The current contracts expire at the end of June 2025, with the newly signed agreements set to introduce a swathe of upgrades.
Originally signed in July 2021, Blackburn and Darwen Council’s deal with Phoenix Software moved the local authority over to a Microsoft Licensing model M365 E5. At the time, this was said to migrate services to a more advanced and comprehensive system.
Expiring in less than a month, the council has now confirmed a new set of contracts with Phoenix, running until 2028. The deal is worth £670,000 annually, and will introduce a range of new features for users, according to digital chief Cllr Shaukat Hussain.
‘Microsoft products continue to be the cornerstone for digital working in the council, Microsoft Teams has allowed us to collaborate more and will shortly become the single platform for the council,’ said Hussain. ‘Replacing Skype, giving a single platform for staff. The licence agreement, as well as providing the core Microsoft products such as email, Excel, Word and others, also provides additional benefits to the council.’
Among other things, the upgrade will include significantly enhanced analytics, greater control over identity and access management with a more in-depth understanding of security vulnerabilities, and better protection against cyber threats. Machine learning will also be used to detect trends in nefarious activity, attempted attacks and phishing incidents. In addition, information and data governance will become more advanced, with documents automatically scanned and checked for protocols and compliance. Meanwhile, cloud services and external sharing processes will become more secure, too.
‘Crown Commercial Services, an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, negotiated a new five-year agreement with Microsoft, which came into effect in November 2024. This agreement enables public sector organisations to pursue their digital transformation and innovation by allowing them to leverage the size and scale of the UK public sector regardless of their size,’ Hussain continued.
‘Purchasing licences separately for Microsoft products is prohibitively expensive. The new agreement bundles all required licences together, giving the council the full benefit of the Microsoft suite with the minimum of costs,’ he added. ‘Renewing the licences will enable the council to continue harnessing the opportunities that digital offers to drive improvement across services and staff experience. It will unlock further potential efficiencies within our workforce by giving them the right tools, systems and skills to drive change.’
The announcement comes in the wake of Downing Street’s State of Digital Government Review. Among other things, this found that the current procurement approach – in which 320 local authorities are essentially responsible for negotiating their own contracts – was not fit for purpose. As an alternative, greater collaboration between areas and regions was recommended, helping secure economies of scale, promote and facilitate data, best practice and knowledge sharing.
Image: Tadas Sar / Unsplash
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