The new Public Sector Agreement (PSA09) is a new software purchasing model for the UK public sector. It is the result of an in-depth collaborative procurement engagement between Microsoft and Buying Solutions on behalf of the public sector.
In PSA09, Microsoft is offering value for money, greater choice and licensing flexibility, unique in its public or private sector agreements.
It paves the way for future models of software purchasing and will help organisations to meet emerging and future challenges in delivering public service reform.
View the Press Release (06/05/09).
Value, choice and flexibility
PSA09 can reduce costs for both existing and new Microsoft customers by up to 16 per cent compared to previous licensing pricing. Customers get the opportunity to address their licensing needs at pricing levels that are not solely based on customer size, but take into account the needs of the organisation, its employees, and external partnerships.
Microsoft is offering the potential for public sector organisations to save money while achieving best value in procurement and gaining new tools to improve service delivery to citizens, communities, public safety organisations, and partnerships across the public sector.
Package-based approach
In building a package-based approach with Buying Solutions, Microsoft is creating a new way of providing public sector workers with the software that they need to perform their work more effectively. This gives the public sector a new model for licensing, addressing its need for transferability, re-use, and flexibility.
Under PSA09, customers can continue to choose Microsoft Desktop packages, or choose new Public Sector packages, for their Enterprise Agreement (EA).
Tools to meet emerging challenges
PSA09 gives the UK taxpayer cost-effective solutions for acquiring the tools that support new and emerging challenges in public service reform such as ‘tell me once’, where people requiring support from the public services only provide information once and not many times to different public sector organisations.
Cost-effective solutions
PSA09 addresses the changing requirements of public sector organisations over time through two key principles:
- Only pay for what is needed
- Choose software for different needs rather than by product alone
The new agreement provides the opportunity for different statutory partners, such as police forces, fire and rescue services, central Government departments and agencies, and local authorities, to collaborate more productively by using cost-effective new solutions.
PSA09 ensures that, through collaborative procurement practice, the whole public sector pays only for what is needed, and benefits from the cost savings possible through this - from large Government departments to small local authorities.
Ensuring greater choice for Government
Through PSA09, public sector organisations now have the flexibility to introduce a more varied mixture of Microsoft applications. This reduces the need to license applications that may be unused, and simplifies the licensing packages needed by users.
Eligible organisations will have the option to choose to license by functional requirement thus including all client and server software licensing required for specific business needs - for example, e-mail, collaboration, and unified communications.
There are additional savings offered on a range of entry-level packages for users who do not need to use the full suite of Microsoft software.
Matching business needs
The new agreement focuses on matching business needs with cost-efficient licensing models, taking into account the changing needs and partnership working challenges faced by public sector organisations.
Transferability, re-use, and flexibility of licences are key features of PSA09 - helping to save money when organisations or departments merge. The agreement supports public service delivery through technology by supporting more effective use of ICT for collaboration and secure information sharing.
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