Decision details

Award of tender for Microsoft Enterprise Agreement to Comparex UK Ltd following an EU compliant procurement exercise.

A compliant EU competitive procurement exercise was undertaken by running a competition under the Crown Commercial Service Technology Products 2 (RM3733) Framework – Lot 2: Software. Five responses were received. They were checked for completeness and clarified where necessary. The bids were evaluated and met the required criteria on cost and quality. The tender offered value for money pricing.

Through a tender process, the supplier was determined based on cost and quality. There is a legal requirement to licence Microsoft software, so not awarding is not an option. Microsoft alternatives were considered, although the cost of change is high, performance is not yet proven, compatibility with key council applications are prohibitive and the risk is unquantifiable.