Before the opening of the Open World Forum – September 30 and October 1st –, MARKESS International, a consultancy and market research company specialized in analyzing the impact of the Internet on transformation and modernization of corporations and administrations, is pleased to announce the publication of its latest research on open source and the public sector titled “Open Source in French administrations – Boosting innovation and new Cloud Computing approaches”.

1. PRESS RELEASE
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Open source fuels innovation in French administrations
and is gaining momentum in “the cloud”
st
Paris, September 24, 2010 – Before the opening of the Open World Forum – September 30 and October 1 –,
MARKESS International, a consultancy and market research company specialized in analyzing the impact of
the Internet on transformation and modernization of corporations and administrations, is pleased to
announce the publication of its latest research on open source and the public sector titled “Open Source in
French administrations – Boosting innovation and new Cloud Computing approaches”.
The growing use of open source within the different parts of French administration information
systems is evident, as MARKESS International steady monitoring has shown over the past five years.
Beyond its economic advantage commonly acknowledged by authorities, open source also reveals
that it pushes innovation. MARKESS International chose to investigate how innovation is fostered by
th
open source in its 6 research on the French open source market in addition to understanding how
emerging approaches such as cloud computing are opening new opportunities for open source in
public administrations.
Open source stimulates innovation, report French administration officials
According to a summer 2010 MARKESS International survey of French government officials in
ministries, regulatory authorities and local governments, more than 90% consider that open source
fosters innovation.
Open source boosts innovation in French administrations in 2010
(in % of officials– suggested list – 4 items – multi-answers)
N = 54
Sample of officials not representative of all French administrations Source : MARKESS International
Beyond economic advantages, open source encourages:
 New approaches to internal organizational issues: horizontal team management where all
members interact, suggest improvements and add value;
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2. Press release
 Development of innovative practices revolving around collaboration, citizen relationships, office
automation, project management, etc.
 New methods of project management: defining solutions gradually through iterative processes
of trial or designing a prototype before developing a standardized solution through traditional
project management processes.
Many administrations have used open source to help initiate projects which may not have taken
place otherwise. Among examples are citizen-oriented projects, education digital workplaces –
Etablissements Numériques de Travail or ENT - or business applications for local governments.
Open source also stimulates innovation at each stage of projects: before launch thanks to the easy
access to software solutions it provides, during projects as it enables testing new methods of
development and facilitates project contribution and then, during post-production, since it enables
the emergence of innovative, reproducible and generalizable practices.
Open source solutions joining “the cloud”
The use of cloud computing for open source solutions remains marginal in 2010: only 6% of French
administration officials report they already use it. In this regard, local governments are in advance of
central government.
However, positive prospects surface for 2012 and beyond:
 A significant part of French administration officials surveyed show great interest in this new
approach and consider taking the leap soon.
 They will favor open source SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions until 2012. IaaS (Infrastructure
as a Service) solutions also have interesting potential.
 According to Aurélie Courtaudon, in charge of research on the public sector at MARKESS
International, “most service providers surveyed corroborate that cloud computing represents new
opportunities for open source and affirm that their offering must be adapted accordingly”.
The use of cloud computing for open source solutions,
2010-2012
N =54
Sample of officials not representative of all French administrations Source : MARKESS International
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3. Press release
A promising market through 2012
Open source has gained momentum in the IT budget of French administrations year after year. It
was estimated to represent 16% of their overall IT budgets in 2010 - internal personnel charges,
hardware and software investment and services - and should become more and more important
through 2012.
In this regard, MARKESS International estimates the market for software and services related to
open source within French administrations in 2010 at 1 090 million euros. This market should grow
15.3% per year over the next 2 years to reach 1 450 million euros in 2012.
The methodology used to conduct this research is based on a detailed analysis of public organizations and service providers:
54 online interviews with managers and executives conducted between June and August 2010, several hundred qualitative
interviews conducted in 2010 with managers from central and local administrations discussing open source and sharing
their experiences on past open source projects, 30 online interviews with providers, already expert or developing their
expertise in open source.
This press release presents research published in September 2010 by MARKESS International:
Open Source in French Administrations
Boosting innovation and new Cloud Computing approaches, 2010-2012
This research is part of the “Administration and ICT Service” produced by MARKESS International.
It is dedicated to vendor companies supporting administrations in their modernization and to administration
project managers themselves.
To get the detailed table of contents of the report published in French
To download the outlines of our research: www.markess.fr/etudes.php
To read our other press releases: www.markess.fr/pressreleases.php
For further information, please contact:
Sylvie Chauvin, by phone: +33 (0)1 56 77 17 77 or by email: schauvin@markess.com
MARKESS International is a market research and consultancy company based in Washington, D.C. and in Paris
with 10 years experience in analyzing the impact of information technologies on transformation and modernization of organizations.
The role of MARKESS International is to help users to gain a better understanding of ICT and to benefit from the technologies developed by
providers as well as to help providers to develop the best targeting strategy. Since 2002, MARKESS International has also proposed a
“practice” dedicated to the analysis of public administrations markets thanks to its experience and know-how in e-government in the USA
and of its knowledge on the impact of new technologies on private companies,.
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