Case study: The 'Why not?' approach to Vista

In 2004, one London borough council went from being a potential poster-child for open source advocates to near public enemy number one. Newham, in the East of the capital, close to the site of planned Olympic village, had been carrying out extensive trials of Linux on the desktop and server software, but in a u-turn move decided that the systems were just "too risky" and instead opted for Windows XP.

Richard Steel, the then head of ICT, clearly made the right move as far as council bosses were concerned and has now been appointed chief information officer. Yet at the time, he was roundly criticised by open source supporters for simply dangling the threat of migrating away from proprietary software as a bargaining tactic in licence negotiations with Microsoft. The strategy was dubbed "doing a Newham" and was allegedly used by other private- and public-sector organisations.

Understandably, Steel denies charges that he somehow set back the public sector adoption of open source by opting to stick with Microsoft. Instead he claims that the decision to stay with Microsoft was one driven by functionality.

"One of the issues that swayed us in favour of Microsoft was how far behind open source was in the mobile area, and we use Windows Mobile extensively on devices such as handhelds," Steel says.

So enamoured is Steel of Microsoft that the council has actually implemented a policy of using the Redmond company's software as a default option on every ICT purchase. This process of standardisation is known as the "Why not Microsoft?" approach, which accords the vendor preferred supplier status. "This means what is says. If Microsoft has a product to do the job, we'll use it, if not we'll go elsewhere. We also use open source products in our infrastructure, especially in the network management domain, but Microsoft understands that," says Steel.

Newham's close relationship with Microsoft also means that it is one of the early adopters of the newly released Vista operating system. As part of its role as an early adopter, Newham joined a Vista shared learning group, which was chaired by Steel and included 10 other London local authorities that were also Microsoft customers. This involved undertaking proof of concept work in areas such as performance management, assistive technologies and telecare for health-related matters, and flexible working.

Vista is one of the central elements in a major overhaul of systems and processes at the council, which employs about 800 staff catering to the needs of around 250,000 citizens. The 120-strong ICT department is central to the organisation. Steel claims his recent promotion is a sign of how important the council takes the contribution of IT.

"It's quite significant that we've created a CIO job in Newham. It's about IT coming of age. It signifies that it's no longer about techies in a back room, but that the council now recognises that IT is fundamental to an effective business," he says.

Steel claims the change means he is free to focus more on strategy and is in a better position to work with directors and service heads. "It's about creating buy-in, understanding strategy and exploiting IT rather than just delivering it."

The fact that Steel and his team feel they understand the development and planning behind Vista means they have a better insight into the potential risk factors involved in early adoption. As a member of Microsoft's technology development programme, the organisation had been working with the product for a long time.

"There have been something like five million downloads in Vista's alpha and beta stages so it's probably been exposed to more testing than any other product in history," he says. "So it wasn't much of a risk and when you consider the advantages, they more than outweigh any perceived risk that you're taking."

One such advantage is the ability to shut Vista down in the evenings to save on energy costs and conform to the council's emerging green agenda. Staff are still able to undertake maintenance and re-start PCs again remotely in the morning to avoid staff frustration, but further savings can also be generated during the day by using sleep mode and other power-saving functions.

"This has a massive energy-saving potential and translates into real cash — as much as £50 per PC per year," Steel points out.

But all of this does not mean to say that Newham is...