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The London Borough of Newham is in the final stages of negotiating a deal with Microsoft which includes very large reductions in licence fees and substantial additional free support. Newham have been able to do this because they have a credible Open Source alternative which they are willing to implement.
Last year the consultancy company netproject was asked to advise Newham on a sustainable desktop strategy and in the process built a demonstrator proving the capabilities of Open Source software. In November netproject presented their strategy, namely to make substantial use of Open Source, to a meeting of department heads. This meeting agreed, subject to further negotiations with Microsoft, that netproject's recommendations were to go forward to the Council's Main Board in early 2004.
Using Open Source would give the Council choice and would make sure that they were not tied into proprietary protocols or operating systems. The use of OpenOffice in particular would mean significant reductions in the total cost of the desktop. netproject proposed this solution because they were concerned that the total Microsoft solution, proposed in the Microsoft-funded report from the consultancy CGEY, would result in the council being tied to Microsoft forever. This would happen because the economic cost of changing in the future would be too great, leaving Newham with no choice or negotiating power.
Reacting to netproject's credible and practical approach, Microsoft completely changed their attitude towards Newham. They have made many concessions on licensing costs and support. Newham will benefit significantly from these Microsoft concessions but will keep their future options open by continuing to evaluate the use of Open Source through the netproject demonstrator.
netproject's director Eddie Bleasdale noted wryly that "whenever netproject demonstrates an Open Source solution to a Microsoft customer they suddenly find Microsoft's approach much more amenable. Microsoft's reaction to Newham's decision to use netproject's Secure Open Desktop Architecture proves that it is a credible and viable alternative. Open Source alternatives have already been adopted by public and private sector organisations in many countries and demand for projects similar to Newham's netproject-led one is growing rapidly."
For more information, contact netproject or phone Eddie Bleasdale direct on (office) +44 (0)20 8715 0072, (mobile) +44 (0)798 9012847 or (email) eddie@netproject.com.