[kictanet] Software procurement in kenya

[Liko Agosta]

Evans,

That law should be changed :)

If a government agency has already invested in some technology stack, they
should have the right to say they want a solution that ran's on that
technology stack ....lets says Microsoft SQL Server .. 

Why ... The license for SQL server will be a sunk cost at that point and
getting different technology is making a bigger financial commitment and
raising project risk .... also .. if the customers programmers/admins know
C# and SQL Server or Websphere and DB2, the client has the right to pick
that platform ... 

We have ran into this with our clients. Whenever we are doing project
discovery, we will find out which technologies they currently have/support
... if a client has SQL Server, we will typical ask for usage reports for
that SQL server box and in most cases, we have been able to save money by
"adding to" their existing infrastructure ... or tuning their existing
infrastructure to take more load.

Many organizations we have worked with tend to buy a servers/software
licenses for each project ... we advice against this and are usually for
consolidation and better management. That way a 4 CPU license for SQL Server
Enterprise Edition (approx USD 80,000) will be apportioned to the 20 systems
or projects that will use a well tuned 4CPU SQL server ....

So .. good intentions... bad law ... why enforce or spend time on it 

My 2 cents

Liko Agosta, CEO
Verviant Consulting Services. 

www.verviant.com
 
Phone    : 1-919-341-1820
Fax        : 1-978-268-8403
 
Toll Free: 1-866-551-4935
 
Pager: 9193891551 at txt.att.net


-----Original Message-----
From: kictanet-bounces+likoa=verviant.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+likoa=verviant.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf
Of Evans Ikua
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 1:34 PM
To: Liko Agosta
Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
Subject: [kictanet] Software procurement in kenya

Interesting what Google can come up with:

http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/052308-kenya-linux-group-challenges-proc
urement.html?fsrc=rss-linux-news


We finally got to meet with the PPOA on Friday, 5th September. We had  
a very fruitful discussion on the Public Procurement and Disposal Act  
2005, whose provisions are being ignored by Government procurement  
agents:

https://ict-innovation.fossfa.net/taxonomy/blog-tags/kenya

This good law stipulates that procuring agents should not mention any  
trade marks, companies or product names when requesting for  
quotations. They are required to just give the specs of what they need  
to accomplish. But how many times do we see these RFQs with brand  
names such as Microsoft *?. This has got to stop and nobody has any  
excuse to break the law with impunity.

We will be putting details of the proceedings on our website soon, and  
also in the media.


-- 
Evans Ikua
Linux Professional Association of Kenya
Tel: +254-20-2250381, Cell: +254-722 955 831
Eagle House, 2nd Floor
Kimathi Street, Opp. Corner House
www.lpakenya.org






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