How does open source software benefit small businesses?

For a start-up especially there is almost no reason to *not* adopt an Open Source 1st policy from the get go.

Our company runs exclusively on FOSS - we use *no* proprietary code. If you use a decent consulting firm to advise, or do your own homework/research, as your business (hopefully) grows you have the benefit of:

* Rapid development of your chosen solutions;
* No ongoing, increasing, licensing costs;
* Freedom to chop and change;
* Freedom from the lock-in associated with proprietary software, e.g. file formats

You can do virtually anything with FOSS you can do with proprietary products. We use Ubuntu on our desktops/laptops, and our CMS, CRM, ERP, ECM and even telephony system are FOSS.

HTH

Alan Lord
The Open Learning Centre
www.theopenlearningcentre.com

As a small business you can use free an open source software to tremendous cut operating costs. You can use Open Office instead of Microsoft office. You can save all the documents as the Microsoft standards (doc, xls, ppt). You can use FreeAVG for virus scanning, and PDF Creator to print PDF files.

The one open source limitation I would suggest is operating system. You can get plenty of open source replacements for word, or virus scanning, but you don't want to mess around with a replacement to your operating system. Stick with Windows or Mac. Open Source is free, but at some point you have to put a price on your time to learn a new application. See how long it takes you to learn a different OS and I bet your ROI will be a lot more with Windows or Mac vs an open source solution.

There is a lot of information about the various alternatives here:
http://fblauer.com/wordpress
In general there are 2 important technology trends affecting small business. One is open source, and the other is cloud computing. Both of them offer a number of advantages over traditional proprietary systems such as cost, flexibility etc. See the blog for a lot more detail.

In the case of established categories of software, like word processors (Open Office) and web browsers (Firefox), then the primary benefit of open source software to a small business is the cost.

In the case of using open source software for more complex IT projects, such as building your website, or automating an internal process, open source software allows you far greater flexibility to create an IT process that exactly matches your business process. You can literally alter the software to meet your needs, instead of having to adapt your processes to fit the software's way of doing things.

However, to get that benefit from the software, you need to have either developers in your company who can do the programming on the open source code, or you need to have a consulting/development partner, either an individual or a company, that you can hire to be your "proxy" participant in the open source project. Hiring someone to help in this situation is really not any different from paying a commercial company to come and help setup/integrate their closed source software into your operations.

Bottom line, open source is just a different way of developing software from closed source. It is a superior way in many respects, but it's not magic. You still have all the same challenges at the management-of-IT level, but open source gives you more freedom to deal with those challenges because it has far fewer strings attached than closed source software.

--Julian

There's a number of good reasons for going Open Source, particularly as the previous commentator mentioned, for a new start.

One that has not been mentioned is the "Best in Class" decision. If you have to pay for the features you use you will cut your cloth according to your needs. As your needs change though, you may well have to re-buy and re-train in order to get access to those higher end features. If, however, you go with the Open Source application, you can go straight for the best in class and get access to the high end as soon as you are ready for it, rather than as soon as you need it.

Even though I'm a huge fan and user of FOSS in my business there are some significant costs involved with it if you don't have access to the technical expertise to manage it. Some products require a level of tech understanding that a lot of small business owners/founders don't want and don't need to learn.

One of the biggest problems with open source packages is that the documentation is commercial quality. That is: it isn't decipherable unless you have the tech savvy to go look at code and handle patching on linux systems.

The other thing to consider is what you will choose for a desktop solution. I use Ubuntu 9.04 linux. Not all of your employees will take well to switching operating systems. Training can carry a significant cost and you can lose time to productivity problems until your staff gets up to speed on the platform and tools.

A possible solution is to partner with a small local tech provider or firm that can back you and your staff with needed expertise. Another is to take volunteers from your staff to learn to support these tools. Finally you can hire someone direct or by contract to manage them for you.

FOSS can give you a great advantage, however, there are costs associated with it, and if you aren't prepared for them it can be a disadvantage.

Just be careful.

Hi Gail,

Linux is just the liberated son of Unix and happily, carries almost all of it's long term development strategy with it. One element of which is that Linux isn't really an operating system, it is a kit of parts to build one.

