Microsoft has signed two giant licensing deals with UK government departments, covering more than 100,000 desktops.
The software giant has inked contracts with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the largest government department, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which is planning a move to Windows XP despite a minor Windows upgrade knocking out 80,000 PCs there late last year.
The company said the deals will give both departments access to the latest Microsoft software and will deliver "significant savings and efficiencies through aggregated procurement, more standardised working and reductions in support costs".
The three-year enterprise agreement with HMRC covers 104,000 desktops across the UK. It gives the department access to the full Microsoft product suite, including Windows, Office Professional, Sharepoint, Systems Management Server and Exchange.
HMRC commercial director Mark Forth said: "This is a positive development for our organisation representing substantial cost savings over the term of the agreement and allowing us to adopt a flexible approach to the delivery of our IT services."
He added that the coordinated approach to negotiating the deal has resulted in additional savings for government.
DWP service delivery director Kenny Robertson said: "Our recent adoption of an enterprise agreement complements our strategic direction on the desktop and [Microsoft] have been in the trenches with us as we prepare the technical aspects to migrate our estate to XP."
Talkback
"The software giant has inked contracts with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the largest government department, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which is planning a move to Windows XP despite a minor Windows upgrade knocking out 80,000 PCs there late last year."
They must roll their eyes when they read stuff like this, you know how computer can be and all the silly reasons that just happen
How dare Blair and his bunch of Sh*t shovellers condem the country to yet more shit bug-ware without even the sligthest hint of ask the people .
It is high time the whole darn bunch were kicked out but of course there is a certain collection of groups within the UK that would loose out major fashion if Blair and Co were frigged of so of course they made darn sure the vote was rigged in Blairs favour.
And i amj not talking about ENGLISH peopl;e here either.
Good luck with the 24/7 goal. It'll be a very costly learning curve to get there. One small hint: think emergency repair, recovering and patching without data and service loss during peak hour operations. Without making misguided judgement calls, "human errors" (as in "not trained and experienced enough") or "typos". If you can't handle that then cross your fingers it'll never happen (Murphy anyone?) because such times can seriously impact all the paper cost savings and PR benefits negatively.
Not to say it can't be done but it'll take blood, sweat and tears to get there and maintain it while it shrinks and grows over time. Certainly when compared to other solutions out there.
One more hint. Consolidation, centralization and project minded and guided deployment and maintaining plans are not always your friend. Organization, procedures and a solid well though out base design are key. Avoid houses of cards if you can unless you like domino effects (one thing leading to another spinning out of control fast). And be very pro-active and prepared towards (future) damage and changes because that will happen more then once. And yes, that'll add to the total overall life cycle cost as well.