I’m scheduled to give a talk at the ICT Expo this Friday afternoon on “Linux and some of its friends in the enterprise “
So what should I be talking about?
Of course I have some ideas already formulated, but what kind of images / ideas spring to mind when someone mentions OSS and business?
Are we talking about desktops? Servers? Mail? Web? Replacements for proprietary software?
Any thoughts welcome
Michele Neylon :: Pensieri
Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts
You’re the boss of a hosting company boy, isn’t it obvious what you should be talking about? Or, to put it another way, would you be where you are today without OSS? I’m not as eager to succeed as your good self, but I certainly wouldn’t be living where I am, driving what I drive, and enjoying work half as much as I do today if it wasn’t for my dear friends in the LAMP acronym. (The A is my favourite!)
(Or, to put it a third way, ffs don’t make an eejit out of yourself by getting sidetracked with linux on the desktop.)
Hate the new theme by the way. Too busy, too brown. At the very least bring the cruft down a point size or two.
Bloody amateurs. No offense like.
Adam – Oh I know what I could talk about, but I was wondering if I was missing anything obvious 🙂
By the way desktop !=linux. I was thinking about software such as Thunderbird, Firefox, Open Office etc., which are open source
As for the theme… I’m quite happy with this one compared to some of the previous ones, but I know it’s not a work of art 🙂
SugarCRM
Paul – great minds think alike 🙂 I had that on my list. I was actually looking at some of the software that we offer with our hosting plans:
pre-installed software
They hardly contribute to your business in a significant way Michele, which was my point. Won’t these people be going to hear how OSS affects the businss of a hosting operator? I know if I went to hear you talk and you wittered on about these apps for longer than a few minutes, I’d be very disappointed.
On the theme, I’m glad you like it, but I don’t, and I’m the audience. Not for very much longer if it stays this ugly… 🙂
Adam
With all due respect I honestly do not think that you are the target market. In my view these talks are meant for IT managers who are considering / toying with the idea of OSS and probably know very little about it all. Don’t forget that a lot of these people still equate non-proprietary software with “OMG no support contract”
If the talk were being held in Skynet, SAGE or somewhere with a very different audience then the tone and theme would be very different
Michele
Hey Michele,
tbh, I don’t think your audience will give a toss what you use ‘cos very few of your audience are going to be hosters or potential hosters.
What your audience will want to hear is how OSS will help them with their bottom line!
To that end, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, SugarCRM, WordPress, Wikis, possibly LAMP for hosting, although that should be something for your hosting co. to worry about! – I’m sure there are others I am forgetting about but as long as you think of your audience being primarily SMBs and how to help their bottom line, you’ll be doing fine.
I’m thinking along the lines of Tom there Michele. (Hi Tom!) OSS saves /you/ huge amounts of money, time and effort in your business, primarily on the server side. By all means tell them how much OSS clients apps have saved you, but the savings they create pale in comparison to what, for example, a Windows setup would have cost you from the outset as Blacknight.
You’re a genuine, factual example of the benefits of OSS, this is what people want to hear imho. Obviously they want to hear how /they/ can save too, but throwing fixed examples at them will hamper their creativity, which is where the real savings lies. Again, imho.
Oh, and I’d like it noted for the record that I have never attended a SAGE or Skynet event. No beard, see? (I dunno what kind of audience you think I’d be, but by god you’ve got me pegged square to round fella!)
Adam
The windows argument is a bit weak these days though, as we now qualify for greatly reduced pricing as an SPLA. I know what you are saying though 🙂
M
Michele,
Only half joking , but do you think it would be possible to do the entire presentation *without* mentioning the Open Source and just concentrate on the products? My experience is that a lot of business people still equate free = no good. When the see the product , they can’t believe how good the quality is.
The SugarCRM stuff I can’t recommend highly enough – we’ve used it for a couple of clients (being truthful but not being in-your-face about the open source bit) . Mainly using it to give ‘standard CRM’ and then integrating with other systems (we’re consultants after all).
Another good product is Turbo-Cash , in the same space (perhaps low end) of Sage.
I have more of list of the open source business products around somewhere – might be the incentive for me get the list out onto the web 🙂
Paul
Paul – I would have loved to try, but the general turnout for talks in the Expo was pretty bad, so I didn’t really give my talk in the end, which is a pity