By now most business people have an idea of what open source software is and how it is now considered an option when choosing your next solution for your business. The question is; is it right for your business especially if your business is small and doesn’t have a full time IT team to assist you. We will explore the issues surrounding choosing an Open Source solution.
Open Source Solutions have different origins and business models
Open source is a catch all for software solutions that provide the software for free. But they are not all created with the same goals, support and quality. There are generally two different organizations that have and offer open source software:
- Organizations that are created and run solely to develop a solution with no commercial ties. These are a group of individuals that come together to build and support a software product. Many of the software tools have been created with this model. Organizations such as Mozilla is a variation where its success by offering free software has enabled them to spin off a “for profit” company while the original product remains free. Mozilla primary free product is Firefox browser.
- Organizations that are commercial for profit companies that have created a free product yet continue to offer a “for fee” version or offer support for a fee. SugarCRM is this type of company.
Both types offer great software (and less then great) but keep in mind that Open Source does not always equate to free software.
Small Business Challenges in Software Solutions
The small business generally do not employ any technical staff or maybe they have a single person who helps in all technical areas. This is true of open source or commercial products. Thus their challenges are:
- They cannot by themselves select, install and maintain complex software solutions. This requires time and expertise, both of which are in short supply for the small business.
- They don’t have the budget to allocate to their solutions
- Their business changes frequently. Growth, product mix are just two that impact software solutions.
- They don’t or cannot supply the necessary oversight to manage and operate the solution at a appropriate level.
Rules
Keeping those challenges in mind, here are some key rules when choosing open source solutions:
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Don’t go for just the first product you hear about.
Sometimes the product has a better PR campaign rather than product. Ask around, search the Internet for potential solutions, find reviews of the product. Distill all this into a list of potential products. Then review the products in detail.
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Create a set of goals and key requirements for your intended solution.
What do you expect in functionality from the solution? What goals are you trying achieve? Write these down before you start to look. This will be valuable later on when you are trying to decide which solution. Open source products tend to have less complexity in their product features. Mostly this a good thing for small businesses as they cannot use the more advanced features and it becomes more difficult to install and use very complex solutions.
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Create a reasonable budget for your solution project.
Open source does not mean no cost solutions. Include all direct costs associated in the installation and on-going maintenance. Cost to include would be: any hardware or additional software needed, any customization costs, hosting costs, data entry costs, vendor support costs. Open source costs will be similar to commercial, except for the purchase price of the product.
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Vendor Support.
Small companies should only look to open source solutions where you can purchase support costs or products that have a support plan in place. Since Open Source products don’t cost anything to purchase, you start your product with less installed cost. Typically support costs from Open Source vendors will be less than from commercial vendors which charge between 20 and 30 % of the installed purchase price as a yearly maintenance support cost.
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Find the open source solution that has significant portion of its installed base in the US.
Not to say that non US products are not good, but you will see differences that may make or break it for your success.
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Don’t customize the solution.
When choosing the solution look for one that meets your key requirements. Open source customization can be difficult and costly. Many open source products have large community of development vendors but once you make a change you are going to continually pay to have that customization re-done for future releases. Additionally it is difficult to choose the right software developer for your customizations. Choosing strictly on price can get you into trouble.
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Recent activity.
Look for open source solutions that have current and active releases. Check the past release schedule. Only choose those products that seem to have a consistent release schedule.
Open Source is right for small business if they plan ahead, allocate a budget for installation and support, research the products and get support from the vendor or major partner.