Bermuda's public schools will be using Microsoft software for the next year after the Ministry of Education recently signed the Microsoft School Agreement.

Announcing the agreement yesterday, the Department of Education said the academic volume licensing School Agreement would enable about 1,350 students, faculty, and staff to use a set of software products and tools that are widely used throughout business, education and government institutions.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Anthony Outerbridge, IT Director for the Ministry of Education, Mr. Lionel Sacon, Government and Education Manager for Microsoft Corporation and Mr. Brad Clark, President of Systems Business Integration Ltd. (Sbi) who are Gold Microsoft Certified Partners in Bermuda.

"The Microsoft School Agreement is the opportunity we have to consolidate our IT infrastructure with a view to planning future information technology initiatives across all schools," said Mr. Outerbridge. "We are looking forward to developing a closer working relationship with Microsoft Corporation and Systems Business Integration Ltd. (Sbi) to affect the delivery of the services and software available to schools."

The School Agreement is Microsoft's comprehensive annual subscription licensing program for primary and secondary (K-12) school customers.

As an annual licensing program, the School Agreement provides a simple formula for running a broad platform of Microsoft products on machines in K-12 schools.

Schools count the number of eligible machines and the software products they want to license and multiply that by a tiered price.

Once a school purchases the School Agreement, it has the right to run the licensed software for the specified period and is licensed for all upgrades and downgrades (previous versions) during the agreement.

Mr. Sacon said "I am excited at the new relationship that is developing between Microsoft and The Ministry of Education.

"I look forward to leveraging best practices in the areas of e-learning and curriculum development to drive and complement initiatives already in place throughout the Bermuda School System.

"By signing this agreement, The Ministry of Education is showing their commitment to invest in technology to provide the necessary tools faculty, staff and students need to be competitive."

Mr. Clark said: "Sbi is committed to providing the best quality of products and services which enable our clients to best utilise their resources in a cost effective manner.

"The agreement signed today with Microsoft will allow The Ministry of Education to provide students and staff the ability to learn, manage and remain at the forefront of computer software technology."