Microsoft deal remaiins the sole fruit of NZ Government bargaining

Microsoft has renewed its software sales deal with the New Zealand government, but efforts to extend the model to other global software vendors have yet to bear fruit.

The all-of-government Microsoft Licensing Agreement has been extended for three years, government chief technology officer Tim Occleshaw announced this week.

The original contract covering software used by 120 agencies was signed in 2012 and has achieved cost-savings of NZ$119 million, Occleshaw said.

However, after announcing its intention to extend the licensing model to other global software vendors last March the government has yet to ink a single additional deal.

A spokesperson for the Department of Internal Affairs, which leads the strategy, said negotiations with Oracle, VMware, Citrix and IBM are continuing. The department hopes to have at least a couple more agreements across the line before the end of the year.

Once that phase of deal-making is completed, The similar negotiations with HP, SAS, Adobe and SAP are planned.

Occleshaw said the Microsoft agreement was the result of many agencies working together to help define requirements and Microsoft responding with an attractive deal for government.

"Not only does this agreement provide a great deal for government with price holds and early enrolment discounts, it helps us achieve government's ICT strategy by leveraging our collective investment and resources across the system," he said.

"We have negotiated for government as one customer, using a single procurement process for all agencies, and established a mechanism where agencies can transfer some licences to each other as needs change."