NHS Digital and NHSX have done a three-year deal with Microsoft for discounted pricing for the health service for its Microsoft 365 tools.
They said this could lead to deployments supporting as many as 1.2 million staff in England’s NHS, using tools that include the Office 365 suite, Teams video conferencing, SharePoint and Yammer for social and intranet engagement, OneDrive and Sway for files and content management and Power BI for analytics.
It comes two years after the Department for Health and Social Care came to an agreement with Microsoft for Windows 10 licences that it said will provide a significant boost for cyber security in the NHS.
Best value
Matthew Gould, chief executive officer at NHSX – the digital policy unit in the Department for Health and Social Care – said: “This deal ensures that the NHS will get the best possible value for taxpayers, and is good news for our staff and patients.
“This deal with Microsoft represents a saving of hundreds of millions of pounds. This is a direct result of negotiations led jointly by NHSX and NHS Digital. It means staff will have access to the best possible collaboration and productivity tools, and that our cyber defences are as strong as possible.”
NHS Digital said the timing of the agreement coincides with the licence renewal period of a number of NHS organisations in England, and that those that have already made arrangements with Microsoft will benefit from the cost savings it offers. They will be able to access the discounts via their existing agreements.
In March Microsoft announced the free availability of Teams to the health service, for a period of three months, to support its response to the coronavirus pandemic. NHS Digital said that Teams is included as part of the new package.
Image by Daniel Sone, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
