Steel is helping the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to renegotiate its Microsoft licence agreement. The OGC has called for comment with a view to implementing the new deal in April 2009. Steel says Socitim is hoping to move licensing away from rigid boundaries between distinct services such as police, schools and fire and rescue. This would allow local authorities to benefit from economies of scale by taking out universal licences. "We would like to see a situation where the licence goes with you on your device," Steel says. Carl Maugham, operations director at Erudine, which builds software development tools, says, "There has been significant loss of appetite for new projects among large users." The slowing economy, especially in the financial sector, means projects are being postponed by 12 to 18 months, he says.
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