When open source comes marching in

While Linux has undoubtedly carved inroads into the IT systems of regional governments, a series of roadblocks are still standing in the way of wider user adoption.

It's all about patents: In the last few years, intellectual-property protection of open-source software has become one of the most pertinent issues in the IT scene. The legal hoopla surrounding SCO's charges that some Linux codes are in violation of Unix patents continues to have the open-source industry up in arms, and has even resulted in several attacks on SCO's Web site.

A controversial study last year also added weight to these alleged copy claims. According to a report by U.S.-based startup Open Source Risk Management, Linux could have infringed as many as 283 patents. Of little surprise, Microsoft is leveraging such doubts to drum up the merits of its Windows operating system. To safeguard its customers against intellectual-property risks, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is now offering indemnity against any patent claim.

Not to be outdone, companies like Sun Microsystems, Red Hat and Hewlett-Packard have also sought to reassure Linux buyers with similar warranty schemes. While protection plans are now offered by these multinational vendors, regional Linux distributors like Red Flag in China and Korea's HaanSoft have yet to make a clear stand when it comes to intellectual-property assurance.

It's all about interoperability: Prior to Red Hat and Novell's aggressive expansion into the region in the past two years, multiple flavors of the Linux operating system have been and are still being offered by a host of smaller local players around the region.

The fragmentation in regional Linux distributions and the resulting lack of standardization is a bane for third-party software and hardware vendors. Unlike the "certify once, use everywhere" proposition of Windows, fragmentation means companies will have to repeatedly certify their products with different Linux distributors.

In a bid to resolve this issue, three leading Linux sellers from China, Japan and Korea--Red Flag, Miracle Linux and HaanSoft--joined hands to develop a standardized Linux server operating system called Asianux. By using a shared Linux core, the companies said Asianux will ensure interoperability among the three open-source hotbeds in North Asia.

In what is widely perceived as yet another Linux victory in Asia, authorities in China, Japan and Korea have further sealed an agreement to standardize their IT systems on open-source software. Government representatives from the three nations have met several times in 2004 and are expected to firm up details of the move in the near future.

It's all about support: Besides the interoperability obstacle, the lack of third-party applications is often cited as another major impediment in Linux's quest to enter the mainstream. Without support for mission-critical applications, Linux's early inroads have been confined to commodity Web or file servers.

While the situation is changing, the breadth of applications available for Linux is still lower compared to entrenched operating systems like Windows or Unix

To overcome this problem, Linux proponents like Oracle are investing millions in incentives to lure independent software vendors to port their applications over to the open-source platform. In addition, companies like Red Hat and Novell are ramping up training programs to deepen Linux know-how among Asian IT professionals.
-- By Winston Chai, CNETAsia

Forget hard figures, the return of investment calculations and the list of new application features. These factors count for little as organizations deciding whether a move to a new IT platform is viable seek a different comfort level. This new level of comfort requires sufficient evidence of successful adoption by others in the industry. It also requires that the move be seen to inspire confidence among partners and customers.

In Asia, one can now argue that both prerequisites have been met when it comes to moving to an open-source platform. It may be hard to state a defining moment when that happened, since comfort is an intangible measure, but it is not hard to sense the optimism that now resonates on the ground with open-source software (OSS).

This confidence stems from the abundant anecdotal evidence that OSS benefits both government and commercial organizations. In Asia, Singapore's Ministry of Defence (Mindef), for instance, saved S$15 million (US$9.3 million) by deciding to let its existing licenses for Office 97 software lapse and to migrate to OpenOffice instead.

Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), the nation's IT development agency, has been replacing its fleet of proprietary software with freeware and open-source applications such as GIMP, OpenOffice and Irfanview. NECTEC director Dr. Thaweesak Koanantakool reckons that at a nationwide level, using OSS saved Thailand US$45 million in 2003.

The state-owned Central Bank of India saved US$4 million a year, or reduced 30 percent of its IT expenses, when it adopted Linux to run Oracle applications last year.

