Two English councils sign up to Azure for six years in £35m reseller deal as ERP project faces delays, ballooning costs
(2021/01/07)
- Reference: 1610022612
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/01/07/cheshire_councils_azure_35m_reseller_deal/
- Source link:
Two local authorities in northwest England have awarded reseller Insight Direct a six-year £35m contract for Microsoft licences and cloud services.
Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester Councils have teamed up to "adopt and consume Microsoft Azure SaaS/PaaS and other cloud-hosted services and products" under [1]the deal .
[2]
The councils said they would "continue to migrate core applications into an Azure cloud environment through engagement with our strategic cloud enablement partner."
In September 2020, the cabinet of Cheshire East Council authorised the spending, saying the decision was made "to avoid the costs of change as a result of a change in technology."
It said the approach was supported by a Memorandum of Understanding between Microsoft and the UK government called The Digital Transformation Arrangement, which dates from May 2018, and the [3]Azure Pricing Agreement amendment from 30 April 2020 to 30 April 2021. "These agreements enable UK public sector customers to receive greater discounts for our Cloud hosted solutions," the [4]cabinet document [PDF], signed off by Gareth Pawlett, CIO and head of ICT services, said.
The deal follows a shorter arrangement to secure a Microsoft cloud migration partner for £5.31m over a two-year contract period, funded jointly by Cheshire East Council and Cheshire West and Chester as part of [5]a five-year IT investment programme [PDF].
According to [6]the Shared Services Joint Committee [PDF], it had inherited a funding gap of £4.275m which was "robustly managed" during financial year 2016/17. The cloud migration would offer "significant financial benefits for both Councils service areas and ICT and is future proofed to meet the needs of both Councils."
The councils' dependency on Azure, and their joint IT strategy, is cemented by their decision to share an ERP system, based on Unit4, which is more than two years late and set to cost £10m more than first planned, according to [7]local news reports . The authorities signed an agreement with technology firm Agilisys in 2017 to build the new HR and finance system, which is [8]set to replace an Oracle system .
The expected costs have climbed from £11.5m to £22.3m. The system is now set to go live in February. Unit4's cloud software [9]only works with Azure .
[10]
The councils have yet to respond to The Register 's request for comment. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/80a846f8-b422-4f17-83f4-f5115b178b18
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x250%7C300x252%7C300x600&tile=3&c=33X-c@KOtuWYmJhMrTXEGJ2wAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2020/04/30/microsoft-and-uk-government-agree-new-azure-pricing-arrangement/
[4] https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/documents/s79454/Microsoft%20Licence%20Agreement%20-%20report.pdf
[5] https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/documents/s55496/5%20year%20ICT%20Investment%20Programme%20-%20report%20final%20v4.pdf
[6] https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/documents/s55754/Report.pdf
[7] https://www.northwichguardian.co.uk/news/18301125.delayed-22-million-cheshire-council-project-set-2021-launch/
[8] https://thenantwichnews.co.uk/2019/06/07/third-delay-to-cheshire-east-council-10-million-it-project-sparks-anger/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/02/unit4_mike_ettling_interview/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251&tile=4&c=44X-c@KOtuWYmJhMrTXEGJ2wAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester Councils have teamed up to "adopt and consume Microsoft Azure SaaS/PaaS and other cloud-hosted services and products" under [1]the deal .
[2]
The councils said they would "continue to migrate core applications into an Azure cloud environment through engagement with our strategic cloud enablement partner."
In September 2020, the cabinet of Cheshire East Council authorised the spending, saying the decision was made "to avoid the costs of change as a result of a change in technology."
It said the approach was supported by a Memorandum of Understanding between Microsoft and the UK government called The Digital Transformation Arrangement, which dates from May 2018, and the [3]Azure Pricing Agreement amendment from 30 April 2020 to 30 April 2021. "These agreements enable UK public sector customers to receive greater discounts for our Cloud hosted solutions," the [4]cabinet document [PDF], signed off by Gareth Pawlett, CIO and head of ICT services, said.
The deal follows a shorter arrangement to secure a Microsoft cloud migration partner for £5.31m over a two-year contract period, funded jointly by Cheshire East Council and Cheshire West and Chester as part of [5]a five-year IT investment programme [PDF].
According to [6]the Shared Services Joint Committee [PDF], it had inherited a funding gap of £4.275m which was "robustly managed" during financial year 2016/17. The cloud migration would offer "significant financial benefits for both Councils service areas and ICT and is future proofed to meet the needs of both Councils."
The councils' dependency on Azure, and their joint IT strategy, is cemented by their decision to share an ERP system, based on Unit4, which is more than two years late and set to cost £10m more than first planned, according to [7]local news reports . The authorities signed an agreement with technology firm Agilisys in 2017 to build the new HR and finance system, which is [8]set to replace an Oracle system .
The expected costs have climbed from £11.5m to £22.3m. The system is now set to go live in February. Unit4's cloud software [9]only works with Azure .
[10]
The councils have yet to respond to The Register 's request for comment. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/80a846f8-b422-4f17-83f4-f5115b178b18
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x250%7C300x252%7C300x600&tile=3&c=33X-c@KOtuWYmJhMrTXEGJ2wAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/2020/04/30/microsoft-and-uk-government-agree-new-azure-pricing-arrangement/
[4] https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/documents/s79454/Microsoft%20Licence%20Agreement%20-%20report.pdf
[5] https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/ecminutes/documents/s55496/5%20year%20ICT%20Investment%20Programme%20-%20report%20final%20v4.pdf
[6] https://moderngov.cheshireeast.gov.uk/documents/s55754/Report.pdf
[7] https://www.northwichguardian.co.uk/news/18301125.delayed-22-million-cheshire-council-project-set-2021-launch/
[8] https://thenantwichnews.co.uk/2019/06/07/third-delay-to-cheshire-east-council-10-million-it-project-sparks-anger/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/02/unit4_mike_ettling_interview/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251&tile=4&c=44X-c@KOtuWYmJhMrTXEGJ2wAAAEg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Six year contract?
Anonymous Coward
It's in to use 'clouds' they say its cheaper.
Yeah, it's only good for small companies without the budget to buy and host their own stuff. Or when your load requirements fluctuate massively that you will have under utilised hardware for significant periods of time. This last one can be due to seasonal changes or because your business has uncertainty in its client base (start ups).
The last being you wish to have global resiliency without upfront colo and hardware cost.
I do not see any of these needs with this.
Re: Six year contract?
AMBxx
Doesn't he six year contract cover actually migrating stuff too?
Azure also gives hefty discounts if you commit for over a year
Chester Council
AMBxx
I had a meeting with Chester Council years ago. The meeting room doubled as a nuclear shelter. Big sign on the wall saying that in the event of nuclear war, we'd all have to leave as the room was reserved for the Mayor and council!
Six year contract?
They seem to have missed the main point of "cloud" - the turn on / turn off flexibility. If you're committing to six years of use, you may as well put equipment in your own data centres for a fraction of the cost.