ITIL publisher TSO and accreditor APMG have their contracts extended two years by OGC

OGC has renewed the outsourcing contracts for TSO to publish ITIL books and APMG to accredit ITIL training. And if I have this right, TSO defends the copyright and APMG defends the trademarked brand. The renewal is for two years - it could have been renewed from one to five years. It just feels odd being part of a supposed professional community and this is all we hear. This must be what it was like being a resident of a medieval estate: the news filters quietly down from the castle long after all is done and dusted.

The announcement appeared today:

HM Treasury, operating as The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), has awarded two-year contract extensions for publishing and accreditation services in support of its Best Management Practice (BMP) portfolio. The existing contracts, with The Stationery Office (TSO) Ltd and APM Group Ltd, were originally advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in November 2005 and awarded on 20 July 2006 after a rigorous procurement process. The OJEU advertisement confirmed the contracts would be for 5 years with the potential to extend for a maximum of a further 60 months, in multiples of 12 month increments.

OGC continues to own and maintain the portfolio of best practice guidance, which is supported through these commercial arrangements for services in publishing and accreditation of qualification, training and consultancy services.

I'm not sure how much appetite the world has for this kind of imperial "community". It's not what I would call "participation" or "collaboration". It is certainly monopolistic.

As I said in a comment on this blog, OGC governance is already clearly seen to be sloppy at best. And OGC's idea of regionalisation is to allow the little locals to do all the translations as volunteers or grossly underpaid serfs, while the copyright and control remains firmly wedged in the royal rectum. "Patronising" doesn't begin to describe it. "Colonialism" is closer.

The Yanks may want to have another Tea Party when COBIT5 comes out? or maybe we could see something Cromwellian around ISO 20000 parts 3-5?

Comments

Take a look on the bright side

Well it is extended for only 2 years, not 5! (is it possible to extend it again after this period?)
Those last 5 years flew by like it was still yesterday EXIN and ISEB where fighting against APMG.

TSO and APMG do what they're paid and allowed to do

I think APMG and TSO do a good job of what they're supposed to do. I have plenty of criticism of them but if I was a for-profit company given the powers they have I'm not sure I'd be that much different. No surprise that OGC are renewing. What really steams me up is OGC's governance not APMG/TSO's practices. Well both maybe :)

I think the two-year thing has zero to do with TSO's or APMGs' performance and everything to do with uncertainty about OGC's future.

Good job?

Did APMG realy did a good job?
- it started with badly defined foundation exams (a quality dip after the work that EXIN and ISEB had done). Ok.... they corrected over time......
- the translations of the exams and books are much and much slower than promised. Are "living deadlines" regarded as "quality" now?
- AMPG started concurrencing its own customers (The Exams Institutes) with APMG International. I've asked many times to APMG representatives on how to explain this situation (a huge conflict of interest IHMO) to the market. No response, not even the very honest: we too would like to share a piece of the very profitable certification market.

So, instead of being punished for bad perfomance and not meeting agreed deadlines they get a new contract. Strange!

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