The Government ICT Strategy states that ‘Where appropriate, Government will procure open source solutions.’ To support this, Action 3 of the Strategy says that ‘To create a level playing field for the use of innovative ICT solutions, the Government will publish a toolkit for procurers on best practice for evaluating the use of open source solutions.
The following set of documents makes up that toolkit:
- All About Open Source – including FAQs
- ICT Advice Note – Procurement of Open Source
- Procurement Policy Note on Open Source
- OSS Options
- CESG Guidance on Open Source – for Government users only, but a publicly available summary of the guidance will be available soon
- Total Cost of Ownership.
The purpose of this toolkit is to ensure that there is a level playing field for open source and proprietary software and that some of the myths associated with open source are dispelled.
It is intended for those who need to consider, evaluate or procure open source solutions as well as anyone just wanting to know more about open source.
The documents can be accessed at www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/open-source-procurement-toolkit