It is the Distribution's job to cross that last 10 feet and the local administrators' to complete the final touch. The awesomely energetic development pace over the last decade or so has moved FOSS from something you needed the constant attention of a hard core geek to keep flying, to a box you park in the cupboard and half forget where it is, depending on what you are calling on it to do. My main server for example has been up 220 days.

In a great many cases, the key difference between the machine that works but that needs attention and the one that wraps the year without a touch is how well the engineer has balanced it in the first place. The odd script here to clear out log files, the odd tweak there to speed up access to a disk. It does rather depend on the experience and knowledge of the admin concerned. The engineering training will mean that this stability is more likely to be systemic and automated. Each development step properly incorporated into the way the machines are put together to form the whole.

Very few computer engineers are actually Engineers by training and qualification. Engineer being a term that has become much degraded in the English speaking world. The folks that designed your computer were Engineers, the folks that come to put a new drive in it are Technicians. Absolutely no disrespect to technicians, they're the ones that actually make the lights go on, but they are doing a different job.

In the same way, there are an awful lot of other computer professionals who have no core engineering training and so have missed out on understanding all of the rest of the system in front of them. One of the most gifted programmers I ever met, quailed at the thought of opening the box :)

What this ramble is all getting round to, is to try and impress that using the services of a knowledgeable and experienced FOSS Engineer, somewhere in the mix of possibilities between full time, part time, 3rd party support company etc, is going to save money and hassle, which is also money, and downtime, which is also money.

I guess the advice I would have is try and set up a good trusting working relationship with an individual or firm that actively supports the improvement in IT skills within the customers' companies, but that has at least one decent backroom boy in the back room.

Another way of looking at it is to examine the way large corporates do the job. They have a small crew of specialists looking after their own company's long term interests. Mind you, those that have chosen the corporate outsourcing route have exactly the same thing. Scaling this down to the SME level, the percentage works out at less than one person.

I believe there is a huge untapped market in ad-hoc but formalised support relationships for SMEs running FOSS. It relies on the almost organic nature of the relationship between those people using the computers, those that keep them running in trim and the developers improving the code. Bear in mind that in a great many cases these 3 are actually the same people. Because of the difference in the nature of the commerce of open and proprietary systems, with FOSS the power rests with the owner of the systems. They own the hardware and they own the software, lock stock and barrel. If they wish to change it to keep up with the times, they won't suddenly be hijacked by a massive license hike. If they wish to just stick where they are for a while, and jump later, marshalling their resources for a bit, there is no ticking expiry time bomb running. The Engineer in charge of overseeing your systems is far more likely to be seen as a friend of your company than is the one sitting between you and the big software corporations with the power to switch you off almost at will.

I have worked in both the highly secretive proprietary software and systems world and for nearly 20 years in the Unix and then FOSS worlds. Those somewhat wishy washy liberal sounding freedoms you get with open source, actually make a very real and fundamental difference to the relationships all the way through.

This is why I chose to work mainly with SMEs as a FOSS Engineer and mentor. I'm looking to form a long term, low touch relationship where my job is to keep them just bowling on down the road without touching the sides. Handing off as many skills and techniques as the customer wants to take. When I was working as "The Anvil Organisation Ltd" my pat phrase was that "I wanted to make myself redundant" by passing off all the skills the customer needed to go it on their own. Of course when the recession hit, I was, but even then, it was kind of a vindication. They were able to cut their IT budget to virtually nil and so map that out of their calculations and keep doing so for a long time. You know what they say, careful what you wish for :)

I agree that you don't know what will happen in the future, but I'm not sure the rather doom laden sign off to your post doesn't cast too dark a shadow over the strategy ;-)

Chin up :-)

Andy M

My Company newtalent.co.in successfully benefited enterprises to inspire them for more investments to fetch the further benefits. Some Enterprises are lucky in making their investment actions to get the returns, but not all.

In last few years, companies have faced many pain points in their IT budgets. Here's the thing. The core problems may be put down as follows:

Most of IT investment leads to little cut in operational expenses for short time & has no efforts on overall output or net profit of organization.

IF NOT INVESTED PROPERTY, eventually aging IT infrastructure becomes a bottleneck for the company's growth.

When a competitor spends about the same percentage of its sales on IT, yet it generates significantly higher net profits, it may be using it's IT for strategic advantage.

Not many people have a time to discover and solve root of all problems. Wouldn't you agree?

So please use cost effective technics for your enterprise and have benifits