Ministère de l'économie, des finances et de la relance

• Open Source Software Expertise Framework Contract
• Signed in September 2020 for 4 years
• Scope of 208 open-source software products

1- Context

Since the 2000s, Open Source software has gained ground in all spheres of government, whether in the Ministries, in the Prime Minister's office, in many public organisations such as the Constitutional Council, or in the President's office.
To support this ramp-up, an interministerial framework agreement for open source software support and complementary services (ACIM) was implemented in 2012.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance, and more specifically the DGFIP, has made the strategic choice to make extensive use of Open Source software. To secure its use of Open Source software, the Ministry of Finance set up "Open Source Software Support" contracts in 2005.
LINAGORA was the first player to be entrusted with the task of "securing" the use of Free Software.
LINAGORA provided the services that were expected, and in 2012 the Ministry decided to renew this contract on the same principle, with virtually the same types of work units. For the second renewal of this contract in 2016, the scope was extended to include support for the application servers used by the DGFIP.

Reorganising the scope of ACIM and Free Software Support from 2020, the Free Software Expertise market is a unified market supported by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.
At the end of the COVID-19 crisis, the issue of Digital Sovereignty and the construction of a sustainable, controlled European Digital Economy that respects citizens' privacy took on a new dimension within the major administrations.

The President of the French Republic had himself taken up the subject in his various speeches as part of the fight against the Coronavirus. At the end of March 2020, he said: 
" The day after will not be like the day before. We must rebuild our national and European sovereignty " and called for action to " produce more in France and regain this independence ".
The use of Open Source software enables the State to provide concrete and rapid responses to these challenges.

This unified market for Free Software expertise at the highest level of government is one of the key tools for developing France's digital independence.
It represents a real leverage effect for the State's technological governance in the service of the development of a 3rd Digital Way (alternative to the GAFAM model and the BATX model), while continuing efforts to pool resources for steering and monitoring services. 

The framework agreement is open to 26 Beneficiary Entities (BEs) and Beneficiary Public Establishments in addition to the various departments of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

2- Services provided

The call for tenders was divided into 6 lots:
- Lot 1: "Generic" appraisal services  ;
- Lot 2 : Drupal and associated software;
- Lot 3 : Samba and its associated software ;
- Lot 4 : PostgreSQL and its associated software;
- Lot 5 : Openstack and its associated software;
- Lot 6 : Moodle and its associated software ;

LINAGORA holds lots 1 and 2. In the case of the latter, LINAGORA is proposing services on the basis of work unit purchase orders in order to carry out :
1- location studies ;
2- de l'assistance à la mise en oeuvre ;
3- assistance with implementation;
4- audits ; 
5- opportunity studies;
6- developments ;
7- monitoring.