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Another key reason for the Asian mindset change is the proliferation of open-source advocacy groups in the region in the last two years. Prime examples include the Asian Open Source Center by the Malaysian government-led organization MIMOS; and pan-Asian Linux development like the "Asianux" project led by software developers from China, Japan and Korea.

Industry experts say that these nationalistic initiatives are important, because government agencies in Asia have telling commercial influence--and official endorsements can tangibly bolster the success of any IT adoption.

This point especially hits home for a country as populous as China, home to 1.3 billion people or one-fifth of the world's population. Adding fuel to the China momentum is the announcement last year by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to accept membership of Beijing Software Testing Center (BSTC), China’s largest software testing organization.

It is also important to note that the alarmist OSS patent warnings sounded by Microsoft and other commercial software vendors earlier last year appear to have evaporated. "It is a non-issue now," Vivian Tero, senior analyst, infrastructure software IDC, told CNETAsia. She expects the market to work itself out with amicable outcomes even if further patent issues should arise in the future.

So how comfortable are Asia's public sector with OSS today? Fairly comfortable, it seems.

Cheok Beng Teck,
director, Mindef's CIO office

After a successful rollout of OpenOffice to thousands of desktops, Cheok Beng Teck, the director of Singapore's Mindef CIO office, is planting the seed for another open-source implementation.

NECTEC's Thaweesak is also chartering his next OSS move. He plans to promote the use of Mozilla's latest open-source e-mail client, ThunderBird, and the much-hyped Web browser, FireFox.

Mindef is planting the seed for another open-source implementation.

Thaweesak hopes that by promoting these two applications, users will become more comfortable moving to the Linux platform in the future. He said he will be happy if his organization's OSS adoption achieves an equal split between proprietary and open-source software.

Linux's success in large organizations, of course, will depend on more than productivity suites and Web browsers. Core business application is the next frontier for open source--whether they are themselves open-source applications or they run on open-source platforms like Linux.

IDC's Tero points out that the shift of core business applications, such as database processing and ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, to open-source platforms will depend on the mood of independent software developers (ISVs). But one thing is clear so far, she said, change is coming.

Gartner has predicted that 60 percent of large and mid-size government agencies worldwide will be using OSS in their core business processes by 2010, compared to less than 15 percent today--a significant increase.

In Asia, Gartner said that tech expenditure in the region, excluding Japan, will swell by 7.6 percent to US$208.7 billion in 2005, with the highest increase expected in the software segment where spending will improve by 12.4 percent to US$5.6 billion.

Recent statistics released by the Chinese government's Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center (BSTC) has Linux sales in China growing at more than 40 percent a year--from US$6.3 million in 2002 to US$38.7 million by 2007. Most of this growth will come from the server environment.

All this points to a rosy future for OSS in Asia. But even better, the identified roadblocks for open-source adoption are slowly being addressed, as the movement attracts more commercial vendor interests and stronger commitment from governments to educate organizations on OSS.

In this special report, we look in detail the successful implementaton of OpenOffice by Singapore's Mindef, and chart the progress of OSS adoption in Malaysia and Thailand.

Finding middle ground

Achieving balance and harmony, or "the middle way", is the core philosophy behind the religion of Buddhism. And it is this way of life that applies to the deployment of software in Thailand, home to 59 million Buddhists or 95 percent of the population.

The country's open-source initiative stemmed from a nationwide directive for all government agencies to use legitimate software.

The nation has been one of the most vocal supporters of the open-source movement in Asia, alongside countries such as China and Malaysia. But the Thai government has noted that it is not choosing camps. It prefers instead to use "the best from both worlds".

According to Dr. Thaweesak Koanantakool, director of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), the country's open-source initiative stemmed from a nationwide directive for all government agencies to use legitimate software. The NECTEC is a statutory organization under the Thai Ministry of Science and Technology's National Science and Technology Development Agency.

