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Re: [LUG] Government IT policy

 

Gordon Henderson wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 7 Dec 2009, Henry Bremridge wrote:
> 
>> My suspicion is that public bodies do not want to switch to FLOSS for
>> one of the following reasons:
>> - Our contracts specify proprietary software.
>> - The current system works (aka the devil we know is better that the
>>  devil we don't)
>> - When we have looked at it, we have looked with a view to seeing how it
>>  will not work. We have not tried to think how we can make it work.
>> - We do not know our current software will run on it.
>> - We have data sharing agreements that run on proprietary models
> 
> Call me cynical, but I'd add to that something along the lines that the
> *huge* companies that currently tender and are awarded the contracts to
> produce the current set of bespoke "national" software have large groups
> within them who actively lobby the govt., etc. to tell them that their
> way is best...
> 
> If you or I go in to tender for something, then we'd get laughed away in
> the breeze.

Assuming we could even afford the entry fee. The tendering process can
easily run into 7 figures. Consider that not every tender will be
sucessful and the cost may well be 3-5 million pounds before anything to
do with the task in question is involved.


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