Central Government continues Microsoft Enterprise Agreement roll out9th February 2004. London... Civica Limited, one of the UK’s most experienced providers of public sector consulting, software systems and managed services, has secured a software licensing contract to implement Microsoft’s Enterprise Agreement at the Cabinet Office, as part of an Office of Government Commerce (OGC) licensing strategy.The UK government’s Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft in 2002 saw the adoption of new pricing and discounting arrangements for Microsoft licensing across all government departments. Civica is an expert in licensing, compliance and asset management and holds GCat Prime Contractor status. The OGC has estimated that new licensing arrangements which result from the Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft will save the public sector £100 million over all government operations in the three years from March 2002.¹ The Office further reported in 2003 that the ten government departments which had used the Memorandum were expecting cost savings of £5.4 million alone in that time frame.² Civica Services’ three-year licensing contract for the Cabinet Office covers supply of Windows Upgrade, Office Professional, Core CAL, Front Page, Project and Visio.³ Steve Reynolds, managing director of Civica Services said, “It’s not just local government and the NHS that are using software smartly to improve service delivery. Central government is practising what it preaches and has also set rigorous performance targets for itself. Implementation of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement by a number of departments and ministries is just one component of a radical technology modernisation programme underway at Westminster. The main difference is that central government is under closer scrutiny to get it right, first time.” Notes to Editors 1 National Audit Office report “Purchasing and Managing Software Licences”, May 2003, p1 2 The report “Purchasing and Managing Software Licences” in May 2003 highlighted the extent to which central government relies on efficient management of software and software licences. In 2002, government departments spent more than £100 million on over one million software licenses, p1. 3 Civica is one of the foremost licensing organisations in the UK, and is a major reseller to the public sector of many popular software products, including those from Microsoft, Computer Associates, Corel, Adobe, IBM, Network Associates, Novell, Symantec and Veritas.