Why is a government IT procurement policy needed? How can open source help?

Governments should utilize Information Technology (IT) procurement policy to help achieve transparency, competition, measurement and efficiency in the purchasing process. A policy which incorporates open source as a choice for solutions complements the role of standards. Open source and open standards together can help strengthen a framework for procuring and delivering solutions to meet the needs of government.

Part 1: The goals of a healthy government IT procurement policy

Governments should utilize Information Technology procurement policy to achieve the following four goals:

Goal 1. To promote TRANSPARENCY:

A comprehensive and explicitly followed procurement policy is essential for governments to avoid favoritism and misconduct in purchasing decisions. Government transparency and accountability can only be achieved when official purchasing actions are justified by the guidelines of a solid procurement policy. Governments can then focus on buying the best IT solutions for the least cost.

Goal 2. To promote COMPETITION:

Good procurement policy strengthens the the wealth of solutions available to the government by building a framework for legitimate competition among vendors. When the requirements of large-scale purchasers, exemplified by government, are clearly articulated and predictable, solution providers develop and allocate the resources needed to compete over time. This in turn nurtures a competitive industry which adds to the employment and tax base of the local region. A ‘virtuous cycle’ ensues which spurs prosperity and economic development in the local region as well as for the nation. In addition, active competition promotes the development of best practices among those who constantly challenge each other for the best technical solutions and for greater cost-effectiveness.

Goal 3. To promote MEASUREMENT:

Procurement policy creates the ability to measure the success of purchasing, especially for large-scale projects. Policy sets a framework for developing explicit acceptance criteria as well as measuring on-going compliance. Vendors are openly and fairly assessed on their success in meeting the requirements of a visible and standard policy.

Goal 4. To promote EFFICIENCY:

The IT infrastructure of government has two parts. First, there is the set of internal business processes needed to operate the organization. Internal processes cannot be implemented efficiently without following a coherent procurement policy. Absent a clear policy, these processes will be hijacked by vested interests or side-tracked by irrelevant concerns.

The second part of the infrastructure of government is the set of external facing processes required to deliver citizen services. In addition to implementing services cost-effectively, handling and preserving public data and building simple, local-language user interfaces demand standards-based, accessibility-friendly solutions which must be provided at minimal or zero transactional cost to the citizen. A clear policy governing the procurement of standards-based solutions establishes the first step toward practical e-governance and provides the framework for continuing delivery of citizen services.

Part 2: The benefits of open source software (OSS) in government policy

A policy which incorporates open source as a choice for solutions complements the role of standards. Open source and open standards together can help strengthen a framework for procuring and delivering solutions to meet the needs of government.

Benefit 1. OSS promotes TRANSPARENCY:

Open source promotes transparency in government procurements by complementing and amplifying the benefits of open standards.

Specifying open standards in procurement policy means that practical open standards, governed not by vendors but by standards bodies such as ISO, IEEE, OASIS, and ECMA, must be stipulated in procurements. Open standards lead to interoperability, competition, and, ultimately, lower cost. However, care must be taken to avoid subtle or hidden forms of vendor lock-in, as the recent struggle to adopt OpenDocument Format in Massachusetts illustrates.

Open source complements the benefits of open standards through the practical dimension of implementation. IT solutions built using open products and services facilitate transparency through public observation and accountability.

Benefit 2. OSS promotes COMPETITION:

Incorporating open source into procurement policy fosters inclusion, flexibility, and local economic development. Open source facilitates a wider range of competition because vendor lock-in is avoided. Encouraging technically equivalent open source solutions in procurements helps develop IT infrastructure and encourages competition among multiple vendors of various sizes and capabilities. This is especially valuable for developing economies.

An even stronger policy toward open source may be beneficial. When open source is proactively encouraged as a matter of policy in government procurement, the purchasing process becomes a tool to create a broader as well as lower-cost competitive environment across all products and services. As has been demonstrated globally, solutions offered even by proprietary vendors become cheaper and more responsive to local needs.

Benefit 3. OSS promotes MEASUREMENT:

Because open source solutions are developed using open and collaborative methods, additional modalities for verification and assessment of deliverables and project performance are available to the procurement process.

The procuring agency has complete access to all components and details of the offered solution and can independently evaluate their status. In addition, new criteria for measuring software sustainability can be developed. Beyond traditional forms of code escrow, the procuring agency can require the solution provider to build a developer as well as support community around the offered solution to create a system that is capable of evolving and even surviving the loss of any individual contributor. Metrics such as number of contributors and frequency of contributions can be applied to measure the health of the solution as a viable community of contributors. Finally, in well-run open source projects, there are no hidden conditions that might obscure the validity of solution acceptance or assessment.

Benefit 4. OSS promotes EFFICIENCY:

Open source can improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of solutions provided through government procurements.

Open source cost-effectively addresses the internal business process needs of government. For example, hiring a vendor to provide open source based office automation for government departments can be dramatically cheaper when spread over hundreds or thousands of desktops because open source exploits inexpensive commodity hardware and zero-royalty software. Open source also eliminates expensive vendor lock-in and forced upgrades and permits full, free and perpetual sovereignty of data.

For public facing systems, in addition to enabling cost-effective solutions, open source can improve the delivery of citizen services by promoting interoperability and long-term accessibility.

Ensuring interoperability and compatibility across heterogeneous systems that together comprise complex services delivered to citizens is one of the major benefits of a procurement policy that insists on open standards for all purchased products and services. The next step, practical implementation of interoperability in the form of open source, seals the deal.

Based on various levels of sharing and collaboration, the interoperability and compatibility guaranteed by open implementations can never be withdrawn or outdated. And because of time scales, use of open source has the best potential of all models of solution development to assure that the technical aspects of citizen services, comprising data formats and information processing, are available in-perpetuity for all citizens regardless of means. The assurance of continuity and free accessibility is critical for e-governance services that must span all economic strata and must continue on into the future for many generations.

Fundamentally, citizen data is public data which must remain available to all citizens without the arbitrary requirement to pay a proprietary vendor for access. For example, using open document standards implemented in open source means that the citizen does not have to buy a vendor’s word processor or operating system in order to read a proprietary file for voter registration information.

Open source embodies the ability to collaborate and thereby can help government procurements realize the multiplier effect of independently cooperating resource pools. Citizen services in one region of a government can be combined with citizen services of another region using the collaboration model of open source unencumbered by additional permissions or payments to third-party vendors. For example, tax information kiosks can utilize open source components that have been built collaboratively with other local governments or agencies without having to pay royalties and other arbitrary commercial levies on the software or its use.

Additional benefits

Finally, encouraging open source in government procurement policy can benefit projects for which collaboration is important. This is especially useful where evolving standards, such as those that guide best-practice e-governance solutions or national R&D initiatives, require significant government involvement.

Most importantly from an economic perspective, encouraging open source in government procurement policy can also help meet the economic goals of local regions, especially in developing nations. Open source has the potential to build a fountain of local enterprise whereas proprietary solutions often siphon local resources away to distant shores.