Government seeks discount deal with Microsoft

By RICHARD WOOD

Government departments are about to negotiate with Microsoft for a discount deal on software.

The State Services Commission's e-government director, Brendon Boyle, said negotiations would be led by Defence and Internal Affairs IT staff, with help from the commission.

The departments want a fixed price-per-user deal, similar to one negotiated with Microsoft three years ago.

The negotiations follow a $10 million deal between the Government and Microsoft for schools last year.

Attempts to achieve the deal come amid reports from around the world of governments considering Open Source software alternatives to Microsoft, and of concerns by IT managers about changes to Microsoft's software licensing system.

Open Source software, including the Linux operating system and the Open Office software suite, is free to use.

Reasons being given for investigating it range from cost savings to an appeal to democratic principles because its source code is available.

Boyle said New Zealand was still considering the Open Source question.

The Government had set a framework so that intergovernmental connections would use open protocols to communicate.

A local group of IT consultants and professionals has formed the Open Source Society to add commercial weight to the Open Source community.

Spokesman and IT consultant Peter Harrison said that after approaching Government ministers, it realised there was little chance of direct action because the issue was not a vote catcher.

"They do not want to step in and specify to ministries what software they should or should not use," he said.

"There is very little advantage in terms of votes."

Harrison said the society planned to address the concerns of businesses and government departments about Open Source and to look at bidding for government tenders.

"Rather than try to change policy we're going to try to co-operate with the existing systems in government.

"Our objective will be advocacy of Open Source - not just Linux - and will be encouraging a co-ordinated approach to providing support and education to businesses, government, the educational sector and consumers."

Harrison said the major obstacle to putting in Linux and Open Source software was migration.

"The threat is real for Microsoft, and it's perfectly possible to go with Open Office for modern Machines.

"I've talked to several companies and the migration issues aren't usually that easy to solve.

"They are talking about a year or more to migrate because they have in-house applications they need to rewrite and that kind of thing."