Ingres and FreeSoft, have won the Hungarian government’s open source software contract that has a four-year, $22.3m budget. During the next four years, the companies will supply the Hungarian government with software worth 4 Ft billion Hungarian forints, which is approximately €15m or $22.3m.
The Hungarian government has decided to publish a tender for a software framework agreement in the open source sector for the first time this year. The Hungarian government has recognised that open source software can liberate the government from its dependency on the software development and pricing policies of proprietary providers and help slash public spending with no advance license fees or hidden exit costs.
Roger Burkhardt, CEO of Ingres, said: “This is one of the largest open source procurements I have seen and we applaud the Hungarian Government for leading the way in introducing competition and cutting back on proprietary software purchases. In my opinion, the Hungarian Government is showing the European Union that there is plenty of open source competition in the market today. I anticipate that more Government bodies than before will be following Hungary’s lead and will benefit from the cost savings that come with an open source deployment.”
Ilona Eck, CEO of FreeSoft, said: “After it was announced that we had won the tender, our share price rocketed by 60%. We are of course delighted by this fantastic development. This tender is further proof that the time for open source software has come and that the commercial open source business model will change the world of software business going forward. With Ingres as our partner and its enterprise-capable database solutions and world-class support, we are in the best possible position to drive share prices even higher.”
