Tertiary institutes sign group deal with Microsoft

By ADAM GIFFORD

The country's 32 universities, polytechnics and wananga have struck a group purchasing agreement with Microsoft which should lower procurement costs and reduce paperwork and effort of the institutions and the vendor.

Garron Smith, Waikato University IT procurement manager and chairman of the tertiary technology procurement group, said the deal gave institutions three years' stability for products, prices and contracts. It replaced existing campus agreements, which differed according to when they were negotiated.

Institutions will be charged according to the software they use and their total equivalent full-time staff positions, as reported in their annual reports.

The deal applies to software used in classroom labs and covers programs staff may have on laptops or home machines, but does not cover software students buy for home use.

Smith said Waikato University expected to save hundreds of thousands of dollars through the deal.

The total tertiary sector spending on software is more than $170 million, but it is hard to break down the total by company.

Some institutions include spending on student management systems in their reported totals.

Smith said the deal did not mean Microsoft was being favoured. The tertiary technology procurement group had also negotiated site licences with Apple, Macromedia, Adobe, Symantec and other vendors.