Governments slammed for anti-competitive software tendering practices

By Stan Beer
Sunday, 22 April 2007 13:55

Technology

A leading Australian open source advocate has called for an end for to tender lock-outs of competitors to Microsoft, claiming the practice is costing Australian taxpayers tens of millions of dollars each year.

According to Con Zymaris, CEO of Cybersource, a longstanding IT services provider and a Linux specialist, it's time for all Australian state and federal agencies to bring real, open and competitive tendering back into their software acquisitions. Zymaris believes The lack of willingness of Australian Governments to ensure competition in the marketplace costs taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year.

"At present, almost no government agencies in Australia permit open and competitive tendering for software platforms and productivity applications," saidCon Zymaris. "Instead, these agencies hand the business, worth around a billion dollars each refresh cycle, to Microsoft - no competitors are allowed to make bids."

"We are astounded that government agencies, which have a fiduciary responsibility to Australian taxpayers, should follow this strategy," said Zymaris. "We are even more amazed that no voices have raised this issue in Parliament. It is an obviously short-sighted strategy which merely serves to lock Australia's public sector further into a Microsoft-only monetary sinkhole."

Zymaris singled out the Queensland Government as a recent example of the 'no competition allowed' deal-making to abort any potential for competitive bids from alternative software suppliers in its refresh of 100,000 PCs. No vendor besides Microsoft was allowed to enter the bidding arena for the three year tender which specified that all desktop, notebook and tablet PCs must be pre-loaded with Windows XP Pro SP2.

"This left many other multinational vendors, like Sun, Novell and Red Hat, along with numerous innovative Australian Linux companies, such as Cybersource, with no chance of competing," said Zymaris.

The Queensland, Victorian, South Australian and Federal Governments, all exclsuive Microsoft sites, were noticeably absent of any representation at the Government Day seminar at the inaugural LinuxWorld Expo held in Sydney in 2006. European countries in particular, as well as some US states, including those belonging to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, are all exploring Linux and Open Source alternatives for the desktop as a means of cutting costs and opening IT software markets for competition.

"By subverting the power of competitive markets, Australian federal and state agencies are hurting the local ICT industry," said Zymaris. "By keeping innovative technology off government desks and by always returning to the souring teat of Microsoft, they're hurting their own productivity. And by stubbornly refusing to seriously consider alternative technologies such as Linux and open source, they are shackling themselves to the Microsoft upgrade treadmill in perpetuity, with the cost meter set to spiral."