Department appoints reseller Phoenix to manage acquisition of tens of millions of pounds of high volume but low value software products over the course of a contract lasting five years
The Home Office has signed a long-term contract for a single supplier to manage its “tail spend” for software products over the next half-decade.
Tail spend refers to the masses of one-off or infrequent software purchases made by large organisations. These acquisitions are typically high in volume and low in value, and are made to serve an immediate need, rather than a longer-term or strategic objective.
To help oversee all such transactions, the Home Office entered into a five-year deal with specialist tech reseller Phoenix Software. The deal is valued at £15m a year, plus VAT – equating to a total expected spend of £90m during the lifetime of the engagement.
The text of the contract reveals that the IT supplier will meet with the department once a week to go over open procurement processes, current licence entitlements, planned deliveries – and any “ad hoc requests” for new products.
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These weekly catch-ups will be supplemented by monthly service-review exercises, and quarterly planning meetings.
“In addition to [these] governance meetings, the supplier will be expected to be proactive and will meet on a needs basis driven by market changes and [the department’s] transformation needs to offer their expertise and market-related guidance on software providers, related services, innovations and potential alternatives that would be a benefit to the [department].”
Headquartered near York, Phoenix is a major supplier of software products and services to the public sector. The firm’s recent wins include a pair of £12m deals with Essex County Council and the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities, a £9m engagement with Hampshire County Council – and another contract with the Home Office, worth £30m and covering the provision of Microsoft Azure public cloud hosting services.
