[Klug-general] How does Kent County Council select software?

[Jonathan Kaye]

Chris Roberts wrote on 19/09/14 14:52:
> OS wars aside, the "how do they pick software" question will be down
> to a (probably) long chain of tenders, framework agreements and other
> such contractual gumph*
>
> Public authorities are obliged to put any large expenditure (like IT)
> out to tender, to give private sector a "fair" chance at the business.
>  Normally the decision isn't up to any one person, and all sorts of
> guidelines might be applied to the decision making process (like
> accessibility, for example).  A lot of it might be box ticking - but
> the idea is to remove any personal preference (or at least prejudiced
> personal preference) during the decision making process.  The quality
> of the product may not even come into it, as long as the contract is
> there stating it will meet whatever spec has been provided.  
>
> The tenders are usually only be applied for by well established and/or
> big companies that can foot the (sometimes extortionate) fees involved
> in applying for it (the likes of Atos, Pheonix IT, ADA Networks) - and
> I don't know of many that offer Linux on the desktop as part of an IT
> solution (at least, not at the moment).  I imagine if a company
> existed that provided a Linux desktop solution, that filled all of the
> requirements of the tender, at a cost that was competitive - that you
> would see more of it.  In fact, since you cannot mention trademarked
> names (e.g. Windows(tm)) in a tender, it would have to be considered
> equally!
>
Munich, Udine, Vancouver, San Francisco, ... have either adopted or are
in the process of adopting free software. Somehow notwithstanding the
obstacles mentioned above, they have managed to do it.
Jonathan