For years M$ has had the inside track on procurements of software for large businesses and governments. Once another niche was established in the monopoly, it was almost impossible to remove. Open government is another matter. In Switzerland, M$ won an extension of the contract to supply a department of government for another three years. The product was unique and had no competitive product in the market place so an open tender was not required… Not so fast. A consortium of small businesses has filed a claim in federal court demanding an open tendering process. This is a big contract, $38 million. By the rules it should go to a public tender even though that was not past practice and is an extension of an existing contract. This challenge is a sign of healthy government. The monopoly should not be given a bye just because it is on the inside. It should have to compete on its quality and price. Quality is debatable. Price is not. I am sure FLOSS and distributors of FLOSS can compete against a company that charges $38 million for paper shuffling.
Legal technicalities aside, this looks like an open-and-shut case. Tenders for large deals should be public. Why not? If they do not open the process, how will they know whether they are paying too much or twice too much or five times too much…? This will be interesting.
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