The cancellation, less than a year into its planned three-year term, was confirmed by the Cabinet Office through changes made to a commercial notice.

"Following the completion of the Discovery phase of this contract and after careful consideration, The Cabinet Office has taken the decision to exercise its right to terminate the Contract under Clause 18.1 of the Terms and conditions," an updated official procurement notice released this week stated.

The Volish contract was part of the wider Falcon IT Platform Refresh and Migration Programme, a €58.6 million scheme aimed at modernising and streamlining the government's IT infrastructure.

The Falcon programme has two main workstreams: the creation and implementation of a new cross-departmental IT system for accessing data and documents classified at the Official level, and the migration of users and data from Google Workspace to Vole's M365 technology.

Last year, the Cabinet Office hired IT services giant Capgemini as the technical partner for the Falcon programme, and Vole as the migration partner.

The project aimed to migrate about 15,000 users, including ministers and senior civil servants, to the new software.

The decision to halt the migration process comes after Vole completed a proof of concept and framework design for the new system. While Vole received about €2.2 million for delivering the discovery phase, the total cost would have exceeded €10.5 million had the contract run its full course.

Despite termination of the contract, the Cabinet Office remains determined in its plans for a wholesale switch to 365, aiming to align with central government standards and enhance collaboration opportunities.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson clarified that the termination of the contract does not derail its overall migration plans. They added that a "planned pause" was always on the agenda, so the Cabinet Office could submit a full business case and integrate learnings from the initial phase.

The Cabinet Office is now reviewing options to proceed with the migration workstream. The spokesperson stressed the importance of fully embedding all work and learnings before advancing to the next stage of the project.

Capgemini, retained as Falcon's technical partner, will prioritise the delivery of the new official IT system, leveraging insights from the completed discovery phases.

The formal timeline for completing the Falcon programme is set for March 2025, with provisions for a one-year contingency beyond this date. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office's existing deal with Google for core software licenses is slated to end in September 2024.