Well done Silverstripe
February 8th, 2013 at 1:00 pm by David FarrarTom Pullar-Strecker at Stuff reports:
Government websites will switch to free, open-source software from Wellington firm Silverstripe under an “all-of-government” contract …
DIA last year chose 33 firms to design and develop websites for government agencies through separate all-of-government web services contracts. The decision to pick Silverstripe as its “common web services platform” following a tender means those firms will use Silverstripe’s software in place of about 50 other content management systems when carrying out work for government agencies. …
Don Christie, co-chairman of NZ Rise, which lobbies on behalf of domestic information technology suppliers, said the win was “fabulous” for Silverstripe, which employs 50 people. The company was founded by three Wellington College and Scots College graduates in 2000 – Tim Copeland, Sam Minnee and Sigurd Magnusson, who still own 84 per cent.
Although its software is free, Silverstripe earns money from add-ons and consulting.
Silverstripe rose to prominence in 2008 when its software was used to manage the website for the United States Democrats’ National Convention at which Barack Obama was selected as the party’s presidential candidate.
Air New Zealand switched from a Microsoft content management system to Silverstripe the following year.
Silverstripe is a great local success story, and they go from strength to strength.
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February 8th, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Yes well done. Their growth is due to great skills, not only technical but relational – they get on really well together and leverage each other’s unique capabilities. Oh, and they work HARD. I mentored these guys in their early years. I think I learned as much from them as they did from me
Vote:February 8th, 2013 at 1:10 pm
gotta be betta than talent2.
Vote:February 8th, 2013 at 1:53 pm
kk – perhaps you could have mentored them in line by line invoicing. I would never use them again.
Vote:February 8th, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Yes congrats Silverstripe.
I hope the inquiry covers why the Novopay contract was awarded to (No)Talent2 rather than a local payroll company with an already-tried-and-trusted solution (there are some grat NZ online payroll firms). Nothing to do with protectionism, all to do with not re-inventing the wheel – very badly.
Vote:February 8th, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Great to see the Wellington IT industry growing in strength
Vote:February 8th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
So on one hand DPF advocates for each school to have its own payroll software, and on the other hand says it’s a great thing that every government agency is going to be using the same software for their websites.
I’m either missing some logic here or DPF has two conflicting opinions on computer systems, based on the politics of the day.
Vote:February 8th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
@gazzmaniac You’ve missed the logic here or you just don’t understand the whole thing. Silverstripe has no parallel with Novopay whatsoever.
Vote:February 8th, 2013 at 6:02 pm
labrator – it does, actually. Using the logic from the post about school payrolls, each government department should be bulk funded and choose its own web server software and maintenance contractor.
Edit – I’m not commenting on whether the centralisation is a good idea or not, I’m commenting on the apparrent hypocracy from DPF.
Vote:February 9th, 2013 at 10:13 am
Good on them as a company, it’s not a particularly nice platform to program with though, there are much better OSS web alternatives – I say this as a former SS developer.
Vote:February 9th, 2013 at 4:37 pm
SilverStripe??? I love NZ companies, but this does not seem to be like a smart decision.
But anyway, central control, directives, and open government, yes minister!
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