Purpose

This report seeks approval to award a contract
related to the renewal of Newham's Microsoft Enterprise Licensing
Agreement (EA)

Decision

Decision
 
For the reasons set
out in the report and its appendices Cabinet RESOLVED to Agree
to:
 
i) 
The approval to award a Sovereign Microsoft Enterprise Agreement
(EA) to Pheonix Software for 3 years, at an estimated cost of circa
£2.17 million per year (£6.51 million over the total
contract period).
 
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.