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HM Treasury has signed a contract worth more than £20m to cover the department’s comprehensive range of software licensing needs.
On April 1, the organization will sign a three-year contract with vendor Phoenix Software. The agreement will cover both core Microsoft technologies as well as “other software licensing and related services.”
During the procurement process, these two areas were treated as a separate “basket”. According to commercial documents recently released by the Treasury Department, Phoenix “ranked first in our assessment for both” segments and was therefore awarded “one combined contract to include basket one and basket two services”.
The contract award notice added that the department was “looking for a vendor to deliver a value-added service … as opposed to simply reselling software licenses and related services.” The selected provider is expected to “gain an understanding” of the Treasury Department’s software infrastructure.
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Over an initial three-year term, the deal will be worth £18.6m to Phoenix – or around £21.7m, including VAT. The contract also offers the department two additional one-year extensions.
The engagement was awarded over the £12 billion Technology Products & Associated Services 2 framework, which was set up last year and runs until April 2026.
Phoenix is a supplier to HM Treasury, which has held part of the new non-Microsoft software engagement since 2018. The company’s other recent major public sector contracts include deals worth £5.5m and £12m respectively to provide local authorities in Hull and Essex with Microsoft technology and a £90m deal with the Home Office to tackle its “underspend” of one-off or infrequent software purchases.
The company, based near York, is owned by Bytes – another specialist reseller of software licenses, which achieved annual revenue of £1.4bn in its 2023 financial year.