if contract change as agreed with Microsoft is implemented.

D. Race and equality impact

All Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) solutions provided through the MPS information strategy pay attention to the needs and potential impact on special groups. Microsoft products form an integral part of Disability Discrimination Act compliant workstations already available via the MPS’ Information Systems Catalogue.

E. Financial implications

The financial implications are set out in the linked Exempt Appendix.

F. Background papers

• Original report to Finance Committee on 19 February 2004 seeking approval for award of contract

G. Contact details

Report author: P E Scutchings, Directorate of Information

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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