[Scottish] Cost of M$ in councils.

[John Thomson]

Hi,

Just to let you know, I could do with some help compiling all the data,
as some is in email, some PDF's and some in an online spreadsheet
(google gocs).

Also, as someone said (sorry, don't have my usual mail client and can't
remember, who, I'm running from pendrive), this could be "creative
accounting" this is one problem I have faced with around half of the
replies, there has been something along the lines of "We cannot give you
the price for M$ software alone, as our invoices include hardware,
software and support." Which suggests that they don't actually keep the
records very accurately. As fr the guy who said that only the IT staff
would need re-trained, I have a figure, quoted from a councilor (in a
related, but not identical incident) that retraining the technical
support team (this is for schools) would cost "in the tens of
thousands.", which, in my opinion, isn't too bad, considering the same
council (different councilor) stated that M$ cost "#600,000" per year.
The first councilor also mentioned a *licensing* price of "around #24
per device per annum" in schools.

If anyone wants to help, just ask, either way, I will try and get some
details up here and on my website asap.

Thanx, John Thomson.