[Gllug] Gates preaches to the NHS converted

[Jim Bailey]

Hi all,

once again M$ shows why it is number 1 in the the software stakes, it 
knows how to sell.

Rather than nashing and grinding of teeth in the wilderness isn't there 
anybody out there with the understanding and experience in this sort of 
work to at least give The NHS a written alternative to the .NET solution 
and give these non technical managers some ammunition eg.

I understand Mr Gates the need for M$ on the desktop given issues of user 
familiarity with your GUI and the associated costs of retraining but could 
you explain to me why we should pay for NT server solutions and the 
associated client side costs?

I understand that Office XP is the most advanced productivity suite on the 
market but could you prove to me that it is cheaper to use it rather than 
a team of software developer working on Openoffice to increase its 
functionality and the cost being shared across the NHS or even europe.

Demand that your health service justify spending on these solutions 
compared to an alternative.

This meeting is either a cosy stitch up in which case it is a scandal and 
we should scream blue murder until enough of the general public understand 
what is going on or M$ are making a genuine sales pitch to the NHS in 
which case the alternatives should also be heard.

Peace Jim

On Monday, November 19, 2001, at 05:14 PM, will wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Irvine" <co2cool at yahoo.com>
> To: <gllug at linux.co.uk>
> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 4:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [Gllug] Gates preaches to the NHS converted
>
>
>> On Mon, 2001-11-19 at 16:15, Christian Smith wrote:
>>> On 19 Nov 2001, John Hearns wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just know that I shouldn't read these things.
>>>> I'm now going to lie down in a darkened room with
>>>> a towel over my head for an hour.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22918.html
>>>
>>>> From the CW article cited in the piece:
>>> According to Jenny Duff, public sector industry manager at Microsoft,
> the
>>
>> aim is "to get chief executives* involved in the implementation of IT and
>>
>> * read: easily conned, <Insert similar comment here>
>>
>> very scary indeed.
>
> This is why our sales team sell mostly windows products, they don't
> understand what the are selling 99% of the time but they have 'heard' of
> windows so they try and sell that more.  We used to sell win2k hosting 
> plans
> hidden away on our website and only if people asked for them directly.  We
> didn't sell that many.
>
> Now the win2k option is right under the unix option and we sell more win2k
> because people have 'heard' of win2k and not linux.  Gates wants managers
> involved because they will go with what they are familiar with.
>
> Will
>
>
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