Richard Quadling wrote:
On 10 February 2010 13:02, Ashley Sheridan <ash@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've not had any personal experience with the public sector, but I have
heard stories from those who have. By all accounts, it seems that most
of the public sector is still stuck in the dark ages with regards to
technology, which could go some way to explaining the abysmal failure
rate of public sector projects! Open source in this sector would be a
perfect solution in most cases, but it's shunned because of fear of the
unknown and worry that anything free is worth the money paid for it.
I used to work for a company creating Payroll/Personal software. Our
software was cheaper than the BIG boys, and several times, when it
came to getting it into councils where there was little tech
knowledge/skills, the lower prices worked against us.
And once they knew the price, we couldn't just hike it up to get the deal.
Part of the problem is that there's sometimes someone, lurking in the
shadow of their ignorance, afraid to have to maintain something open
sourcey :) It is a fight with these people except they won't meet you in
open battle. You need to root them out and address them on a level
playing field, say in a needs analysis meeting, and knock them down to
size. It goes a long way towards aiding your argument and allowing your
proposal to be considered for it's technical and cost savings merit. It
is important though to do this in a professional and succinct manner.
The last thing you want is to be wrestled into a mud fight.
Cheers,
Rob.
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