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"Obviously, we don't have enough budget to do that," he said. "There was an opportunity for (us to use) another type of legal software at a very low cost. So instead of paying, for example, a $1 for the license, we can pay 20 cents for the use of the software and keep the rest of the money for something else, such as provide training or set up a helpdesk."

Front-office employees also typically need only software tools with basic functionality, and usually have no use for extra features that commercial software offer, he added.

Open-source software(OSS), such as Mozilla and OpenOffice, are well-suited to cater for these needs and priced at a low cost, he said.

Government agencies across Thailand now use a combination of OSS and freeware, according to Dr. Thaweesak. "We’ve replaced (Adobe) Photoshop with GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and ACDSee with Irfanview." The NECTEC also runs OpenOffice TLE, an extension of the open-source office productivity suite which comes with support for the Thai language, on all its Windows-based desktops.

According to him, about 40 percent of his staff at the NECTEC exchange documents using open source. He plans to increase this number to 80 percent by the end of this year.

"We found that the key to open-source adoption is for the organization to declare such documents as the official standard (of practice). If you don't do this officially, then these users will be penalized when they send e-mail with attachments to another user who does not have open-source on his system."

Most of the country's government Web sites are hosted on servers which run either Linux or Apache. In fact, the Thai public sector has been using OSS for more than five years, revealed Dr. Thaweesak. It also employs engineers to help maintain the infrastructure, and has a team that develops OSS and Thai-centric releases, such as OpenOffice TLE which was jointly developed with Sun Microsystems, he said.

"We found that the key to open-source adoption is for the organization to declare such documents as the official standard (of practice)."

--Dr. Thaweesak Koanantakool, director of National Electronics and Computer Technology Center

Thailand's open-source movement extends beyond the government body, where schools and the general public have been educated on the benefits of using open source, he added.

"We introduced (the OpenOffice TLE) to most government agencies, schools and the general public. It was a big campaign (for us)," he noted. "In 2003, the Thai government announced a budget computer (US$250 per unit including monitor) based on a Linux and OpenOffice software package. About 150,000 units of these machines were sold that year."

The Thai government estimated that in 2003, the country saved US$45 million by simply deploying open-source software, he said.

NECTEC also assembled a range of popular freeware and OSS, then downloaded and distributed them on a single CD. These CDs are given out as door gifts or gift tokens at public seminars and road shows.

He noted that the country's campaign not only helped its citizens get on the open-source bandwagon, it also pushed Microsoft to remain competitively priced by drastically reducing the price of its software products in Thailand.

Seeking a balance
Despite the benefits of OSS, Dr. Thaweesak stressed that the Thai government has no plans to replace all proprietary software and would be "happy" with a 50 percent penetration rate in terms of open-source deployment.

"We are not making war with Microsoft, but we want to find a way to work with them and not inhibit others by forcing them to use open-source software," he noted. "There are mixed feelings about using open-source software. There are many advocates that want us (to adopt open source) 100 percent, while there's also resistance from those who don't have experience with such software.There are two extremes.

"What I'm trying to promise is a middle ground, mixing the best of both worlds. If there are shortcomings in open-source software that you can't live with, then buy the alterative."

He noted that security and the lack of local language support could potentially be issues that Thailand might be concerned with in its open-source adoption.

Currently, there are fewer viruses and other malicious attacks targeted at open-source environments, compared to those aimed at Microsoft platforms and applications, he said. But this could change as the former increases in popularity, he added. "Still, the open-source community and developers will be there to help patch any security holes," he said.

Manoo Aoradeedolchet, director of Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), noted: "Security, right now, is not a real problem…but it will become a serious one when usage (of open-source applications) goes up in one to two. Then, it will become an important issue to support." Operating under the Thai Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, SIPA is responsible for promoting all software--commercial and open-source--in the country, and works with vendors such as Sun, Novell and IBM to drive the open source practice.

