LUGBZ & FSFE to Province of Bolzano – please don’t waste money on Microsoft

This morning my inbox was graced by an email from the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) headed: ‘Bolzano, please don’t waste your money’.

It refers to a recent decision by the Province of Bolzano-Bozen in northern Italy to spend € 2.2 mn. over the next 3 years renewing existing Microsoft proprietary licences and buying new ones. All this was done without a public invitation to tender, excluding the possibility for competing suppliers of similar software to submit bids of their own.

Indeed the FSFE has published an open letter to Provincial Government member Roberto Bizzo, who is responsible for Employment and Equal Opportunities, Innovation and Research, Finance and the Budget, Co-operative Development and IT, which we reproduce in full below.

Dear Minister Roberto Bizzo,

on 25 May 2010 the regional government authority of Bolzano decided to spend 2.2 million EUR over the next three years to renew software licenses from Microsoft Ireland, and to buy additional licenses. All this was done without a public call for tender, making it impossible for competing suppliers of similar software to make offers of their own.

We ask you to rethink this decision. It will influence your strategic position over a much longer time frame than the three years for which the licenses will last.

The European Commission’s vice president Neelie Kroes said on June 13 2010 in Brussels:

“Many authorities have found themselves unintentionally locked into proprietary technology for decades. After a certain point that original choice becomes so ingrained that alternatives risk being systematically ignored, no matter what the potential benefits. This is a waste of public money that most public bodies can no longer afford.”

With your decision to buy Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft Office communication server software without evaluating Free Software alternatives you will increase your organisation’s dependence on Microsoft. You will take your IT systems further down the one-way street of proprietary formats and proprietary software, locking in your organisation’s own data along with that of the citizens of Bolzano.

You are also running the risk of accusations about the improper handling about procurement processes. The protracted lawsuit against the Swiss Federal Administration, which is still ongoing, provides an example of the possible legal consequences.

The decisions you are making today will have an impact for the years to come. Breaking out of the lock-in will only become more expensive over time, as you risk turning more of your valuable data into digital toxic waste.

Rather than throw good money after bad, we ask you to step back from your deal with Microsoft, and issue a public call for tender open to all suppliers. When making a choice about the future solution for your organisation, we urge you to consider the strategic freedom which Free Software, Open Standards and open file formats provide, rather than deepening your dependence on a single vendor.

You might also wish to investigate the opportunities that such a strategy would provide for local businesses in the province of Bolzano-Bozen, which has successfully turned itself into a Free Software hub.

In the interest of the citizens of Bolzano-Bozen, we urge you to accept the offer of a dialogue extended to you by local Free Software experts at the GNU/Linux User Group Bolzano (LUGBZ) and the Free Software Foundation Europe. We stand ready to advise you on your strategic options in software procurement, and discuss the opportunities afforded by Free Software and Open Standards.

Sincerely,
Karsten Gerloff

President,
Free Software Foundation Europe
http://fsfe.org

Don’t you just hate the smell of vendor lock-in?