Huddle offers juicy discounts in pricing shake-up

Public sector customers who adopt new Enterprise Agreement model can save between 58 and 85 per cent, collaboration vendor claims

G-Cloud supplier Huddle is trumpeting discounts of up to 85 per cent for public sector customers who move to its new Enterprise Agreement (EA) pricing model.

Having previously operated solely under a per-user-per-month pricing model, the UK cloud collaboration vendor is now encouraging customers with a critical mass of users to switch to its new EA model.

Huddle has agreed a preferential pricing scheme with Crown Commercial Service (CCS) it claims will see public customers who buy an EA save between 58 and 85 per cent over its traditional per-user model, depending on the number of users.

A similar pricing scheme has been introduced for commercial customers and Mike Hayward, EMEA head of public sector at Huddle, said two commercial and one public sector customer have already adopted EAs.

"With SaaS and collaboration, when customers buy it they often start small on a particular project and over time start to realise the benefits and tell colleagues," Hayward said.

"People were asking for a new way of licensing other than per user, per month. We are still running the per-user pricing for customers who want to dip their toes in or use it for certain projects; when they get more mature they move into an EA when it becomes more viable."

Huddle claims to be the largest supplier on Lot Three (SaaS) of G-Cloud by number of contracts, having won 200 deals through the framework, the seventh iteration of which is due out on 23 November.

"[The preferential pricing] was negotiated by CCS on behalf of the public sector and will be made available through G-Cloud 7," Hayward said.

Huddle currently employs 150 staff in the UK and at its offices in Washington DC, New York and San Francisco, and plans to increase headcount in line with the 18 to 25 per cent annual growth rate of the collaboration market, Hayward said.

"We want to crack the US market," he added.

Sarah Hurrell, commercial director, technology at CCS, said: "The preferential pricing scheme we have introduced with Huddle will improve the way technology is bought across government and the public sector, and will contribute to increased savings to the public purse."