New Microsoft licensing agreement saves taxpayers almost £1m

22 July 2025

New software contract negotiations will save taxpayers in West Northamptonshire almost £1m across three years.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC), in partnership with Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT) and North Northamptonshire Council (NNC), has successfully renewed its Microsoft Enterprise Subscription Agreement.

The previous three-year agreement expired in June 2025. In preparation, WNC’s Digital, Technology and Innovation (DTI) team began reviewing licensing needs on behalf of the three organisations in November 2024. This early planning ensured a smooth transition so that staff and partners could continue using Microsoft tools without disruption.

The new agreement, approved by WNC’s Cabinet on 3 June 2025, reflects the council’s growing use of advanced Microsoft technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (CoPilot), data platforms (Fabric and Power BI) and cloud services (Azure). These tools are now central to delivering modern, efficient council services.

Through careful negotiation, the council reduced the projected renewal quote from £1.85m to a final agreed value of £1.53 million — securing savings of more than £320,000 per year for WNC. This was achieved through collaboration with Microsoft licensing experts and internal stakeholders, and by refining the licence mix to better match actual usage.

This is great work, reflecting our priority of members and officers working together for a more efficient council that is future-proofing its services whilst delivering better value for money to our residents – but our work doesn’t stop here.

Having experience in IT myself, I am confident there may be even more savings we can uncover and since then, I’ve been working with our teams to explore other potential efficiencies, such as some possible changes to the Microsoft licences.

I’m confident that by working together, our administration and teams across the council will be able to continue finding ways we can save money whilst ensuring we continue to protect the services we provide.Cllr Andrew Last, Cabinet Member for HR and Corporate Services

The Cabinet report also acknowledged the potential for further efficiencies through a review of licence types. A proposal for a Microsoft 365 Licence Efficiency project is currently under review as part of the council’s wider transformation programme.

This agreement ensures that WNC and its partners remain equipped with secure, up-to-date digital tools while delivering value for money for residents.