Hi Gavin, Yes the OpenEGovernment.org site i started in 2004 when David visited Thailand for a 2 weeks course. We expected some more activities from the government here in Thailand but sadly it died. About a year ago i took the site offline...But perhaps we can start again?
We are actually doing a project at the moment together with a larger Malaysian software company right now for a marketplace for the Malaysian government based on OFBiz. My experience with governments are that you have to have a pretty big software company in order to bid on a tender. Regards, Hans On Thu, 2010-02-04 at 11:29 +0200, Gavin Mabie wrote: > David > > Sadly (or fortunately) we do not fall within the "economic stimulus" domain > here in South Africa. We do how ever have a huge developmental push and our > young democracy (-20 years) has a long way to go in optimizing governmental > administrative systems. Having worked in the public sector myself for over > twenty years (some as a CIO) I have a special interest in the sector. I > spent the past 16 or so months plugging away at OfBiz to see where and how > it can be applied, especially given the SA government's commitment to Open > Source. I will be making pitches at various local government organisations > over the next few weeks - there is a strong possibility that we might get a > funded pilot (hold thumbs) and will keep you up to date with developments in > this regard. > > It nice to know that some work has been done and I can refer to these in my > presentations. What happened to Open for Government - I think Hans was > driving this? > > Cheers > > Gavin > > -----Original Message----- > From: David E Jones [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: 04 February 2010 04:48 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: OfBiz in Government > > > Anil Patel used to work for a public utility district in Washington State > and introduced a number of OFBiz-based solutions there, including one to do > fleet management. > > Hans Bakker did some stuff with this a few years ago in Thailand. > > A company called Integral Business Solutions did a bunch of US Air Force > contracting based on OFBiz. > > Currently Ean Schuessler and Adam Heath of Brainfood put together a site for > (if I understand it right) a US Govt lobby for open source software, and the > site itself runs on OFBiz and Webslinger. It's just the site though, this > isn't any sort of OFBiz lobby and the people there are generally big wigs > from larger organizations pushing various different things in government. > > I've been contacted by a number of government contractors (typically larger > organizations, or companies that specialize in govt contracting) over the > years with proposals for everything from payroll and human resources for > tens of thousands of people, to equipment planning and maintenance for > emergencies. However, it seems like these larger contracts are a HUGE uphill > battle and almost impossible to get unless you already have an "in" with the > buying organization (yes, the revolving door is a HUGE deal here, and > usually those who help drive industry after being in govt stick with larger > companies where there is more money). > > Those are just off the top of my head. There are definitely various > government sponsored projects that use OFBiz. Still, especially for larger > projects it's tough for open source based solutions to even get a foot in > the door, which I guess is what the organization the Brainfood has been > working with is trying to fix. > > If you're hoping to get a slice of the ever-growing world-wide "economic > stimulus" spending that is going on these days there may be better ways to > go about it than to try to leverage open source software (unless perhaps it > is the variety like RedHat Linux or OpenOffice that might have a > multi-million dollar support contract to go along with it). > > Of course, that's just my opinion... and I'd be delighted if someone would > prove me wrong! > > -David > > > On Feb 3, 2010, at 4:04 AM, Gavin Mabie wrote: > > > Hi list > > > > > > > > Is there anybody on the list that tried or implemented OfBiz in the public > > sector / government? > > > > > > > > Gavin > > > -- Antwebsystems.com: Quality OFBiz services for competitive rates
