Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Jun. 1, 2009

Last Friday, the New Zealand Open Source Society has been calling on the Auditor General in an effort to better scrutinize government procurement of Microsoft products after the collapse of negotiations for a new three-year software licensing agreement.

Don Christie, N-ZOSS' CEO, is asking for a complete review of the deal on the grounds that government agencies are negotiating with a single supplier "in a situation where ordinary market disciplines do not operate," he said in an official memo.

Christie added that agencies are unable to establish that Microsoft software represent better value for the money and are failing to properly consider open source alternatives that would better meet their specific software needs.

"Microsoft's latest financial returns show that globally, their Office Suite solutions returned net earnings of U.S. $1.7 billion on sales of U.S. $4.5 billion, while the operating systems they manufacture returned net earnings of U.S. $2.1 billion on sales of U.S. $3.1 billion," Christie said.

He added "such profit margins wouldn't be possible where ordinary market disciplines obtained." Microsoft's New Zealand managing director Kevin Ackhurst said however that government agencies have always had and still have the opportunity to opt in or opt out of the government deals and some choose to opt out.

Christie, who also runs Wellington open source services company Catalyst IT, further argues that agencies are putting public administration at risk through reliance on a single overseas software manufacturer.

Christie says Microsoft has long held a dominant position in this marketplace, and is able therefore to command a premium price for its products.

"Don runs a company called Catalyst and wants to ensure it is successful. I wonder whether this is about that or about open source software," Ackhurst says.

In response, Christie said it's "stating the bleeding bovious" that he runs a local open source technology company. He says if Microsoft addressed the message, rather than shooting the messenger, there might be a reasonable outcome to the debate.

Others disagree. The open source model is a perfect free market, he says. There are no barriers to entry and no barriers to Microsoft entering it and making its products available as open source.

Ackhurst says he knows Microsoft didn't come from a history of interoperability, but that has changed, at least somewhat in the past year. Christie's quotes represent the way Microsoft products worked in the 1990s, he says.

Ackhurst says he is not sure where Christie is coming from as agencies have always had choice. The Electoral Commission, which Christie references in his memo and frequently cites elsewhere, is one that has chosen open source software, he says.

He says Christie's recent statements about how Microsoft's SharePoint forces users to deploy Microsoft databases and office software are incorrect. He says Microsoft takes interoperability seriously. SharePoint supports many other databases and documents held in SharePoint can be opened by non-Microsoft office suites, he says.

"As taxpayers, we are not privy to the total value of the procurement, which is held to be commercial in confidence, but even conservative estimates suggest hundreds of millions of dollars are spent every three years under these agreements."

He says arguments that there are no alternatives are no longer tenable.

Christie cites a Computerworld NZ story saying only $3 million a year was saved through the centrally negotiated G-2006 agreement.

"If an agency such as the Electoral Enrolment Centre can carry out its vital public function since 2003 without reliance on these products, there are many New Zealand public sector agencies of a similar size and function that can as well.

Christie added that the practice of negotiating with a single supplier in this way "has a significant corrosive effect on the independence and impartiality of the public service". He says if agencies believe they have no alternative but to strike the best deal they can with Microsoft, then they have "allowed themselves to be captured by that supplier".

Meanwhile, the ongoing debate between open source software procurement and commercial licensing arrangements from Microsoft in various stages of government across the globe rages on.

Source: The New Zealand Open Source Society.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

All logos, trade marks or service marks on this website are the property of their respective companies or owners.

ADVERTISERS:
Linux News Today.org is read by over 450,000 people involved in the field of Linux application development, professional Web hosting services, Linux security, Linux Web development, etc. Inquire about our reasonable advertising rates on our news website. One of our advertising representatives will be in touch with you. Simply email us to learn about our ad rates and how we can help drive relevant traffic to your website. Advertising space is limited.