[Technical] Interestingcomputers-in-education

[Con Zymaris]

On Sat, Aug 06, 2005 at 11:20:07AM +1000, Clark, Ian C wrote:
>  
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: tech-bounces at edulists.com.au 
> > I am also aware that by opening up the tender to competition 
> > from other firms, besides Microsoft, the savings can 
> > potentially be even greater. Why not do that? That's all I'm asking.
> 
> Hi Con,
> 
> You still don't accept that it's embarrassing to offer a product
> different to the one the customer (who might be an individual or a
> company or a government organisation) actually wants! That's the reverse
> of modern marketing theory!

Incorrect. 

I would have no problems if the Department kept out of the purchasing and
didn't arrange any whole-of-public-school agreements, like the one it has
with Microsoft, at all. It should then give that $22 million to the
schools and let them each decide what technologies are best for them.

I bet, using this approach, that many many more schools will deploy a lot 
more open source solutions. This is what seems to happen in the 
private school sector. That's good for non-Microsoft vendors like 
Cybersource.

As it stands, the Department does private deals with Microsoft, not 
allowing any competitors, like us, Novell or Red Hat to bid. This is 
wrong.

I'm not in the public education sphere. You guys are. Can you tell me of
any other instances where $22 million is given to a single vendor, without
that vendor having to compete on an open market for the business? A market 
which does have real competitors?

Ian, you can argue backwards and forwards, but as a taxpayer, I'm furious 
with the fact that $22 million of my tax dollars are spent on products 
where there was no competitive tendering. As a vendor, I'm furious that a 
$22 million dollar deal was done without an open competitive tender. I 
have therefore lodged a formal complaint with the ACCC, whose job it is to 
ensure, among other things, that governments do run competitve tenders and 
that actions, like the one that DE&T takes,

I'm sorry that you don't seem to like or appreciate this. But keeping you 
happy is not in my job description ;-)


___________________________________________________________________________
Con Zymaris <conz at cyber.com.au> Level 4, 10 Queen St, Melbourne, Australia 
Cybersource: Australia's Leading Linux and Open Source Solutions Company 
Web: http://www.cyber.com.au/  Phone: 03 9621 2377   Fax: 03 9621 2477