Press
Central government will work with open source software
THE HAGUE - The new common website which will replace all websites of the government, is made with open source software.
The Secretary for Economic Affairs Frank Heemskerk said this Tuesday.
Heemskerk was handed a report of the Central Planning Bureau (CPB) which states that the government would do well by opting for more open source software to promote innovations in this area.
Open source
With open source software, such as the Linux operating system or web browser Mozilla Firefox, the source code public and users can contribute to improvements in the system, which is free of charge. Proprietary software like Windows is not accessible to outsiders and costs money.
In order to drive innovation, it may be useful for the government to promote open software. This is possible by choosing, as a major customer, for open products or by giving preference for this with a tender, says the CPB.
Saving
Heemskerk agrees with this and hopes that the choice for open software by the government eventually will save much money. “Because of ignorance we are now missing out on giving chances to innovative companies and we miss opportunities to save money.”
According to Heemskerk the transition to open source software by the Dutch Patent Office shows that switching “is not that complicated”.
© ANP via Nu.nl
Amsterdam starts trial with open source
AMSTERDAM - The City of Amsterdam will be experimenting with open source software. In the first half of 2007 when the municipal Housing Department and the Zeeburg district had a trial with alternatives to Microsoft software.
The city council in the capital believes that open software may decrease the dependency of vendor Microsoft. Moreover it would be easier to exchange files, or to ensure that they remain useful in the future.
If the test succeeds the City of Amsterdam will be offering the open software to all departments. The current contract between Amsterdam and Microsoft will end in 2008.
Manifest
The city also will sign a manifest with a large number of municipalities for the use of open source software by the government. Although initiative for the manifest came from Amsterdam, the town itself had not yet joined, because the College of Mayor and Aldermen initial had doubts about "risks for business'.
© NU.nl / Wieland van Dijk
2009: Companies choose open source
The current economy makes companies turn to open source software increasingly. Open source software in this market is a very efficient alternative to expensive commercial software packages, say Computable experts. The Dutch government encourages and uses open source software already for several years in government-related information systems.
More and more companies will choose for open source software in 2009. Computable experts predict this. “The recession is forcing companies set up the ICT structure more efficient in thus cost reducing”, writes market researcher Guido Jansen Dutch Open Source.
According to experts, there are enough success stories about the use of open source software for various applications. Java architect Erik van Ingen of FAO expects a major breakthrough of open source software in business intelligence. He therefore foresees tough times for Oracle, Informatica, IBM and Business Objects.
Other reason
The reason why companies are choosing open source has changed a bit. "Previously open source was chosen only based on the quality. So savings on license and vendor lockin played a less important role", says business development manager Bert Boerland of Dutch Open Projects. And companies are willing to pay for an integration, says market researcher Jansen. "Just paying for licenses is over."
Boerland does not think it is always a good thing that companies choose open source software: "Unfortunately also companies who know nothing of licenses or do not care about the community choose for open source software. They want to reap, without weeding and watering" .
The Dutch government has a major role now, says technical sales specialist Gabor Nyers of Novell. "This role is really twofold: on the one hand, the government must take its responsibilities by actually adopting open standards and on the other hand it should also act as a role model."
Open source
There are many types of open source software. What they all have in common is that everyone can see and modify the original code, and anyone may use and copy the original software unlimited. The special thing about a program with a GNU General Public License (GPL), is that if a programmer decides to modify anything, he has to distribute the modified program again under a GPL license. When asked for the source code, the programmer has to release this.
But there are also open source licenses where a programmer does not have to release his code. Sometimes a licence allows source code to be modified, but puts a fence around the new source code. Then, it is not open source software anymore and the software is no longer free. Many commercial software is created in that way. The marketing department of a company put a bow on a particular part of the open source software and sells it as a package on the market. There are all kinds of licenses, which allow or ban many different actions.
Source: Computable
Amsterdam, March 5, 2008
Sangoma Continues to Grow Overseas Distribution
Partnership with The IP Company expands distribution channel throughout Middle East and opens new channel in Western Europe
TORONTO, CANADA and THE NETHERLANDS – (March 5, 2008) – Sangoma Technologies Corporation (TSXV: STC), the premium provider of PC-based telephony hardware and software products for proprietary and open source networking and telephony solutions, announced today that they have partnered with The IP Company MSMLE (Mobile, Small and Medium Enterprises, Large Enterprises ), a provider of open source solutions, to expand distribution of Sangoma’s premium telephony and data cards throughout Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Middle-East. Through this partnership, The IP Company will provide a valuable sales, training and support hub for Sangoma customers. Enterprises throughout the region will be able to purchase Sangoma products to build high-speed, standards compliant, plug-and-play and project based solutions.
The IP Company is a group of companies with enthusiastic people and years of experience in Telecommunication and (Inter) Networking.
The passion and persistence in research on new technologies resulted in professional and specialized business based Voice over IP and Open source solutions. The IP Company knows your business, their business and future solutions. We make your business more profitable with a better reach ability. Our consultants are with any doubt the best there are in the world of telecommunication and business processes.
Voice over IP also known as VoIP is transferring speech and data over one network based on the Internet Protocol (IP). Hence VoIP is a user-friendly, customer-friendly, cost effective and efficient means of communication. VoIP offers for your own company as well as for your customers an extension in your communication strategy and integration with your existing CRM solution.
Implementation of VoIP within your company shouldn’t be hard or complex. On any PC you are able to build your own complete IP-PBX solution with Asterisk/Digium. If you want an easy out of the box solution The IP Company has selected several industry standard hardware appliances to run a complete IP Telephony platform on.
This Intorrent IP PBX platform is one of a kind. Without extra cost you have a complete solution with VoiceMail, Interactive Voice Response, Automatic Call Distribution, Queuing with Agent functionality, Automated Attendant, Call Recording, Switchboard, Reporting on call usage and Queuing, Absent messaging, presence and many more features, based on industry open platform standards.
The IP group of Companies have world wide established businesses in various regions. Head-Office is in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Operational Offices in Sassenheim (The Netherlands), Atlanta (Usa), Dubai (UAE) and Mumbai (India).
Who are our customers?
Our customers are established businesses who thrive on robust solutions. They are certainly not taking the lead in new technologies as they have running businesses where IT and IP Telephony are means of making there business efficient and effective.
The IP Company offers customers robust and stable solutions. The VoIP products of the IP Company are used by Banks, Law firms, accounting offices, Travel agencies, Assurance agencies, debt collecting businesses, im- and Export companies and others.
Our products are experienced by our customers as cost effective and enabling communication between different branches and/or location of offices all seemed to be impossible with a magnitude of features.
The IP Company
Making the impossible, possible!
We love to make your communication work!
