Open Source Software at the Swiss Federal (Administrative) Court

Web address of the case:

http://www.osor.eu/case_studies/open-source-o...

Country of the case:

Switzerland

City/region:

Zurich, Lausanne, Lucerne

Posting Date:

3 March 2009

Last Edited Date:

07 March 2009

Author:

OSOR.EU - Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR.eu)

OSS | Federal | court

Type of initiative

Project or service
Strategic initiative

Case Abstract

In 2001 the Swiss Federal Court moved its IT infrastructure to Solaris by Sun Microsystems, using StarOffice as a text processor. This move was necessary, as the previously deployed all-in-one platform that was used since the early 1990s could no longer meet the needs of the Federal Court. With this also came the introduction of open source applications such as Gnome, Firefox and the Evolution mail client. Among the goals were vendor independence and the implementation of open standards. The IT solution was extended to the newly formed Swiss Federal Administrative Court in 2007, where it has struggled to find acceptance mainly due to organisational reasons.

Description of the case

Domain

eGovernment

Topic

Efficiency & Effectiveness, Benchmarking | Open Source | eIdentity and eSecurity

Sector

Crime, Justice and Law

Start date - End date

January 2001 (Ongoing)

Date operational

January 2001

Target Users

Administrative

Target Users Description

The choices for the IT infrastructure at the Federal Court and the Federal Administrative Court affect nearly all staff at both courts. As large part of the daily work is constituted by working with written documents (StarOffice, Evolution Mail Client), users of all levels are affected by this.

Scope

National

Status

Operation

Language(s)

German | French | Italian

Policy Context and Legal Framework

The Swiss Federal Court migrated its IT infrastructure to Solaris in 2001. With this also came the introduction of several open source applications, such as Firefox and Gnome. This appeared a necessary move to ensure format standards in the future, the security of the IT infrastructure, and the independence from certain software manufacturers.
In 2007 the Federal Administrative Court was established out of 37 previously independent commissions. Here the same software solutions were applied, but in contrast found very little acceptance.

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

IT infrastructures and products

Overall Implementation approach

Public administration

Technology choice

Standards-based technology | Open source software

Funding source

Public funding national

Project size

Implementation: Not applicable/not available

Implementation and Management Approach

In 2001, the new IT system running on the operating system Solaris by Sun Microsystems was introduced. With this also came the introduction of the office suite StarOffice, the Firefox internet browser Firefox, and the email client Novell Evolution, besides other more specialised applications. At the early stages of the migration, users had to get used to the new programs, but as the migration from the previous system brought numerous improvements, the process went relatively smoothly and was broadly accepted. Where some doubts about open source software existed in the beginning, these have mostly faded by now.
As the Federal Court's IT was functioning properly and the expertise for the administration of such a system was available, the Federal Court was contracted to implement and supervise the IT infrastructure of the newly established Federal Administrative Court. Since the Administrative Court had little say in this decision, it was sceptical of this arrangement from the outset. This led to many difficulties in the cooperation, and eventually to the end of the contract with the Federal Court's IT supervision in 2010.

Technology solution

As the old all-in-one IT infrastructure could no longer meet the needs of the Federal Court in 2001, the decision to introduce a new IT system was made.
The Court saw the necessity to introduce a new IT infrastructure that would ensure sustainable standards in the future. During the analysis done as part of the planning process, open source software emerged as more sustainable than proprietary software, especially with regard to modularity and file formats. The use of open source software also ensured vendor independence and security, which are two very important aspects for a court.

Impact, innovation and results

Impact

No real indication of the savings can be made. The estimated savings through the use of open source software however amount to about 5-10%. The IT infrastructure as such is operating in an economically efficient way, as confirmed by a KPMG audit.

Track record of sharing

After successfully deploying the IT solutions at the Federal Court in 2007 the same solutions were deployed at the new Federal Administrative Court. Here, although the daily work largely resembles that of the Federal Court, the solutions were not welcomed. For once, it was problematic from the start that the Administrative Court had little say in the decision making process about the IT solutions. This created distrust towards the IT solutions which they had to use. Additional to that it appeared problematic that most users from the 37 commissions, which together formed the Administrative Court, were used to working with one distinct proprietary software.
Thus, were the choices made were welcomed the Federal Court, this was not so at the Federal Administrative Court.

Lessons learnt

For the initial implementation of the IT infrastructure at the Federal Court in 2001, it was very important to have an IT team working on the project that had strong trust in their software choices. Moreover, it was also important to have a management that believed in the choices made by the IT team, and fully approves those. This ensured continuos improvement of the platform, also in moments where problems could bring a stop to the project.
Additional to that it was very important to communicate to the staff the improvements the new IT infrastructure would bring. This helped very much in creating acceptance from the users, which in turn limited the criticism when problems occurred.
For the Federal Administrative Court it would have been much less problematic if more autonomy with regard to the choice of the IT platform had been left to them. As the decision was made without their approval, distrust was there from the beginning. In addition to that did the software solutions not fully meet all the requirements of the Administrative Court, which further undermined the problems.

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