Government aims for £25m licensing savings

The UK government is aiming to slash £25m off its IT and telecoms bill through two new public sector licensing agreements with BEA Systems and Vodafone.

The two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) have been brokered by the Treasury's procurement agency OGCbuying.solutions and are based on negotiating licensing discounts for individual departments and agencies based on the overall bulk purchasing power of the public sector.

The three-year MoU with BEA Systems aims to deliver savings of around £15m over the life of the agreement while the 12-month Vodafone MoU promises savings of over £10m through cheaper call rates and handsets for public sector mobile users.

The Vodafone MoU is a revision of existing discounts offered by the mobile operator to government departments and agencies.

Hugh Barrett, CEO of OGCbuying.solutions, said in a statement: "This deal offers real value-for-money and these gains will be reinvested into front-line services."

OGCbuying.solutions slashed £110m off the government's IT and telecoms procurement bill last year through other framework agreements with the likes of Microsoft, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.