The European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT) is currently trying to raise awareness about ICT "lock-in" through a series of stakeholder engagement activities.
As part of the project "Best practices for ICT procurement based on standards in order to promote efficiency and reduce lock-in", the Directorate-General’s UNIT F2 (Innovation), with the support of PwC, is conducting a survey on open standards for ICT procurement in an effort to identify procurement practices that European public entities may put in place to reduce or avoid ICT lock-in, achieve higher savings when procuring ICT, and increase competition among ICT suppliers.
According to a statement published along with the survey, a number of EU public organisations are currently “locked-in” with their supplier of ICT systems. In an effort to fight this, DG CONNECT is organising a series of workshops, webinars and online activities to promote the adoption of the "Guide for the procurement of standards-based ICT".
The creation of the online version of this guide is one of the achievements of the project during its first year. Other achievements include the creation of an online community to support those individuals who intend to use open standards for the procurement of ICT products and services. The project has also resulted in the creation of an eLibrary of virtuous and less virtuous open procurement practices and other initiatives related to the procurement of ICT goods and services by public bodies throughout Europe.
The first year of the project has also seen the organisation of several workshops, including on “Public Entities reducing Lock-In: the way forward”, and “Open Standards for ICT Procurment: sharing of Best Practices”, in addition to a number webinars with international public procurement experts.
For more information: Questionnaire: ICT procurement based on standards
To participate: Survey