Decision details

The Committee gave consideration to a report which focused on changes to the Council’s corporate Microsoft Enterprise Agreement.  The latest corporate Agreement had expired on 31 May 2017 and had not been renewed as it was no longer affordable.  The report looked at outputs from a Licensing Consultancy Service, the implications of Microsoft’s pricing strategy, and purchasing arrangements available to the Council.  The report recommended the most affordable and practical way forward to allow the Council to use Microsoft Software to help conduct business with minimum or no disruption to services.

Decision

The Policy and Resources Committee agreed to recommend to the Council to  –

1.    Note that the Council’s corporate body no longer operates an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft with effect from 1 June 2017; and that savings of £208k are anticipated for 2017-18, £222k in 2018-19 and £264k in 2019-20 as a result.

2.    Note that these savings would be required in future years in order to fund upgrades to the latest versions of software from 2020 onwards.

3.    Approve the retention of the savings in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 as earmarked reserves to be used to fund the expected additional costs of Microsoft software in 2020-21 to 2022-23 as this would smooth the annual budgetary requirement.

4.    Note that the ICT Service would keep the plan for Microsoft software licensing under annual review.

(Reference:  Report by Executive Director – Customer Services dated 16 August 2017, submitted)