On Tue, 21 May 2002, Gavin Treadgold wrote:
> What can we do in New Zealand? Can we approach political parties and
> governments and make them aware of the costs associated with MSFT software
> in New Zealand? How much money could be freed up in the economy if less was
> spent on MSFT operating systems? Surely this would prove attractive if we
> could demonstrate the economics of it. Is it something even Treasury would
It would be nice and IMHO it will happen at some point but ...
You have to be aware of the economics of it. IMHO the economics, particularly
in the short term are a very weak argument and the worst you can bring to
the "negotiation table":
There is a huge barrier to switch/exit:
- costs associated with (re)training of both users and support staff:
the smaller chunk IMHO;
- costs associated with increases support required in the transition
phase: probably larger than the previous;
- costs associated with the loss of productivity until the users come up
to speed under the new system as they were under the old one:
probably the larger one, also likely the hardest to estimate and
the easiest to miss/hide in a "formal" accounting procedure.
1-3 weeks ago (don't remember exactly) somebody have suggested ~10000$
per employee, I don't know how the figure was calculated but I think the
magnitude may be about right (i.e. in the order of x 000$).
These are the upfront costs and the savings enter only later,
likely about 1-3 years down the road.
There are other much more important benefits starting day 1,
like being fully in control of your IT environment, having your data
in open standards formats, etc.
Cheers,
--
Ryurick M. Hristev mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Computer Systems Manager
University of Canterbury, Physics & Astronomy Dept., New Zealand
