Decision details

The Microsoft toolkit is a fundamental part of the productivity support available to staff as part of the ICT service provision. The Covid 19 pandemic has required staff to rely on the use of Skype for Business much more heavily and discover new ways of working using Skype conferencing. This has enabled the organisation to work agilely throughout the pandemic. 

The Covid response has also involved working with third party and partner organisations, particularly the NHS and the Courts, partaking in conferencing on a variety of conferencing tools such as MS Teams, Zoom etc. Planning for an upgrade to Microsoft 365 was underway but the pandemic has accelerated the need to implement Microsoft 365 and MS Teams much sooner and faster than originally planned.

This is deemed to be a Key Decision and the provisions of Standing Order C20 have been complied with.

Cabinet considered a report setting out a proposal for investment in Microsoft Office 365 and the replacement of Skype for Business with Microsoft Office Teams.

Resolved: That approval be given to release funding and agree to the Capital Investment in Microsoft Office 365 and the replacement of Skype for Business with Microsoft Teams. The implementation will require a one off capital investment of £1.661m and ongoing revenue expenditure of £1.438m which includes the annual revenue cost of capital financing of circa £200,000.