The lack of localized features and content is also an area that has to be addressed, he said. For example, the Thai font selection that is currently available in OpenOffice still needs to be improved, he said.

Dr. Thaweesak added that the current version of OpenOffice also does not support the Thai language, resulting in the deployment of the OpenOffice TLE module. However, development work is already underway to incorporate this support internationally in the next version of OpenOffice.

The Thai government is now looking to promote the use of open-source e-mail client ThunderBird and Web browser FireFox.

It is also pushing ahead with more training and awareness campaigns to get users in the government sector more comfortable with open source.

In fact, Dr. Thaweesak only permits his users to purchase Microsoft licenses under one condition. "They need to prove to me that their work is so complicated that it can't be run on open-source software, and that they need Microsoft Office," he explained. To date, he has approved only two of 600 such requests. The two employees were from the finance and accounting department who had to work with complex spreadsheets, he said.

"We would like to achieve a higher penetration rate, and the way any government can do that is to use the principle of living happily with licensed software (along with open source)," he said. "We recommend users to keep Windows but to use OpenOffice on top of the OS. That's the most optimum option for now, because there's no threat of (having to cope with) a big change from Windows to Linux."

According to Manoo, there are also plans to identify other distributions of Linux, specifically Debian, as a more affordable alternative to RedHat, which he noted is costly to support in Thailand. SIPA is now looking to rope in service providers with the ability to support Debian, he said.

"The open-source (developer) community is still small in Thailand," he noted. "That's one of the things we're now looking at as well." He added that he hopes to lower the total cost of ownership of open source by publicizing the importance of open source.

Malaysia pushes open-source education

Malaysia is pushing hard to educate and promote open source to the public services sector.

The Malaysian Administration Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), which is spearheading the public sector's open-source software (OSS) initiative, has gone on an aggressive drive to educate and assist in the implementation of OSS in government departments and agencies.

Raising OSS awareness is a key component of the government's grand plan.

Mampu is actively promoting open source to senior IT decision-makers, such as chief information officers (CIOs) in the public sector, IT managers and administrators

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Since The Public Sector Open Source Software Masterplan was unveiled in July last year, six workshops on OSS have been conducted for the public sector. Raising OSS awareness is a key component of the government's grand plan, and one the goals for this year is to ensure that all CIOs and IT managers in the public sector are OSS-literate. The target is for 60 percent of IT personnel to be OSS trained, 10 percent OSS certified, and 20 percent of teachers in charge of school IT labs to be OSS trained.

According to Mampu, there are currently more than 50 government agencies using OSS in various areas. An OSS certification program, as well as a training plan, has also been introduced.

In addition, four pilot projects have been launched. They are a learning management system at the Information Ministry; a training information system at the Public Services Department; a portal aimed at single mothers for the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry; and an economic intelligence database system at the Finance Ministry.

"Linux is seen as an agent of economic development, especially for developing countries such as Malaysia. But while the adoption rate of OSS in Malaysia is growing, it is still in its infancy stage," said K.K. Leong, country manager for Novell Malaysia.

He believes that the government, as one of the biggest IT purchasers, will help drive technological innovations, as well as spur the commercial and small and medium-sized enterprises to adopt OSS, he added.

"The implementation of Malaysia's OSS Masterplan is definitely a good start, and Mampu should implement its OSS policies without fear or favor, otherwise the framework and masterplan will not result in anything tangible."

--Nah Soo Hoe, one of Malaysia's highly regarded OSS experts

Nah Soo Hoe, one of Malaysia's highly regarded experts in this field, said the promotion of OSS by well-known IT vendors, such as Novell with its Suse Linux products, adds to this confidence. Things are looking up, compared to the past where there was "no recognizable corporate brand name presence for a Linux distribution" in Malaysia, he pointed out.

While Malaysia appears to be heading in the right direction, Nah noted that there is still much work to be done. "The implementation of Malaysia's OSS Masterplan is definitely a good start, and Mampu should implement its OSS policies without fear or favor, otherwise the framework and masterplan will not result in anything tangible," Nah noted.

