D&C GLug - Home Page

[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]

[LUG] another go at the DCC

 

Sent to my local District Councillor and the Head of the current council
(John Hart)

Quote

Good Morning

In January I wrote to Dr Norrey at County Hall as follows:

"The current IT strategic plan lasts until 2009 and while on a total Council budget 
of £800m, the costs of proprietary software with emphasis on Microsoft Office are de 
minimis, they are a quick and simple area for saving money.

Microsoft are ending support for Office 2000 in July 2009, and for Office XP in July 
2011. As Devon County Council has about 6782 computers running Microsoft Office, the 
direct costs for these computers over the next 10 years will be at least £670,000 
(assuming license fees of £10 per computer per year). By comparison the French 
Parliament switched 1145 PCs to free opensource software and reported savings of Eur 
500,000 ie ~ £ 400,000 (ie on the same maths Devon could save £2,369,000)."

I went on to provide examples of other European Governments that have saved larger 
sums from switching eg German Foreign Ministry (11000 computers), Munich Government 
(14000 computers).  This excludes what appears to be most Developing Countries who 
are standardising on Open Source. This also excludes Bristol City Government (6000 
computers) who offer their experience if any other Council wishes to switch: 

        http://www.opensourceacademy.gov.uk/solutions/casestudies
        
http://www.opensourceacademy.gov.uk/osacademy/our_partners/bristol-city-council/bristol-city-councill/bristol-city-council

There was an exchange of correspondence, and since then I have gathered additional 
information under the Freedom of Information Act.

The current situation appears to be:

1/ All software purchased from Devon Council is part of a SW Consortium Agreement. 
This agreement cuts costs by building scale across Councils in the South West for 
the purchase of hardware and software.

2/ The current software meets the business needs of the County Council, and as such 
any change would be in line with DCC Corporate procurement policies. 

3/ (As an aside Torbay in one Freedom of Information reply stated that they should 
work with vendors in this area:)

        
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/total_cost_of_ownership_of_softw#incoming-29231

Fine: all professional but

a) I could see nothing in the Corporate Procurement Policy that covers the 
downloading and use of Free Software. Similarly the SW Consortium Agreement did not 
cover support for Open Source software: only purchase and support of existing 
proprietary software.

b) There is no business case that rejects Open Source / Free software and indeed the 
Council does "make wide use of Open Systems particularly in Web, Firewall and 
Security systems". But if Open Source is used in some areas and has never been 
rejected then why isn't the default option "use Free / open source" and require 
separate additional approval for non-free programmes. (This co-incidentally is the 
Dutch Government approach).

c) Any change in software is going to have to be planned carefully and will take a 
few years to successfully implement. It is not immediate. But because it is not 
immediate it needs planning. Nothing appears to be planned.

I am not a programmer, ......... I only discovered Open Source software when I was 
helping friends set up a manufacturing company and was trying to cut costs. I do not 
believe it can be used exclusively but I do believe that if local Government 
implements it sensibly there are the following savings:
- Lower total cost of ownership
- Improved security
- Lower risk 
        eg http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/04/ealing_council_mystery_malware/
- Improved skills in Devon. If the software can be easily tailored to Devon CC exact 
needs then that provides jobs and skills for local programmers as well as improving 
service.

May I call on you to demonstrate how easy it can be to use and to answer any 
question you may have. If possible I would like to bring along one or two others who 
work in IT and are more able to quote facts and figures.

End Quote


-- 
Henry
Photocopies or faxes of my signature are not binding. 
This email has been signed with an electronic signature in accordance with 
subsection 7(3) of the Electronic Communications Act 2000.
Digital Key Signature: GPG RSA 0xFB447AA1 
Tue Sep  8 06:32:08 BST 2009

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: Digital signature

-- 
The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG
http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list
FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html