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Re: [LUG] Freedom of Information request: Devon. Office software

 

Henry Bremridge wrote:
> Quote
> 
> I am able to respond as follows:   As of 30th January 2008, a project
> brief for a review of the Office Suite has not yet been produced, and
> will not be produced until the procurement project as mentioned in the
> original reply is complete at the end of March 2008.  
> 
> End quote
> 
> The original answer was as follows
> 
>     Devon County Council is part of a South West Consortium of Local
>     Authorities, for which there is currently a procurement project to
>     create a Framework Agreement for the supply of computer hardware,
>     software, peripherals and related services.  The project plan shows a
>     completion of March 2008.  Devon County Council procurement policy
>     mandates the consideration of Open Source options.  It is anticipated
>     that a review of the Office Suite will commence second quarter of 2008.
> 
> 
> My reading of this is that until they have linked up an agreement for the
> whole of the south west they intend to nothing about getting new software?
> 
> Can anyone advise if this is what is happening?
> 
> Does anyone know what the scope of this framework agreement is?
> 
> 
> --
> Henry
> Mon Feb  4 10:27:21 GMT 2008
> 
> 

Hi Henry ....

Devon is part of a purchasing consortium including Torbay, I suspect 
that your request has completely bypassed the IT section and been routed 
  to the purchasing department.

Purchasing decisions are made based on M.E.A.T (Most Economically 
Advantageous Tender) and "Best Value" (which basically means decide what 
you think is Best then spend a couple of hours concocting a report full 
criteria which, when evaluated by your own standards make your choice
come up front). This then gives a "valued" justification for your 
purchase. Eg Jags are the safest vehicle to drive around in therefore we 
will purchase 300 Jags to taxi the MP's around in.

Purchasing consortium's (local, regional, national) where set up as a 
guideline conclusion from the (Byatt?) report on government purchasing....

In theory consortium's should give local authorities more power of 
negotiation with their "major" suppliers. In reality it allows them to 
hoodwink more than one customer in one go. That is to say more 
efficiency for the supplier than the purchaser......

IMHO its not just the joint spending power that influences the decisions 
   its also the strength of the characters involved in the negotiations.

I believe Guidelines are set / monitored / recommended by the Department 
for Communities and Local Government....

This may be of interest to you if you have time to read it all ....

http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/localregional/servicedelivery/bestvalue/bestvaluepilot/
 


You may well find something in these documents that you can use as a 
lever to push FLOSS onto the agenda. If you can construct a watertight 
valid argument to this department, then it may well filter down as a 
"recommendation" to the purchasing consortiums across the entire country.

Of course due to the fact that these things are always "recommendations" 
and not edicts that MUST be obeyed, you will still have to fight the 
battle from the bottom as well as the top. But if you get the 
recommendation you can quote it as many times as you like to the point 
of utter annoyance ......

At a local level you may find something in the above documents that 
allows you to challenge the decisions made through the "Best Practice" 
procedure.... I don't know for sure as I haven't read them......

Before you ask .... no I don't work in a Local Government Purchasing 
Department.

Ultimately you could form your own company and "bid" for the supply of 
hardware / software ...... But since the trend is to outsource as much 
as possible as quickly as possible, even the purchasing consortium may 
find its jobs contracted out ......

Hope this helps ....

Tom.


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