Logica and SAP - I smell a vendor locked fail!
A long time ago we (as a small software house) were involved in discussions with a number of housing associations to roll out thier own "open" management software. This was after their common software provider was failing miserably to provide support and new features required to keep up with legislation.
I have always through it insane that each council spends seperately to buy in the same software even if thier operational procedures is slighly different. I *know* they talk to each other and I know there are plenty of small businesses who can offer local support etc. Owning the core technology as shared/open source would be cost effective. Managing such a distributed project no longer has to be a nightmare and can be done "on the cheap".
What you end up with is something that has no insane per desk licencing costs and you have no tie ins to a specific supplier - a council/housing assoc could have in house devs if they wanted...
Jacqui