Several hurdles remain and need to be overcome. They include a shortage of a pool of skilled and experienced OSS workers; concerns about interoperability and integration with proprietary platforms, especially those on the Microsoft platform; and a lack of a good understanding of OSS licensing issues.

Clear on selection criteria
Under the Masterplan, the government has stated that its first choice in IT procurement are infocomm technology solutions developed on the open-source platform. Although this is encouraging news, industry players like Oracle feel that the government needs to offer more clarity on the selection criteria so that IT buyers can decide on the most appropriate solutions that best fit their agencies’ requirements.

"There should also be a clear mandate for agencies to hold open-source software developers or organizations to the same standards as those for commercial software providers," said V. R. Srivatsan, managing director, Oracle Malaysia

Srivatsan said the evaluation criteria should include a vendor's support capability; total cost of ownership and not just acquisition costs; availability of skills and legal/vendor risks and liabilities.

He added that adoption of the OSS policy should be done with a step-by-step approach. According to Srivatsan, the initial adoption should be in core areas of the infrastructure stack like the operating systems level, which have proven benefits of availability, support, security and availability of skills.

A matter of national policy
OSS advocates are also calling for the government to release its National OSS Policy which has been in the draft stage for some time.

Noting its importance, Nah explained: "This will show that the government really means it when it says that it is going to embrace OSS and it will send a clear signal to all."

If implemented properly, he reckons that the ideals of OSS and the environment it encourages--to learn, innovate and invent--can help build a knowledge-based and ICT-savvy society.

"The government has to be brave enough to announce a proactive OSS policy and actively go about implementing this policy even if prominent members of the multinational business community and foreign governments protest against possible discrimination against their businesses," he argued.

Making open source work

Last year, Singapore's Ministry of Defence stirred the global IT industry with its decision to install open-source software. With plans to install OpenOffice in thousands of desktops, the announcement was considered one of the biggest open-source implementations by any government agency.

CIO Cheok Beng Teck (right) and his team cover all their bases to minimize the risks of adopting open source

Mindef had decided not to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2003, choosing instead to install OpenOffice on 5,000 desktops. By March 2006, 20,000 desktops will be installed with the open-source productivity software.

When the news broke, it made headlines on several Asian and international technology media, and it was heavily discussed in several online forums.

In an interview with CNETAsia, Cheok Beng Teck, director of Mindef's CIO office, revealed the events that led to the landmark project. Together with his two senior IT staff, Cheok shared the decision-making process, the implementation strategy and the lessons learnt.

He also dispelled myths about open source, including concerns about vendor support and staff productivity, and explained it wasn't just about the price tag.

Getting hooked early
Prior to the OpenOffice project and the establishment of the CIO office, Mindef had already been using open-source software (OSS).

"Mindef has been using open source from day one," said Cheok, noting that the Defence Science Technology Agency, for example, was one such user.

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"Back then, it was a very project-centric environment and IT was decentralized," he recalled. "People used open source, and they managed the risks themselves."

It was only after the Mindef CIO Office was formed, almost three years ago, that a decision was made to gain better control over the use of OSS. Cheok's team has put in place an open-source infrastructure that is centrally managed, and backed by support policies.

"I got Chong Chan Meng (Mindef's assistant CIO for planning) to work with a lawyer to study the different licensing agreements so that we know what we can and cannot use," said Cheok. Chong, he said, wrote a policy paper to manage the risks involved in the implementation of OSS, and kept a register of all open-source software used.

"This was necessary because we cannot expose Mindef to unnecessary risks," said Cheok. "With the policy paper, we know what open-source software we can and cannot use."

The allure of open source
Cheok strongly believes that any CIO office, or any company, that is of any significant size should have open source as part of their technical architecture and as part of their overall strategy.

