Agenda item

The report will seek Cabinet Member approval to award a contract under the Crown Commercial Services Technology Products Framework lot 2 (RM1054) for Microsoft software licenses through a Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement (ESA) for a period of 3 years with the option to extend for a further period of 3 years. By procuring through the ESA, the Council is offsetting an anticipated overall average increase of about 47% on software licences after 30^th June 2015.

The indicative annual spend of the ESA is £350,000 resulting in a total indicative spend of £1,050,000 over the initial 3 year contract term or £2,100,000 over the maximum 6-year extended term.

A report was tabled seeking Cabinet Member Approval to award a contract under the Crown Commercial Services Technology Products Framework lot 2 (RM1054) for Microsoft software licenses (an Enterprise Subscription Agreement).

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft Corporation had entitled the UK Public Sector to receive significant pricing discount on software licences, but the MoU expired on 30^th April 2015. A bridging arrangement was subsequently agreed with Microsoft, termed the Cloud Transformation Agreement, until the 30^th June 2015. An overall average price increase of around 47% was anticipated if the Council was to enter into an Enterprise Subscription Agreement with Microsoft after the expiration of this bridging agreement.  The Cabinet Member noted that the contract value was approximately £350k per annum and the report proposed awarding the contract for a three year period, with the option to extend for a further period of 3 years.

Cllr Arthur asked for clarification on the potential to move to the Google App product set and asked which current IT services were not supported by Google. Officers responded that a number of the line of business back office systems such as Framework-I and the housing system were tightly aligned with Microsoft software. Although some functions such as the office suite and email could be replaced by the Google App set, this would only partly remove the dependency on Microsoft products and so would still require significant continued expenditure on Microsoft licenses. The Cabinet Member noted that another London borough was exploring the possibilities of moving over some of their systems to Google.

Cllr Hare commented that he was disappointed with the lack of analysis in the report on the possibilities of using open source software. The UK government mandated a preference for open source software for future developments in March 2015 and a number of UK government agencies use open source software for their websites. Cllr Hare requested that an options appraisal be undertaken to see where progress could be made in terms of moving to more open source software and suggested that the Council set an ambitious target to reduce software licensing by the time the next contract renewal process comes around. Cllr Carter reiterated Cllr Hare’s comments and stated that the report made clear how dependant the organisation was on Microsoft. Cllr Carter suggested that an independent report be commissioned to assess the feasibility of moving away from Microsoft based IT systems.

Officers broadly agreed about the over reliance on Microsoft systems. Officers commented that the overall market seemed to be changing towards smaller App-based pieces of software and that IT was developing in-house skills to take advantage of these applications. The Council already used Drupal which is open source software for its website and would continue to explore possibilities for using open source software in other areas but any large project would necessitate bringing in 3^rd party assistance to support any open source development. The Interim Head of IT noted that the Council would be publishing its Digital Strategy in the next 6-8 weeks and one of the principles detailed within the document would be around exploration and utilisation of open source software where possible. The Interim Head of IT also agreed to look into the feasibility of using open source software for line of business applications when we consider replacements.

Councillor Arthur noted the concerns expressed around the lack of exploration of open source solutions and asked officers to undertake a review in say 6 months to ascertain what progress had been made about transitioning towards a greater mix of open source and licensed products. 

RESOLVED

I).By Virtue of CSOs 9.06.1(e) and 16.02, that approval for the award of a Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement under the Microsoft Cloud Transformation Agreement by way of a call off from CSS framework RM1054 to the most economically advantageous bidder, Comparex UK Limited, be given.

I). That the contract be awarded for a period of 3 years with an option to extend for a further period of 3 years based on Comparex UK Ltd’s tendered unit price list.  The indicative annual spend is £350,000 resulting in a total indicative spend of £1,050,000 over the initial 3 year contract term or £2,100,000 over the maximum 6-year extended term.