Consumers are driving business harder to deliver usable solutions that answer their needs on tighter schedules than ever before. Take into account the current economic climate, decreasing budgets and lower head count to support the needs of your customers and you are presented with issues that may seem insurmountable.
Open Source software to the rescue! The highly talented masses that make up the Open Source community have been working hard for years to develop some of the best solutions we have ever seen. Below are just a few comparisons of the Open Source vs. Commercial software solution models.
Open Source -
- Larger number of developers per solution
- Larger user community providing bug fix and enhancement requests
- New ideas and product direction from a larger community of users
- Tried and tested in some of the harshest business environments in existence
- Traditionally low or no cost depending on the license (See Licensing explanations)
- A full community of users providing support
- Less budgetary constraint due to the design model
- More control end to end of product direction
Commercial -
- Typically a small number of developers per solution
- Smaller user community where bug fix often does not make it back into the development cycle
- Limited number of product direction ideas from a very small group of people who generally do not even use the product
- Stability is equivalent to their considerably smaller user base
- Very high cost due to inflated development and marketing costs as well as sales and general corporate overhead and always proprietary closed source licensing
- Small support organizations often over tasked based on user headcount
- Tight budgets based on company revenues and valuations
- Products are driven by their largest customers
How can Open Source Consulting Group help you? We work hard to keep our finger on the pulse of the Open Source Community and the solutions being created. Because we do that we can help you to select a solution that will best fit your individual project and overall company needs. Our objective approach allows us to guide towards mature and proven solutions that guarantee success for your project. Below are just some of the service we offer:
- Initial solution consultation
- Solution design and documentation
- Solution migration
- Solution integration
- Solution delivery
- Ongoing support services
- Pre-configured solution sets
- Hosted solution offerings
- Outsourcing
Contact us and talk with one of our highly skilled, professional advisors today and let us help you to deliver your next project on time and on or under budget and make you the next hero of your company!
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