Having previously worked directly with vendor, department responsible for foreign affairs enters into new agreement for core software products to be delivered over the next four years by reseller partner
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has awarded a major multimillion-pound deal to serve its Microsoft licensing needs over the coming years.
On 1 April, the department will enter into a four-year agreement with software reseller Boxxe. The contract is valued at £67.08m.
Between now and 2029, the York-based tech firm will fulfil the FCDO’s licensing needs via an Enterprise Agreement – a form of engagement offered by the vendor to customers with more than 500 users or devices. These large-scale software deals can be delivered by Licensing Solution Partners (LSP) – Microsoft’s foremost group of reseller partners, including Boxxe.
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The UK firm is the LSP of choice for a range of public sector clients – chief among them the Ministry of Defence, with which Boxxe signed a £350m deal 2022 which is due to expire imminently.
In recent years the supplier has also won multimillion-pound licensing deals from agencies include South Yorkshire Police, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Cambridgeshire County Council, Transport for London, and the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
The FCDO previously engaged directly with Microsoft itself for its enterprise software needs, having signed an initial three-year agreement with the vendor in 2020. This deal was valued at £16.8m.
