[kictanet] Software procurement in kenya

Thu Sep 11 11:57:15 EAT 2008

I think there are two things in this argument.

First when a company/gvmnt is buying the back end/base software e.g. a database/operating systems. I agree that "...procuring agents should not mention any trade marks, companies or product names when requesting for quotations..."

Second when a company/gvmnt is buying middle level software that should operate with the back end software and in this case I think that the procuring agents should atleast mention what the back end software is. This is useful information to anyone willing to submit a quotation.

Regards.
8~)

I don't want to go to Hell, I don't want to stay on Earth, but what I'm I going to do in Heaven.

--- On Wed, 9/10/08, Liko Agosta <likoa at verviant.com> wrote:

From: Liko Agosta <likoa at verviant.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Software procurement in kenya
To: kiriinya2000 at yahoo.com
Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 10:09 AM

Evans ...

We are a services company that provides both Closed Source and Open Source
Consulting to clients ....

We build on what clients have already paid for... 

We can discuss TCO ... 

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: Evans Ikua [mailto:ikua at lpakenya.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 2:48 AM
To: Liko Agosta
Cc: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
Subject: RE: [kictanet] Software procurement in kenya

Liko,
There is nothing wrong with the Law. It only needs to be followed. It  
actually has very good intentions of making sure that all (technology)  
suppliers get an equal opportunity to tender for a whatever it is.  
Mind you, once the tenders have been received and opened, the client  
is under no obligation to buy from anyone, not even the lowest price.

Our argument is this; say a ministry wants to buy a SQL DB Server.  
They advertise this without mentioning MS SQL Server anywhere (that's  
what the law says). You quote your SQL Server at KSh 5.6m (you are a  
MS Gold Partner), and I quote my Open Source SQL server at 0.5m (I am  
only selling my services and not licenses). The tendering committee  
now has two options and the guys in IT can defend their choice of  
technology, and the TCO that goes with it, all the way from having to  
buy upgrade licenses a year later or so. Then the decision is made. At  
this point, nobody can come and tell them that they must buy this or  
that, its their decision. Important thing is that the management has  
seen all the options available.

If this law is broken in your favour, I don't expect you to have a  
problem with it. You are happy. No?

It is this that will raise management questions about the cost of  
license upgrades vis a vis the cost of migrating to FOSS products. A  
Ministry would save more by migrating to Scalix than upgrading to MS  
Exchange in the long term. But how does the accounting officer get to  
know this if the IT guy only requests a particular brand name, leaving  
out everyone else? For public institutions that are running on our  
taxes, we want to know that they are spending money prudently. They  
cant be given a blank cheque.

-- 
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

Quoting Liko Agosta <likoa at verviant.com>:

> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> This message was sent to: likoa at verviant.com
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
> http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/likoa%40verviant.com
>
>
>

_______________________________________________
kictanet mailing list
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

This message was sent to: kiriinya2000 at yahoo.com
Unsubscribe or change your options at
http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/kiriinya2000%40yahoo.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20080911/f503891f/attachment.htm>