Phoenix rises to the university software challenge

At a time of austerity, senior figures in the education world are keen to keep a tight grip on costs.

Phoenix Software has been selected by the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) to provide software licence reseller services to more than 100 higher and further education institutes in the UK.

The SUPC agreement is the first time that UK universities have pooled together to purchase software under a national agreement.

Phoenix was chosen among a group of other resellers to provide software and services to the SUPC.

According to a Phoenix spokesman, the “lucrative” deal is worth up to a potential £60m in sales.

SUPC is the largest of the six regional higher education purchasing consortia that operate throughout the UK.

SUPC was first formed in 1974 when a handful of universities came together for the collaborative purchase of stationery, in order to help them save money.

The new software framework agreement will help the higher and further education members of SUPC achieve the best value from their software licencing purchases over the next three years. The SUPC also retains the option to extend the framework for an extra year.

Samantha Mudd, the director of Phoenix Software, said: “Phoenix has been helping the educational sector achieve the maximum value from its software purchases for more than 22 years.

“We are delighted that the SUPC has chosen us as one of its preferred software suppliers. We will continue to serve our further and higher education customers by providing an excellent value proposition, well-trained sales advisers, skilled consultants and maintaining our accredited relationships with the major software vendors.”

Phoenix has been a major supplier to the education sector for more than 20 years. It has established long-term partnerships to achieve the best prices for schools with the Local Government Association (LGA), Pro5 Consortium (ESPO, NEPO, YPO, WMS and CBC) and Education Scotland (formerly LTS).

Formed in 1990 by the current owners of the business, Phoenix Software, has group revenues of more than £95m.

It is involved with software supply, software lifecycle management and infrastructure services.

Phoenix enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s biggest software vendors, including Microsoft.

Phoenix has also gained some of the industry’s highest partner accreditations, including Microsoft Gold Partner status for Software Asset Management and Volume Licencing.