Posted by : bpburnwal on Oct 14, 2003 - 11:04 AM General

In an announcement likely to have a far-reaching effect on the future of IT in the UK public sector, the government last week said it is to evaluate open-source software in central government departments, agencies and local authorities.
Procurement body the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) said it is working with the Office of the E-envoy and IBM on nine separate proof-of-concept pilots, to investigate open source as "an alternative to proprietary software".

The trials will measure the effectiveness and cost of open source and come 15 months after deputy Cabinet Office minister Douglas Alexander said the government would consider open source on a value-for-money basis.

They also follow the City of Munich's announcement in May that it was replacing Microsoft software with Linux.

The projects may also have been encouraged by widely-publicised discussions between the OGC and Microsoft when the software giant changed licensing terms last year. An OGC spokesman said, "We worked out the increase would cost us about £60m a year in licence fees and [OGC chief executive] Peter Gershon said, 'Look, we could build a hospital wing for that much'." Intensive negotiations followed, he added. "We said we're not going to be a body rubber-stamping Microsoft re-orders. We won't take a stick to Microsoft but open-source software should be considered."

The trials will run over the next six months, but the spokesman said that future contracts will not necessarily go to IBM. "This is not government in bed with IBM - there are no guarantees or inside tracks." Nonetheless, the trials are a coup for the company. "It's about having the most cost-effective product for the job," said Adam Jollans, IBM Linux strategy manager. "We have seen how open source can lower costs in China, Korea and some US states."

The trials follow E-envoy Andrew Pinder's admission that e-government integration has often been botched. Last week, Pinder said the government would explore the ability of open source solutions "to achieve cost savings and an increased flexibility in the development, enhancement and integration of our IT systems". The OGC's Gershon said the trials would be to "the benefit of departments and the taxpayer alike".

Taking part are the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; the Department of Work and Pensions; the Department of Culture, Media and Sport; the Central Scottish Police Authority; the Office of the E-envoy; water regulator Ofwat; and three councils.

To see more visit www.ittoolbox.com