The hitherto slow progress of the Unix market in Italy looks set for a boost because the Italian government’s senior technology advisor, Dr Diego Siclari, has recommended that all Italian ministries should adopt X/Open standards for all new information system procurements. According to Dr Siclari, open systems could substantially cut costs for the Italian government, particularly in the area of personnel, where costs currently exceed that of hardware, software and services combined. Benefits would also occur in the exchange of data between different systems and administrations, he said, speaking at a conference in Rome earlier this month. Estimates put the potential spend on open systems by the Italian administration at around UKP2 billion by 1995. The Italian decision follows a similar move by the West German government in January, while the European Council of Ministers, already committed to X/Open standards, has adopted a directive binding all member states to use existing European standards when tendering contracts.