"Open source is a technology that helps better align business requirements to IT from a cost point of view," he noted, adding that he sees open source as "an opportunity to promote organizational transformation".

He believes that an organization that adopts open source sends out certain positive signals. "First, that you're cost-prudent, although some people may say it's not true that open source has a lower TCO (total cost of ownership)," said Cheok. "Second, and most important, we send the message that we're willing to try new technology, and we're willing to take risk."

A company that implements OSS well also sends the signal that it has an IT team capable of managing the risk of moving from one technology to another, he added.

Cheok said the risk of adopting open source is "not the so-called 'viral' nature of open source because that, in my opinion, can be managed very well".

The bigger risk, he said, is in using the wrong software. "If you use the wrong open-source software, your company can come to a standstill. And that's where the costs can be higher, because business is disrupted when we use the wrong technology," he explained.

"Open source is viewed as more secure partly because we can read the code... (but) one can never be absolutely sure whether OSS is more secure because the source codes do not operate on their own."

--Cheok Beng Teck, director, Mindef CIO office

Feeling secure
The other advantage presented by open source is in the area of security. "From a security point of view, open source is viewed as more secure partly because we can read the code. When we can read the code, we can at least identify the malicious code hiding in there," Cheok explained.

This makes the lives easier for organizations like Mindef, which have the IT security expertise and resources available in-house. "These organizations can analyze the codes if they choose to, and in theory, mainstream OSS codes are also scrutinized by the global OSS community", Cheok noted. "If you look at the data and statistics of Web sites that have been defaced or attacked, they indicate that Microsoft servers seem more vulnerable. Their vulnerabilities are more publicized, and hackers seem to prefer targeting Microsoft servers," he said.

But, numbers aside, companies that implement OSS must remain vigilant. "One can never be absolutely sure whether OSS is more secure because the source codes do not operate on their own. You need a compiler," Cheok noted. "One may never know what will happen after the codes are compiled. Also, unless we go through every single line of code, we can never be sure that there are no other malicious codes running in other parts of the system."

The OpenOffice story
The CIO office has also been experimenting with StarOffice but eventually decided on OpenOffice, said Jimmy Lee, an assistant CIO with Mindef.

Cheok said it was a "no-brainer" decision to not upgrade from Microsoft Office 97, which is no longer supported by the software vendor. "Mindef has achieved a cost avoidance of at least S$15 million (US$9 million) by not upgrading to Microsoft Office 2003," he said.

After performing environment testing of OpenOffice, Mindef timed the open-source deployment with the desktop productivity suite upgrade. "Mindef is so huge, so we need to align with the overall desktop upgrade program. From the time we started to experiment with StarOffice to the implementation of OpenOffice, it was about 1.5 years."

Making open source work, continued

While Linux has undoubtedly carved inroads into the IT systems of regional governments, a series of roadblocks are still standing in the way of wider user adoption.

In what is widely-perceived as yet another Linux victory in Asia, authorities in China, Japan and Korea have further sealed an agreement to standardize their IT systems on open-source software. Government representatives from the three nations have met several times in 2004 and are expected to firm up details of the move in the near future.

While the situation is changing, the breadth of applications available for Linux is still lower compared to entrenched operating systems like Windows or Unix

When asked about the potential cost and productivity loss as a result of having to grapple with new technology, Cheok said it was unnecessary worry.

"I think the cost is overstated," he said. "And I haven't seen any significant loss in productivity while my staff grappled with OpenOffice. The interface is very intuitive."

Describing the experience of the 17 staff who first experimented with OpenOffice, Cheok said: "They took to it like fish to water."

Cheok Beng Teck,
director, Mindef's CIO office

The cost of conversion for most educated users--people with reasonable exposure to IT--is not as high as some people think, said Cheok.

"Some people worry that if they use OpenOffice, it may take them, say, three hours to type a letter instead of 30 minutes.

"The first time, it may be 10 minutes longer. But eventually, it'll be as fast, if not faster," he noted.

