Microsoft Unified Support Service

The direct award justification is to allow Anchor to award a public contract to an existing supplier who supplies core IT services and software, as an 'extension' to existing services. Concerns the supply of services by the existing supplier which are intended as an extension to existing services:- a. A change in supplier would result in services that are different from or incompatible with, existing goods, services or works b. The difference or incompatibility would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in operations or maintenance. Microsoft are the only supplier to offer this level of direct support and thus a different supplier would be incompatible and would result in disproportionate technical difficulties in maintenance of our extensive Microsoft estate. This is an essential component to provide Microsoft support, any problems that could not be escalated to Microsoft and receive the appropriate level of support could impact Anchor operations reliant on Microsoft systems and thus have significant cost impact Contract renewal is annually (at Microsoft's request) and is likely to be required for the foreseeable future as Anchor is unlikely to move away from Microsoft products.