Credit: PA

The NHS Test and Trace programme has signed a £6.7m deal for Microsoft licences.

The contract, which came into effect on 9 August and runs until 30 September next year, provides the scheme with an Enterprise Agreement for products in the Microsoft 365 suite of tools – including the vendor’s most common workplace productivity applications. The deal can be extended by a further term of 12 months.

Specific details of which apps will be provided, and in what quantities, have been redacted.  The contract does reveal that Test and Trace under the terms of the NHS-wide N365 arrangement, which was agreed last year by Microsoft, NHS Digital and NHSX.

“Further licences may be required as the Test and Trace Programme evolves,” the contract added.

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The initiative is intended to ensure NHS bodies can “access the most up to date Microsoft 365 product suite” and “provides significant additional discounts”, according to NHS Digital.

Products and services covered by the new £6.7m contract will be provided as part of the “managed support service” for M365 enterprise agreements offered via the G-Cloud framework by software reseller Trustmarque.

According to the service’s listing on the government’s Digital Marketplace procurement platform, the service “is designed to help [customers] select the most advantageous Enterprise Agreement, enabling [them] to derive business benefits and technical fit at the prime price point”.

Owned by Capita, Trustmarque has previously signed two other deals, each worth £2m, to provide Microsoft products to the Test and Trace [4] programme.