Australian Government modifies software procurement position

Australian agencies can now consider open source software in purchasing decisions after the government modified its procurement position.

The new policy aims to level the playing field for open source software by requiring agencies to actively look for open source alternatives when procuring software.

The modified position continues to operate within the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines.

“We will be closely monitoring the effects of this policy change and if we do not see greater use of Open Source Software by agencies, we will look at our policy options again to see if we can take further steps to encourage more agencies to use open source software,” Glenn Archer, Acting Deputy Secretary of the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), said.

“We believe that this is a step forward from our previous position of ‘informed neutrality’ and, we hope, will result in greater use of open source software by agencies,” he said. 

Since 2005, the Australian Government’s position on open source software has been described as one of “informed neutrality” and “value for money” in accordance with Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines.

However changes in technologies and the increasing demand for better ROI has made open source more appealing to Australian agencies.

“This revised Australian Government policy on open source software will ensure that we maintain international best practice and that our purchases of software will continue to reflect best value for money for the Government,” Archer said. 

The revised policy will commence on 1 March 2011 for all ICT. 

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