Open Source + "........" = Business Value

If you take technology in general, by itself there is NO intrinsic value. This is a known fact. Unless technology is applied into a business scenario and achieves the set goals, there is no $$$$ value of it. It's just a bunch of code with a nice packaging around it :)

Steve Jone's blog topic "SOA Success - value over technology" has a well detailed explanation into realizing the value of SOA technology in business. He says that the silver line of using SOA (or for that matter any technology) is in enabling that business in achieving competitive advantage.

I totally agree. We've come to a day and age when there is fierce competition and technology has to play a key role in achieving that competitive edge over others.

How does open source play into this ? By nature, open source software has been more technically driven than user/business driven. This is evident from the all popular excuse (valid) "its not user friendly" answer. What lacks in open source software in its "raw" state is the business application of it. When I mean raw, its the community version of the software.

An open source software company that builds its business on an open source product needs to bridge this gap. This does not mean "explaining" what the business value is, but rather fine-tuning, cutting and chopping the software so that it directly meets the basic and essential necessities of its target customer base. I honestly believe that no company can use an open source software in its raw state and sell it. In other words a community version of a software has no direct business value.

Bottom line is there can be tons of COOL features in a software. The community driven software will always have these features, because that is its normal progression in a voluntary environment. When it becomes a practical scenario of using it in a business context, all those cool features goes out the window.

If the required features of the software does not perform well and delivers the business value, then its never going to sell.

So to fill the blank of the topic, it will be :

Open Source + "Business requirements" = Business Value