Melaka City Council's OSS migration and savings

In our ongoing series of Free and Open Source Software deployments in Malaysia, OpenMalaysiaBlog is proud to highlight the efforts of the City Council of Melaka. They were one of the first few departments to migrate completely to OpenOffice.org (98% of their 300 hundred seats. They need to retain a few copies of MS Office for some difficult proprietary files). Back in 8 December 2006, the Mayor of Melaka, Y.Bhg. Dato’ Haji Zaini bin Mohd Nor, presented "Successful Deployment Of OpenOffice In The Public Sector Seminar" and was very enthusiastic about OpenOffice.org.

Although not as far reaching in terms of number of seats as Pahang and Kedah, the Melaccan story is interesting by itself as a city council looking for ways to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and promote Free and Open Source Software.

What is different about the previous two states is that Melaka is trying to migrate their desktops to Linux as well. Unfortunately there are legacy applications which are holding them back from migrating completely.

                     OSCC Case Study Awards 2008
                                    OSS on Every Desktop

Name: Hj. Mohsin bin Sarip
Government Agency:
Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah (Melaka City Council )
Full Street Address:
Graha Makmur, No. 1 Lebuh Ayer Keroh
75450 Hang Tuah Jaya, Melaka
Postal Address:
Peti Surat 107
75720 Melaka.
Email: mohsin-at-mbmb.gov.my
Phone: 06-23264xx ext 13x / 019-6575xxx
Fax: 06-23104xx
URL: www.mbmb.gov.my
Type of Solution: Desktop Applications

Introduction on Agency
As a local authority with an orientation of service to citizens, MPMBB [Melaka City Council] has been the main driver to make historic Melaka dynamic, advanced and beautiful. Its administrative jurisdiction is in tune with the development of the whole of Melaka state, where focus is on sectors of agricultural, industrial and most recently, tourism. Infrastructure development is highly visible, competing with other advanced states in Malaysia. This situation accelerates the inflow of investors to put in capital as well as creating job opportunities to her population. Total number of staff at this agency is 840 people.

Mission
To make Melaka City Council the main driver towards the creation of a city that is dynamic, advanced and excellent.

Operational objective

• Planting the spirit of loving the organization and working as one team with one destination towards creating an organization that is solid, dynamic and excellent
• Executing duties and working to obtain keredhaan
• Solidifying system and way of working to be more transparent, fast and accurate
• Personifying workers who are dedicated, lively and diligent, united in loving MBMB [Melaka City Council)
• Rallying the roles of the community and other agencies more effectively

Clients
Property assessment taxpayers, licensees, Council Members, compound payers, etc.

Project Objective
Every compute at Melaka City Council uses OSS technology

Key Partners

Senior Management

Mayor
Directs all members to use OSS

Secretary, Melaka City Council

Monitors progress of usage of OSS in the Council

Director of Information Technology Department

Ensures usage of OSS in the Council is implemented as planned by Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU)

OSS Technology Used

Operating System
Desktop

• Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com
• Xandros - http://www.xandros.com
• Redhat – http://www.redhat.com

Server

• Centos – http://www.centos.org

Apache

• Web server – http://httpd.apache.org/

Office Productivity

• OpenOffice.org – http://www.openoffice.org

Purpose of Usage

• Easy to install

End User usage

• Office productivity: OpenOffice.org
• Internet / Web browsing: Mozilla Firefox

Hardware and Applications

• Desktop PCs:  ± 300 PC
• OpenOffice.org usage: 98%
• Operating Systems: Ubuntu, Xandros : 60%
• 40% do not use OSS because there are application software which are not compatible like
• MAPINFO, AUTOCAD, Sistem e-Kewangan, Sistem e-Pbt

Application Servers

• e-Pbt – Oracle
• Backup – Bak Bone
• Stok – Php; MySql
• Twincities – Apache;php;MySql
• Logins – Centos
• Mail – Redhat
• Domino server – Redhat
• Firewall – network box

Why use Open Source Software / Linux?

1. Saves costs - RM120K a year saved from licensing
2. Easy to maintain, and can be configured for end users needs with the availability of source code
3. No virus attacks
4. Less maintenance on PCs

How and why does OSS solve your needs / problems

1. Security - virus free
2. No additional costs for purchases of "upgrade" licenses
3. No piracy

Effect of OSS Migration on the Agency and the public

1. Agency saves costs
2. The public receives better service
   1. Updated information
   2. Faster access to information
3. Management of the Council is more efficient

Experience

1. Users found difficulty accepting OSS in the early stages of implementation
2. There are several applications operating in the Council which are not compatible with Linux
   1. MapInfo, AutoCAD, System e-Kewangan (Microsoft Internet Explorer dependent), e-Pbt System

Project Status

1. Open Office - 98%
2. Operating System - 60%

Testimonial
Name: Tuan Hj. Mohsin bin Sarip
Position: Director of Information Technology
Tel: 06-2326411 ext 134

What is great about this case study is the support from upper management all the way down to the end users.The enthusiasm by the team in Melaka is certainly commendable, and it looks like they are still going strong. This was what the Mayor said then:

"... I don't understand why some agencies may still be hesitant despite all the sessions MAMPU has conducted ... go back and convince your superiors on the benefits of OSS and OpenOffice.org, and that implementation is easy"

Now that we know that the State Government of Kedah has been migrating since 2003, and the State Government of Pahang has just initiated their migration, the growth of ODF adoption will now happen in a more organic manner, and in a few years time be the du jure standard especially in the public sector.

yk

Comments

[J]

Quote:
There are several applications operating in the Council which are not compatible with Linux
1.... AutoCAD,
end quote.

Autocad 2005 and more have very recently started to work on Wine. Paying Codeweavers or hiring some of the Wine developers may help move this along a bit quicker. At least one user describes it as mostly usable if you work around a couple bugs.
wine app database - Autocad
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=86
Autocad 2005- listing some known bugs.
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=4105&iTestingId=1232

[hussin]

Try Qgis to manage gis...

[Jeremy]

"De jour" means "of the day", so what you really mean is "de jure", ie. an official standard.