Tag Archives: Procurement

Digital Life Clippings – December 18th

  1. Samsung shuts down ChatOn – CNet – If only there was a way for their customers to uninstall their impotent self-defence against Google.
  2. EU software procurement breaches rules more than ever before – OFE PDF – Because they really do prefer to feed what they perceive as corporate power brokers rather than work to create European value with European money.
  3. EU allocates half million euros for testing open source – FSFE – It’s a rounding error on the budget, but at least it’s something. Let’s see who gets it.
  4. Apache finally publishes a code of conduct – Blog, Code – Fine work, but no really defence against those gaming the system.

Illegal Lock-In

Public ITC procurement tenders in Europe are subject to a number of laws and procedures designed to avoid discriminatory behaviour favouring specific vendors. A recent OpenForum Europe report shows that in spite of these laws, many tenders do name specific vendors. The naming of vendors in procurement tenders is indicative of vendor lock-in, especially where the same vendor crops up many times across different tenders.

Lock-in is a serious problem. As well as costing governments up to €30 Billion in unnecessary expenditure, the freedom to leave those locked in systems in favour of more open solutions is often ruled out by the high exit costs. Read more analysis of EU procurement lock-in and the OpenForum Europe report in Simon’s ComputerWorldUK article.