It was never possible to solve the technical problems – also because the city decided to switch to the open document format (ODF) after the decision in 2007 for a software that was later no longer further developed.
The switch to open office was not worth it in economic terms either, the city explained. Although around 800,000 euros in license fees have been saved since the last purchase of microsoft’s office in 2001. However, this was offset by about 730,000 euros for the implementation of open office, and the experts had estimated costs of about 2.5 million euros due to efficiency losses. "The bottom line is that the targeted 100 percent conversion to open office cannot be achieved," it was said. In order not to run two systems in parallel, the experts recommended a return to microsoft’s office.
The administration now expects costs of around 900,000 euros for licenses, training and the adaptation of templates, with a license term of six to seven years.
In recent years, numerous municipalities in the federal republic of germany have considered switching to open source software instead of the paid-for microsoft programs. As grobstadt implemented this munchen.