Council To Spend Over £2m On Microsoft Software Licence

A £2m-plus Microsoft computer software licensing contract to allow Pembrokeshire County Council to continue to function as an organisation has been backed by senior councillors.

At the November 4 meeting of the council’s Cabinet, members were recommended to give delegated authority to the Director of Resources to secure a three-year contract, with a one-year extension, for the licensing of Microsoft 365 (M365) Productivity Suite software which includes Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams video and collaboration, Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Sharepoint, universally used across the council.

The licensing will cost some £2,100,000 – £2,200,000 based on benchmarked pricing from Crown Commercial Services; the current arrangement is due to expire on December 13.

A report for members said it was a requirement to conduct the Council’s day-to-day business, in addition to safeguarding ICT activities.

“With decreasing budgets and resources, the task of procuring and ensuring best value is proving more challenging. CCS offers a free aggregation service to help public sector organisations make savings through the power of collective buying, which would not be possible through individual buying. One such exercise being run by CCS is the aggregation for a Microsoft licence solutions partner covering all Microsoft licensing products.”

Presenting the recommendation to fellow Cabinet members, Cabinet Member for Communities, Corporate Improvement and the Well-being of Future Generations Cllr Neil Prior said: “We wouldn’t be able to run this organisation without Microsoft software,” adding the cost of changing to a different system would be “enormous”.

Council Leader Cllr Jon Harvey questioned the large sum of money, and was told it boiled down to £18.83 per month per service user.

Members agreed to delegate the decision to award a contract to a Microsoft licence solutions partner following the CCS aggregated tender exercise.