UK needs open source in public sector

The UK lags the rest of the world - especially Europe and the US - in using open source software, which is costing the public sector and government, speakers said yesterday at a Westminster eForum seminar in London.

According to opening chairman and Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh, the UK is much less dependent on open source software than the US and Europe, who use it in the government and private organisations. Conservative MP David Gauke agreed, adding that questions in parliament revealed that most government departments barely use open source, with, at most, between one and six per cent of desktops and servers installed featuring the technology.

While open source software firm Alfresco is happily making money across the globe, chief executive John Powell is disappointed that the UK market - and taxpayers in turn - are not getting the cost savings. "The savings our customers are making... they have saved a billion in efficiencies and £100 million in licensing feeds they'd had to pay to places like Microsoft."

But why isn't the UK a major open source customer? This is partially because of language, Powell said. Smaller software companies in Europe had time to grow, as they weren't immediately up against American giants. UK firms haven't had that luxury, as American sales people came in and bad-mouthed open source to their customers, damaging its reputation for enterprise.

In the public sector, it's also an issue of procurement structure and lack of education among government buyers. Powell noted that Islington Council spent £50,000 to find a content management system, and couldn't find one that met its standards, until a developer did an online search which came up with Alfresco. The Ministry of Defence took 16 months to sort between 26 potential vendors, spending 15 times the eventual cost of the product. "If we can get the message across, we can do the UK a massive service," Powell said.

Another issue is the size of many open source firms. "A non-proprietary system from a small vendor is seen as a risk, and risk is to be avoided at all costs," said Trevor Pegley, founder of Visionhall. The public sector, with the failure of IT projects constantly in the media, has become completely risk-averse and therefore unwilling to try unknown software. The public sector "doesn't like dealing with smaller companies because they're too small to sue," suggested Visionhall's Pegley.

But that's often with good reason, as IBM's Adam Jollans said: "There are good open source projects, really mature, well used, but there are over 100,000 projects out there, and they're not all good."

Another concern is integration. "Some people do not want the integration or interoperability headaches, so they go to one company," said Microsoft's director of platform strategy, Nick McGrath, noting his firm's products were designed to work together from the ground up, unlike open source software.

But Michel Khan, chief information of Specsavers, said his firm has three Microsoft servers and 800 running Linux - and the only integration problems have been with the former.

But the advantages of open source software are clear, the majority of the speakers agreed. The top benefit for most public sector organisations is the cost. With no licensing fees to be paid, it offers savings between five and 20 per cent - if not more, some speakers said.

"It's a scandal if we're wasting money buying software which costs too much," said Phil Hemmings, director of corporate affairs at RM Group. He said the UK government spends over £12 billion a year on IT. "Can open source reduce that? Clearly yes. Other countries, the private sector, parts of the public sector - it's done that."

People need to see the benefits for open source in enterprise and the public sector aside from costs, said Khan. Cost efficiencies aren't the only reason Specsavers opted for open source, as Khan said the firm couldn't have expanded at the rate it has - 1,000 new stores in five years - without the agility and ability to distribute software in volume that open source allows.

Another benefit is the open standards that come with it, speakers said. Using proprietary software locks organisations into a certain file type, meaning they can't switch over to a different system as easily, said IBM's Jollans. "It's about owning your own data and in 10, 15 years time, being able to read [that data]," he said.

Increasing the usage of open source software in the public sector and business world comes down to education, some of the panellists said, adding it's time to publicise the fact that well known web-entities such as Google, Amazon and Wikipedia are all based on open source software. Because when it comes down to it, speakers said, as long as the technology works and offers advantages, its usage will grow.

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