"I haven't seen any significant loss in productivity while my staff grappled with OpenOffice."

But Mindef is not completely pulling the plug on Microsoft. Cheok has implemented a co-existence model to give staff choice which, he said, works very well.

To accelerate the adoption of OpenOffice among users who use applications that do not need Microsoft Office, the CIO office is working on a change management policy. "Those who can survive on OpenOffice will only have OpenOffice," he said.

Lee added: "This group will grow (in size) over time as we retire those applications that require Microsoft Office."

Cheok estimates about one quarter of Mindef staff belong to this group of users. "They will be given OpenOffice for a start. Progressively, this group will increase because as we retire old applications and build new ones, they will be less Microsoft Office-dependent," he explained.

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The Mindef CIO Office supports 65,000 full-time employees comprising Singaporean men serving National Service (NS), and full-time employees of Singapore Air Force and Mindef. With such a large user group, implementation has to be done in a phased approach.

"Things can't happen overnight," said Cheok. "On top of (the 65,000 employees), I've to give implicit support to about 300,000 operationally-ready NS men through MIW.com (the Web site for NS men)," he noted.

By the time Mindef introduces the 20,000 new desktops in March 2006, about one quarter will be OpenOffice-only users.

The cost of offering choice
Having a co-existence strategy does not necessarily cost a company more money. In fact, Cheok said, "the costs are overstated".

Part of the budget--about 2 percent of the total cost if Mindef had decided to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2003--has been allocated for change management. The money will be used to educate people about the migration, to hold short courses for those keen to understand the differences between OpenOffice and Microsoft Office 97, he said.

"The amount of money I put aside (for change management) is a small fraction," said Cheok. "But these are costs that I would have incurred anyway should I upgrade to Office 2003," said Cheok.

Costs aside, there were also "emotional issues" to deal with, as they will be in any typical IT implementation. "People were worried about issues like how to use (it), how to 'bold' the text, for example. By nature, people are afraid of the unknown," he recalled.

But the intuitive interface of OpenOffice, which is similar to Microsoft Office, made it easier for staff to get used to the new software, Cheok said.

Mindef conducted a three-month pilot, during which user surveys were conducted to get feedback on the software and their experiences. "I didn't want people to feel that I forced the tool down their throats. I told them that I'll do the survey, and at any time they were uncomfortable, I would allow them to back out," he noted.

Managing change
As with all IT projects, change management cannot be emphasized enough.

"Change management is important as we migrate more aggressively to OpenOffice, which is not an easy task considering we support 65,000 people. So we worked out a major change management campaign," said Cheok.

Lee leads the team in change management, and worked with a group from DSTA to execute the change management program. He also roped in Resolvo Systems, a Singapore-based vendor specializing in open source.

According to Cheok, there is no lack of support for OSS. Besides the open-source community, vendors are also a good source of support. "You will find that the system integrators are pleased to help you migrate from proprietary software to open-source software, because they see it as their value-add," he said.

"Although few would openly admit it, most systems integrators would be happy to help you if you're willing to manage the risk together with them."

He also advised companies to ensure users are constantly reassured throughout the process. "When you roll out the technology, you need to tell users that you're supporting them all the way. Tell them that if they've a problem and the helpdesk can't help them, you'll be there to assist," said Cheok.

What's ahead
Mindef's open-source experience will not end with OpenOffice. Money has been put aside to experiment with the Linux desktop operating system.

"We believe there will be more value from open source and OpenOffice. So Linux desktop is the next seed we want to plant and hope to harvest the benefits," Cheok said.

The plan, so far, is to select desktops for specific purposes. "We're looking for an environment that is suitable to implement the Linux desktop, not just for the pilot but for production use," he said.

When asked for more details, Cheok said it was still early days but emphasized that his team "will have to consider how the business will be affected as we think about deploying open source".

"We'll probably follow the same journey as (what we took for) the OpenOffice platform," said Cheok.

When open source comes marching in