Mr. Richard Carlson

Richard Carlson Head of IT, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

Richard Carlson, Head of Business Systems, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

RICS wanted to increase the level of personalization it offered to its 110,000 members by replacing its "brochureware" Web site, said Richard Carlson, RICS head of business systems.

In an interview with ZDNet UK, Richard Carlson, the head of business systems at RICS, admitted that the company did not do a comparative study of Linux and Windows.

"We didn't do, say, a three month evaluation of Linux," said Carlson."We decided that we should evaluate the Microsoft offerings first.Once we realised what a powerful set of tools they were, it became self-evident this was the right way to go down."

RICS uses predominantly Microsoft-based technologies, so when it decided to bring its outsourced Linux Web server back in house it decided to switch to Microsoft technologies to consolidate its architecture and take advantage of its in-house skills.Carlson expects to see lower costs following the move.

"It fitted in with our corporate strategy , everything else on the landscape was Microsoft," said Carlson."We have a team of 20 people who are all very well qualified in Microsoft technology.None of them have much knowledge of Linux side of things , if I wanted to invest in Linux I would be investing in technology and skills."

ZDNet UK asked Carlson what the company would have done if it had one Windows server in a predominantly Linux environment."I wouldn't like to say," said Carlson."It would be a totally different scenario."

RICS is running Microsoft Commerce Server 2002, Content Management Server 2002 and BizTalk Server 2004.Carlson claimed these Web applications are better than their open source alternatives."Windows gives us everything Linux could not offer: advanced content management and an integrated e-commerce infrastructure that can be managed in-house," said Carlson in a statement.

In an interview with ZDNet UK, Richard Carlson, the head of business systems at RICS, admitted that the company did not do a comparative study of Linux and Windows.

"We didn't do, say, a three month evaluation of Linux," said Carlson."We decided that we should evaluate the Microsoft offerings first.Once we realised what a powerful set of tools they were, it became self-evident this was the right way to go down."

RICS uses predominantly Microsoft-based technologies, so when it decided to bring its outsourced Linux Web server back in house it decided to switch to Microsoft technologies to consolidate its architecture and take advantage of its in-house skills.Carlson expects to see lower costs following the move.

"It fitted in with our corporate strategy , everything else on the landscape was Microsoft," said Carlson."We have a team of 20 people who are all very well qualified in Microsoft technology.None of them have much knowledge of Linux side of things , if I wanted to invest in Linux I would be investing in technology and skills."

ZDNet UK asked Carlson what the company would have done if it had one Windows server in a predominantly Linux environment."I wouldn't like to say," said Carlson."It would be a totally different scenario."

RICS is running Microsoft Commerce Server 2002, Content Management Server 2002 and BizTalk Server 2004.Carlson claimed these Web applications are better than their open source alternatives."Windows gives us everything Linux could not offer: advanced content management and an integrated e-commerce infrastructure that can be managed in-house," said Carlson in a statement.
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Mr. Carlson maybe foresees better than he thinks: "We decided ...

In an interview, Richard Carlson, the head of business systems at RICS, admitted that the company did not do a comparative study of Linux and Windows.

"We didn't do, say, a three month evaluation of Linux," said Carlson."We decided that we should evaluate the Microsoft offerings first.Once we realised what a powerful set of tools they were, it became self-evident this was the right way to go down."

RICS uses predominantly Microsoft-based technologies, so when it decided to bring its outsourced Linux Web server back in house it decided to switch to Microsoft technologies to consolidate its architecture and take advantage of its in-house skills.Carlson expects to see lower costs following the move.

"It fitted in with our corporate strategy - everything else on the landscape was Microsoft," said Carlson."We have a team of 20 people who are all very well qualified in Microsoft technology.None of them have much knowledge of Linux side of things - if I wanted to invest in Linux I would be investing in technology and skills."

When asked what the company would have done if it had one Windows server in a predominantly Linux environment, Carlson said: "I wouldn't like to say.It would be a totally different scenario."

RICS is running Microsoft Commerce Server 2002, Content Management Server 2002 and BizTalk Server 2004.Carlson claimed these Web applications are better than their open source alternatives."Windows gives us everything Linux could not offer: advanced content management and an integrated e-commerce infrastructure that can be managed in-house," said Carlson in a statement.

RICS wanted to increase the level of personalisation it offered to its 110,000 members by replacing its "brochureware" website, said Richard Carlson, RICS head of business systems.
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Carlson said that when scoping out the project a year ago it was hard to find a Linux package that could do the job

"We are still not sure if there is a Linux alternative to BizTalk.And BizTalk equals the integration.I've got to based decisions on business requirements - if Linux had offered the solution I needed it would have been considered," he said.

Carlson said if RICS had chosen a Linux package it would have also needed to take on more staff to support the Linux servers, because the existing Linux website was externally hosted and managed.

"It would have meant more complexity for us and more cost.It's the challenge for all IT directors; you are under pressure to deliver more with less money and so if you go off down different skills routes it just adds to the costs of the business.The simpler you can keep it the better," he said.

RICS is already seeing the advantages of the new infrastructure.Carlson said its online book sales have increased by 28 per cent on a year ago and 30,000 members have registered for the site in the last six months.

The organisation is also planning further personalisation including new student and business zones on the site.But Carlson said the door was still open to using Linux in the future if the right technology came along."I don't have a problem with that," he said.

RICS wanted to increase the level of personalisation it offered to its 110,000 members by replacing its "brochureware" website, said Richard Carlson, RICS head of business systems.

In the first phase it deployed Microsoft Commerce Server 2002 and Content Management Server 2002, and has now integrated the website with its back-office systems using Microsoft's BizTalk Server 2004.Carlson said that when scoping out the project a year ago it was hard to find a Linux package that could do the job

"We are still not sure if there is a Linux alternative to BizTalk.And BizTalk equals the integration.I've got to based decisions on business requirements - if Linux had offered the solution I needed it would have been considered," he said.

Richard Carlson, Head of Business Systems at RICS says in the press release that "Windows gives us everything Linux could not offer: advanced content management and an integrated e-commerce infrastructure that can be managed in-house.