Moscow City Hall purchased Microsoft software for schools and universities. Market participants are indignant

January 17, 2022 it became known about the purchase software Microsoft in the amount of 25.8 million. rubles Moscow Information Technology Department (DIT) Software is intended for use in universities and schools of the capital.

According to Kommersant, citing the corresponding tender, Softline Trade (part of the Softline group) became its winner. It organizes access to Microsoft Office 365, the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, etc., for Moscow State Pedagogical University, city schools, children's centers, etc.

Moscow City Hall purchased Microsoft software for schools and universities

Domestic developers consider this a gross violation against the background of strengthened government programs to switch to Russian software. In particular, the Center for Competencies in Import Substitution in the Field of ICT plans to appeal the purchase to the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Antimonopoly Service, said Ilya Massukh, head of TsKIIT.

Member of the Board of ARPP "Domestic Software" Alexei Smirnov said that the purchase is made mainly in the interests of the university and the Department of Education and Science, and there is no reason to believe that they need any special software.

In the justification of the impossibility to purchase domestic software, the tender documentation states that there are no programs of the appropriate class in the register of Russian software that meet the needs of the state customer.

The DIT of Moscow told the publication that software products are purchased in a limited number to obtain expanded opportunities by educational organizations.

We are talking, for example, about conducting online broadcasts, online meetings and webinars with a large number of participants (up to 100 thousand people) and the possibility of professional directing and recording these events. In addition, the new software involves the launch of a booking service, with the help of which students and their parents will be able to arrange meetings with teachers via the Internet.^[1]

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