SBL delight after winning big MoD licensing deal

Licensing VAR salutes achievement after retaining status as Microsoft provider of choice in three-year deal

SBL has expressed its pride in retaining the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) Microsoft licensing contract and has pledged to deliver "a service optimised to the needs of this complex environment".

As revealed by CRN on Friday, the York-based VAR won the three-year Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) contract following a tender process. The deal, which is understood to cover an estate of 180,000 machines and be worth about £16m annually, replaces a three-year contract won by SBL in 2010 that came to an end last week.

The new agreement went live from the start of this month. In a statement, the reseller saluted the hard work its staff had put into winning the deal.

"It is now more important than ever that the MoD have tight and stringent control of their IT assets, and that they are able to realise the full potential of the IT investments that they make," added the statement.

"We are proud to have been able to utilise our vast and comprehensive experience in working with the MoD and our knowledge of the Microsoft portfolio to present a service optimised to the needs of this complex environment and the requirements expressed by the customer. We now look forward to working with the team at DII to deliver an excellent service that enables full realisation of the procurement benefits delivered throughout the estate."

A statement from the MoD confirmed SBL's reappointment as its Microsoft provider of choice.

"The MOD can confirm that a competitive tender for Microsoft products was raised through the Government Procurement Service Framework," said the statement. "This was to maintain the software licence compliance of existing Microsoft products used on the MOD's primary IT network, the Defence Information Infrastructure. Software Box Ltd was the successful bidder for this three-year contract. This contract does not introduce anything new to the system – it simply extends our existing Microsoft licence."