Welcome to Issue #482 of The Standish Group's VirtualBEACON 
Friday, March 30, 2007

Open Source Gets Real: The Next Great Equalizer?


EDITORIAL

Open Source Gets Real: The Next Great Equalizer?

This month our Beacon episodes have contained a lot of information 
about open source – how it affects budgets, perceptions of products, 
market mindshare, etc. You may have noticed that we did not yet write 
about using open source to save money. Well lucky for you this month 
has five Fridays in it!

The Internet has proven to be the great corporate equalizer – small 
Mom and Pop shops are able to compete with the largest conglomerates 
simply by putting up a web page. Open Source is a technology that 
continues this trend and expands on it. Small to Medium size 
businesses (SMB) are realizing they have a chance to deliver the 
types of applications that once only the wealthiest companies with 
the big IT shops could develop.

Take an idea, add open source into a bucket of offshore developers 
and Shizam! OK, that’s a bit of a stretch but not by much.

SMB companies that want to deliver the fancy applications have a 
choice: hire a development team and provide training with the hope 
that one day in the near future they will be ready to deliver an 
application before the well runs dry or… find an outsourced 
development team to work with and get the project done. Once salary, 
bonuses, benefits, real estate and training are factored into the 
equation most SMBs will find the savings realized by outsourcing to 
be substantial.

The next question (or perhaps it should be the first question?) is 
what technology products will be used. Couple the savings of 
outsourced development with what open source can provide (low cost of 
entry, freedom from license fees, etc.) and the marriage of the two 
starts to get extremely attractive. And of course unlike larger 
companies, SMBs typically do not have as many choice limitations 
(caused by preferred vendor status or unrealistic fears of newer 
technologies).

This week I’ve spoken with two different companies that did just that 
– one was a new division of a large company with a long history. This 
company has a policy of keeping their IT staff very lean, yet they 
wanted to deliver a new revenue yielding division that required it’s 
own technology platform. The other company was a start up, they had a 
great idea and arranged for funding but simply didn’t have the 
resources to turn their technology based vision into a sellable 
solution.

Both companies turned to an outsourcing firm specializing in 
delivering open source based solutions (Exadel Inc. based out of 
California). Both were able to deliver on their visions and meet 
their deadlines while keeping their monetary investment to a minimum. 
Both recognized they were able to do so for two reasons: they chose 
to outsource, and they chose to use open source technology.

This is what our industry is all about! The potential to strike it 
rich can be in the basement or garages of everyone across the country 
or even across the Globe - all it takes is a big idea, a few bodies 
that understand the prospective business, a white board and a website 
(white board optional) and the ability to leave the implementation 
details to someone else. No wonder open source is so exciting. No 
wonder the supporters are so uproarious.

Open Source isn’t just another type of product, it isn’t just a bunch 
of vendor spin, it’s a symbol – a symbol of empowerment, a symbol of 
equality in business. It IS the next great equalizer.


ANNOUNCEMENT

Let's Talk About... Requirements

Research EXchange sessions, or what we fondly call REX sessions, are 
an efficient way for The Standish Group to provide to our clients and 
partners, the results of our research findings. These open REX 
sessions provide an opportunity for all our clients and partners to 
participate.

They are kept short but powerful, typically provided in 30-minute 
sessions. REX sessions are open to anyone who receives our 
VirtualBEACON newsletter.

Our next REX will bring you a focus on Requirements and will take 
place on April 18th.

You can find the full REX schedule and information on how to register 
by going to the following link: 
http://www.standishgroup.com/events/virtual.php



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Copyright 2007

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K. D. Larkowski 
Freelance Writing and Consulting Services