New Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Crown Commercial Service following expiration of PSA12

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Last week we started telling partners about a Transition Agreement signed with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) following the natural expiration of PSA12. Here are the details of that agreement and, for more information, we recommend you speak with your Microsoft representative or Licensing Solution Partner.

Microsoft has had a strategic relationship with UK Government since 2002 under a number of non- binding framework agreements with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), part of the Cabinet Office, and its predecessors. The last one of these agreements (PSA12) was set for a three-year period and is due to naturally expire in April 2015.

Recognising the cloud-first policy of the UK Government, both Microsoft and CCS have agreed that such commercial agreements are no longer appropriate in matching the needs of UK Public Sector customers. The PSA-style agreements were originally created in a non-cloud world and subsequent updated agreements have built on that original model so are no longer suitable for modern cloud-based IT environments.

The availability of secure cloud services (be that public or private cloud) provide significant savings over traditional technology infrastructure and enable and accelerate the transformational changes required of today’s Public Sector. Microsoft is a committed and accredited partner under CCS’s  G-Cloud agreement  allowing UK Public Sector customers the opportunity to purchase Microsoft’s Online Services alongside multiple options from other suppliers. This position is consistent with the Government’s stated intention announced in May 2013 by Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office to be ‘Cloud First’ for public sector IT: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-adopts-cloud-first-policy-for-public-sector-it.

In order to ensure UK Public Sector customers who choose to make the transformation to cloud services have sufficient time, Microsoft and CCS have agreed the following arrangements for the period following the expiry of PSA12.

  • Any existing Enterprise Agreement customer will be given the opportunity to renew into an Enterprise Agreement Subscription (EAS) for a further three years, at the expiry of their current agreement at broadly comparable discount levels.
  • Any non-Enterprise Agreement customers have an extended period until the end of June 2015 to commit to an EAS at broadly comparable discount levels.
  • Extra discounts have been provided on Enterprise Cloud Suite (ECS) and Server & Cloud Enrolment (SCE) to support transformation and cloud adoption.