Pursuing Government RFPs: A How-To Guide for Open Source

"And while new technologies might be intriguing, governments often shy away from major IT changes because they have little willingness to take even the slightest risks of introducing a glitch into their infrastructures. So they stay with the companies and technologies they know as they undergo their traditional Request for Proposal (RFP) contract bidding and acquisition procedures.

"But as the US economy continues to tread water, even local, state, and federal government agencies are looking for new ways to save money and cut their embattled budgets, while maintaining services to residents. So could this be the right time for open source software projects and vendors to make some real inroads into filling niches in the government IT space and jumping into the government RFP processes in earnest?

"Yes, say several industry experts, but it's going to take some education on the part of the open source community to find out how to do it successfully."

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