(DETROIT, MI) Open source software is developed by communities of developers and users. These software solutions include portals, content management systems, e-mail systems, browsers, social media applications, operating systems, and just about any kind of software you can think of. This collective of volunteer programmers also build communities and communal tools to improve upon existing solutions.

Delloite Research believes open source is one of the hottest trends unfolding in all of technology. In it’s annual TMT Trends: Technology Predictions 2006 Delloite states that “open source will pose an ever-greater challenge to the established software model, impacting both providers and end users.”

Users of open source freebie browser Firefox have already drunk this Kool-Aid downloading more than 200 million versions of the emerging browser. Firefox now poses the first serious threat to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer since the collapse of Netscape. In fact, in Germany, nearly 50% of web users use Firefox.

Dave Gynn is a convert to the open source revolution – a revolution that even IBM and Novell have bought into. At Optaros Gynn preaches the value of open source to their growing list of clients who engage the company to implement open source solutions. In a recent Optaros study of 512 U.S. companies, government agencies and other organizations found that 87% of the organizations were using open source systems, software often available for free and built by communities of software developers.

“Open source allows a company to start simple and grow: no license fees reduce costs of experimentation; many open source solutions employ a modular architecture,” says Gynn.  “Open source software is leagues ahead of most commercial products in terms of innovation. Expect to learn through the lifecycle of the application.”

One of Gynn’s favorite open source solutions is Plone; a leading open source platform and CMS valued as a general purpose web platform. Plone benefits include:

Ø       Easy, in-site editing modules

Ø       Storage for a variety of content

Ø       Compliance with many standars

Ø       A huge user base

Ø       A vast community and network of users and adopters

Ø       Hundreds of add-on products and plug-ins

Plone operated websites include ours at Prescient Digital Mediaand the Boston.com portal.

Plone CMS and editor used to power www.PrescientDigital.com

Other leading open source platforms include:

Ø       Alfresco

Ø       CPS

Ø       Knowledge Tree

Ø       Magnolia

Ø       Joomla

Ø       Trac

Ø       Roller

Ø       Drupal

Business intelligence

Open source solutions are also being used to drive business decisions and financial success. Business intelligence (BI) allows organizations to track and report mission-critical data – from customer and product tracking to sales and inventory data.

BI is big business and some corporations spend a fortune. Legacy BI is expensive, complex and proprietary. JasperSoft is making it more affordable without the killer investment.

JasperIntelligence is the world’s most popular BI solution with 1.7 million downloads and growing at a rate of 100,000+ downloads per month. JasperSoft uses a “Dual License” revenue model: “Pure” open source and commercial licensing. With offices in the US, Ireland, Australia, Italy and Romania, The company already has 4000+ paying customers and has partnered with many leading organizations including Novell, Salesforce.com, and JBOSS among others to deliver open source solutions.

Successful BI is digs deep into and analyzes all of an organization’s various repositories and databases of information and metrics. But the intranet is the gateway to those treasure troves of data. JasperSoft allows a company to leverage structured data thru the intranet via reports, dashboards and KPIs.

“Bringing useful data proactively to the right user is what business intelligence is all about,” says JasperSoft’s Barry Klawans. “Users can be alerted to information or be given the information proactively that allows them to act accordingly. Business Intelligence on the intranet allows organizations to make faster decisions.”

Barriers

Open source isn’t for every organization. It’s not the safe, brand name purchase of an IBM or Microsoft. The Optaros study found that most companies were confronted by four primary barriers to achieving even greater benefits from open source:

·         Uncertainties about open source software that often relegate the software to the IT function

·         Lack of understanding of licensing and legal issues around open source software

·         Software cost allocation policies that discourage business functions from reducing the cost of commercial software

·         The difficulty of identifying, evaluating, purchasing and maintaining open source software

Open source can save a lot of money and provide a level of flexibility not always present with off-the-shelf solutions, but an outside hand to implement and trouble-shoot is highly recommended.

RELATED READING:

The growing popularity of open source intranets

Open source solutions for Lotus intranets

Open source intranets

Sex, Lies, and CMS Vendors

Digg this           Post to del.icio.us         Post to Slashdot