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MICROSOFT has managed to sign a three-year deal to supply software to schools despite failing to settle a long-running spat with the UK's procurement sheriff over its licensing terms.
Becta, the UK quango governing technology spending in education, swept the licensing issue under the carpet in order to sign a new three-year deal with Microsoft, the convicted software monopolist, last month.
A Becta spokeswoman said: "We have secured another three-year memorandum of understanding, bit the licensing issues are continuing."
The last MOU ran out in January. It had been a 12-month extension of a 2004 agreement, which was secured a year ago in order to bide time for the two parties to resolve their differences over licencing.
"Because we were having negotiations with Microsoft regarding licensing issues, it was difficult to secure another three-year MOU," said the spokeswoman.
18-months into the licence negotiations, the extent of Microsoft and Becta's failure to agree new terms was demonstrated this week when Becta took its case to the EU's anti-monopoly police.
During 2007, when the 2004 MOU extension was operating, Becta complained about Microsoft's licensing practices and technology to the UK's Office of Fair Trading, and advised schools not to upgrade to Vista and Office 2007, Microsoft's latest software.
Yet Becta had no choice but to sign a new agreement with Microsoft, said Ian Lynch, who campaigns for open source software in schools with the Open Schools Alliance.
"In the sense that Microsoft has a monopolistic presence, Becta [still] has a remit to get the best discount it can," he said.
"In the short term they might get the best pricing, but in the long term they might think, 'sod this, we are going to take them to the Office of Fair Trading'," he said.
Becta reported in 2007 that "actual tenders...indicate average savings of 57 per cent with a total invoiced spend of £28 million to December 2006 under this agreement". The total yearly saving was £15 million, it said.
In a written statement, Microsoft said: "We have been in regular dialogue with Becta and are fully supportive of the agency's approach and the extension of the MoU. Whilst only a small proportion of school's ICT spend is on software, the MoU makes a valuable contribution to education costs for schools who choose Microsoft software."
The firm recently claimed sales of its latest software were going up in UK schools.
© 2008 The Inqurier. Original article
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