Central Scotland Police jettisons Linux, inks deal with Microsoft |
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Published
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Thu, 11 Aug 2005 21:05
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The Scotland Police Force has become the latest public sector unit to fall under the spell of software giant Microsoft after it was announced that the Central Scotland Police would now be using Microsoft's products and would be doing away with the Linux and StarOffice that are currently being used by the force.
The deal which was inked with the Clackmannanshire, Stirling and Falkirk force was only possible after the force was able to save £319,000 from its annual IT budget. Obviously, there was some cost cutting in other less important areas. The deal was inked under the aegis of the Office of Government Commerce's (OGC) standing agreement with Microsoft. Central Scotland Police had hedged their bets on Linux in 2000.
But an assessment in 2004 found that most officers were having extreme difficulty in filing reports from remote areas and had to return to their desks in order to do so. This meant that a lot of valuable time and money was being wasted, according to David Stirling, the head of IT for Central Scotland Police, "An estimated 25 percent of additional staff time was routinely required to install and maintain open source-based systems. This decision is based purely on business needs, in accordance with a best value service review we had within the force. There were no ideological arguments about open source software," he stressed. He however pointed out that the force was not abandoning Linux in totality, "Our major incident system, for example, is moving from something else to Linux. But for desktop software, or applications shared with other forces, it makes sense for us to use Microsoft," he said.
By choosing Microsoft, Stirling has also saved the force around £100,000 that would have had to be spent in order to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. This deal now means that the entire Scottish Police Force is now under the Microsoft magic. The force would be working on Microsoft Server 2003 and Windows XP (SP2). The Redmond giant is also offering special rates to the force at £60,000 per year. Commenting on the deal, Microsoft's Raymond O'Hare said, "The solution will help introduce more flexible working by front-line officers and enable the force to better engage with its criminal justice partners."
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