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23 August 2004
Newham Council and Microsoft: Reactions
Chris Guest, Socitm President
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In no way am I doubting the validity of the information in the report but what's best for Newham is not necessarily best for all Councils. Newham is a huge user of Microsoft both at the desktop and server levels, if a similar analysis was done for a district Council with say 500 users the conclusions could be very different.
I am sure that the report will be read with interest by SOCITM members, many of whom will be considering open source as an alternative to Microsoft.
Obviously the UK public sector as a whole are a massive customer of Microsoft we need to collaborate effectively in negotiating the best deal possible for the taxpayer.
The SOCITM Open Source Software group promotes the use of OSS in the public sector and have secured funding from the EU for trials in UK councils. I am sure the group will be very interested in the Capgemini report to compare the Newham situation alongside outcome of the trials which are due in December 2004.
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Eddie Bleasdale, Director, Netproject
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The report we produced for Newham Council said that they should keep their options open. We had previously deployed an open source architecture for Newham, which Microsoft saw as a credible threat. Subsequent to our report, we proposed to Newham a series of projects, which we thought were essential for their infrastructure. They decided not to go ahead with these, but to go instead with Microsoft. We we were just used a vehicle for Newham to get Microsoft to reduce their costs.
We have a copy of the Capgemini report and it is totally contradictory to our own - there are no 'parallels' between the two. In no way does the Capgemini report reflect what is being reported in the press. Savings figures are being quoted with no independent verification behind them, which we would have expected from an independent consultancy. Capgemini's cost of ownership figures and the cost of migrating to an open source infrastructure are not sustainable.
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Simon Moores, senior IT industry analyst and Microsoft commentator
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'Between the Devil and the Big Blue sea' was one description of Newham's computing dilemma, whether to trailblaze Open Source in Local Government or make a safe but potentially expensive decision to remain with Microsoft and Windows.
The result is a blow to IBM and the progress of Open Source and a much needed victory for Microsoft, who in contrast with claims for Linux, can now claim sound fiscal common sense on behalf of its products at the coalface of local government computing.
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Eric Raymond, President, Open Source Initiative
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Microsoft bought itself a favorable TCO study and fended off Linux in Newham. Meanwhile, recent developments in the city of Munich, the French Ministry of Finance, and all over planet Earth are illustrating the tremendous cost and control advantages of open-source software. Even with $60 billion in the bank, Microsoft is going to run out of money to buy studies a lot faster than we'll run out of good reasons for governments to switch over.
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Jason Kitcat, founder of the Free e-Democracy Project
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Newham already had a significant amount of experience with Windows, so it's hard to see how Linux could have been cost effective in the short tem. The amount of training needed, as well as the risk such a change-over presented to the management made Linux a difficult choice. Legal issues with Linux such as those Munich is experiencing over patents also must have raised doubts. Over time Linux is more reliable and cheaper than Windows but Newham faced a conversion bill today if they switched.
Newham were smart to use the Open Source card to negotiate lower Microsoft prices. The question remains though, were they ever seriously considering going for Linux or was it just a bluff all along?
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