Eighteen open source IT service providers are appealing a Swiss government agency's no-bid licence agreement with Microsoft.
The group, including GNU/Linux distributor Red Hat, say that the Department for Building and Logistics (BBL) ignored procurement rules when it signed a software licence agreement with Microsoft worth 42 million CHF (about 27,8 million euro) without a call for tender, earlier this year. The contract is for software for PC workstations, and covers applications, maintenance, and support.
The IT service providers want the court to reverse the agency decisions and instruct it to hold a public bidding process. "This will allow for fair consideration of the merits of open source and other non-Microsoft software product", Red Hat said in a statement published on 21 May, a day after it filed the brief on behalf of the group.
According to BBL public procurement was not necessary, as procurement regulations were not in force when the contract was signed. The agency also said there were no alternatives to the software.
"Au contraire", Red Hat writes, pointing to the Swiss Canton of Solothurn, the city administration of Zurich, the Federal Agency for Computer Sciences and and Telecommunictions (BIT) and the Federal Institute for Intellectual Property (IGE), all of which are using alternative Red Hat products.
Among the companies are Open-Exchange and Zarafa, both offering open source alternatives to Microsoft's Exchange server software. A third company, Opencollax, is selling services around an open source small business server, as an alternative for a similar Microsoft product.
The BBL software deal was first reported on by the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 5 May. The contract had been signed in February, but was made public in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce on 1 May.
More information:
/ch/open press release (in German)