Purpose

This report seeks approval to commence a
procurement process for the award of a contract related to the
replacement and renewal of Newham’s Microsoft Enterprise
Licensing Agreement (EA). This requires approval of the expenditure
from revenue budgets for the value circa £1.978 million per
year

Decision

Decision
 
For the reasons set
out in the report and its appendices Cabinet RESOLVED to Agree:
 
i) 
Approval to procure a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) via award
to the winning supplier from the Microsoft aggregate process that
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) will undertake via the framework
reference RM6089 - Software Products and Associated Services Lot 3
(Software of the Technology Products and Associated Services) for a
period of three years at an estimated cost of circa £1.978
million per year
 
Alternatives
Considered
 

a) 
A short study has previously been carried out to ascertain
viability of implementation of Google suite cc Switching to an
alternative software vendor suite has been considered. The current
ICT server environment relies heavily on the Microsoft products.
The business systems we use also rely on Microsoft product
databases. The only realistic option would be the Google G-Suite
product set as a replacement for the Microsoft Office suite for
email and sharing and collaboration services. However, this would
only partly remove the reliance on Microsoft products in these
service areas. It should also be noted that if the decision were
made to move to Google suite, Newham would still need to invest in
Microsoft products and licences for other infrastructure and
application set up. The cost of change would also be a significant
factor.

b) 
For the reasons set out above, these options were considered and
rejected.