A snippet of news for anyone involved in procuring IT systems for public sector bodies. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) recently published some brief guidance entitled 'Non-discrimination in technical specifications'. The aim of the guidance is 'to help contracting authorities draw up contract documents that comply with EU rules on non-discrimination.' The non-discrimination rules attempt to ensure that there is a level playing field between providers to the public sector.
The guidance provides some general comments on the rules, including a warning not to use brand specific terms e.g. Oracle, SAP, unless this is justifiable. There are also some specific rules on the purchasing of computer hardware. When describing hardware, reference should be made to generic processor specifications e.g "x86 processor" rather than the brand e.g. Intel, AMD. Reference to minimum microprocessor clock speeds (MHz) is outlawed as this can suggest a particular product and clock speed alone will not describe performance.
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