Local authority IT directors have called on the Office
of Government Commerce to allow them to play a greater role in
negotiating software licence agreements with
suppliers.
The Society of IT Management (Socitm) issued the call ahead of a
Commons Public Accounts Committee report on public sector
purchasing of software licences due out later this week.
Socitm pioneered a licensing agreement with Microsoft that cut
costs for local authorities, and collaborated with the OGC to win
deals from Oracle, Sun and IBM for the whole public sector.
But Bob Griffith, international secretary at Socitm, who was
closely involved with the Microsoft deal, said although the deals
had saved taxpayers money, local government remained a "junior
partner" to the OGC.
"The OGC is now playing the dominant role in software licensing
negotiations and there obviously needs to be more of a sharing
role," he said.
Giving evidence to the committee, OGC chief executive Peter
Gershon said he needed the combined purchasing power of the whole
public sector to get the best deals. But Griffith said open-source
options could be used as a bargaining tool by public sector
negotiators discussing licensing terms with Microsoft.
Last month Newham Council secured a new deal from Microsoft,
after trialling Linux, that could save the London borough up to
£1m. Some experts believe Microsoft can be forced to offer
concessions to other councils.