The sites details the recommendations of the Office of Government Commerce that public procurement of software should consider open source solutions, citing the experience of a Dublin-based hospital that made significant savings in transferring all its software to open source and how this solution saved costs and ensured efficient service delivery. It also details the challenges and efforts of developing the system. The report advices public sector bodies to "examine carefully the technical and business case for implementation for Open Source software and the role which OSS could play in current and future projects"
to "review their current infrastructure and applications... well in advance of any planned procurement or renewal...while taking into consideration what steps may be necessary to prevent future ---".
In the case study: 'Open Source Software can Improve the Health of the Bank Balance – the Beaumont Hospital Experience', by Brian Fitzgerald and Tony Kenny, the hospital saves €13m on comparable software over five years by its switching to open source. The case study noted that some staff were worried about retraining to use open source software. The Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) were developed in-house by IT staff. Sun gave the hospital an initial grant for research and development and an additional network and hardware upgrade that saved through the PACS system much needed funds. Through the incorporation of XML feeds into the OSS the issue re-training was tackled and solved. Richard Granger, NHS IT Director General, said in December 2003 that if the Sun's open source desktop system "were to prove effective, we could save the NHS and the taxpayer many millions of pounds whilst at the same time using rich and innovative software technology." The report calls for a level playing field between proprietary and open-source applications. "Organizations should undertake a comparison of costs and benefits, and take into account the full lifecycle costs of continuing to use, support and upgrade proprietary software," the OGC concludes.