Getting the best deals: what you need to know about resellers

In the second of his columns about the latest enterprise agreement to be signed between Microsoft and the NHS, Brian Painting outlines how and why reseller arrangements have changed; and how to get the best deal on software that falls outside the NHS EA.

One of the first things that many NHS IT managers will have noticed about the new enterprise agreement (EA) that Microsoft has signed with the NHS is that the reseller arrangements have changed significantly.

NHS Connecting for Health has five local service provider regions, and each of them now has a designated reseller for software covered by the deal.

In London, the South and the North West / West Midlands, that reseller is Bytes Technology. In the East of England / East Midlands it is Computacenter (which is also the designated reseller for NHS arms length bodies). And in the North East it is TrustMarque Solutions (which also covers the Department of Health).

Resellers given a crucial role

Resellers are key to the ongoing success of agreements such as this, because of the contacts they have with trusts, their understanding of how trusts access and consume Microsoft licensing and their in-depth knowledge of the nuances of that licensing. "The resellers will, in effect, be a speedometer for take-up of the new agreement."

The new agreement recognises this role and hopes to use it to gain a better understanding of how NHS organisations are making use of the deal.

So, the three resellers listed above have been selected by NHS CFH - not by us - because they are capable of managing the distribution and delivery of licences and delivering detailed reporting on how licences are being consumed.

The resellers will, in effect, be a speedometer for take-up of the new agreement. We will be able to see if there is slow take-up in a particular area or of a particular application. And if there is, we should be able to investigate to find out what the barriers to adoption are.

Drawing a line in the sand

The resellers will also manage inventories. Because of the vast range of NHS organisations - and, to be honest, the complexity of some of our licensing arrangements - the health service has bought a lot of different things under a lot of different licensing schemes.

Now, everybody involved with the EA wants to make sure that where licences are bought centrally they reach everyone on the same terms. The immediate, practical result is that the resellers will be doing a detailed piece of asset management work to find out what is out there and on what terms people are using it.

This is not an opportunity for the resellers to sell-in more stuff; although it should help trusts to identify issues with their inventories. Instead, it will draw a line in the sand.

It will tell us, for example, what proportion of trusts are using Office 2003 rather than an older version (we think it is about 30 per cent). Then, if the exercise is repeated in a year, or two years, we will be able to see whether that has gone up. "NHS organisations should also be opting for Select Enrolment, because this allows them to keep track of what has been bought and who is using it."

If not, we will be able to look at what the obstacles are, and use some of the lessons we have learned from projects like the Common User Interface programme to overcome them.

Any other business

There is one thing I should stress. The reseller arrangements that I have been talking about only cover enterprise software. If you are an IT manager, and you want to buy a new server or software not covered by the EA, you can go to any reseller you like.

You do not have to give all your business to the people listed above. However, whoever you are buying from, you should be buying under a Microsoft Select agreement, because that is the most cost effective way our buying our licenses in bulk. Select enrolments can be signed with any accredited Catalist reseller.

Effectively, Microsoft has said that organisations across a sector like healthcare are going to need so many licenses for whatever software they buy, that it will automatically give them the best discount available, plus 10 per cent. As a result, it is not possible to get a better deal any other way (really, believe me, it isn’t).

Despite this, we still find a lot of people buying through Microsoft Open Licence and other arrangements. This often happens when a clinic or department decides to run a project without telling their central IT department or those nice people in procurement about it. So if you are in this position, go and talk to them.

NHS organisations should also be opting for Select Enrolment, because this allows them to keep track of what has been bought and who is using it. An organisation’s licensing estate is starting to be recognised as a significant and valuable asset: so it makes sense to manage it properly.

Keep reading

There is one further thing that the EA resellers will be doing, which is managing some of the benefits to come out of the new deal. We know there is not enough free stuff to go around and they will be helping to make sure that what there is, gets distributed fairly. However, that’s probably the subject of another column.

Related Articles

• Read Brian's earlier column, where he gives an in-depth overview on the NHS Enterprise Agreement for England
• Find out more about the NHS Enterprise Agreement for England
• Review a detailed FAQ about the NHS Enterprise Agreement for England
• If you work in Scotland and Wales, find all relevant NHS licensing information here

About the author: Brian Painting has worked in Microsoft’s UK healthcare team for six years. He is the business manager for London and Wales and was involved in setting up the new NHS enterprise agreement for England.