Hello World

I’m very pleased to be joining Mike 2.0 as a featured contributor. Considering that I’ve written two books, maintain my own blog, and write for a number of other technology sites and publications, it’s safe to say that I have no shortage of opinions on different technology, data, BI, and management issues–the very topics that Mike 2.0 addresses. In other words, based on what I have seen and continue to see as a consultant, it won’t be hard for me to write a weekly post that I hope you find interesting.

OK, enough with the introductions. This week I was reminded about the reasons that the future of open source software is so promising. To be sure, I’ve got OS religion.

So, why am I so bullish on OS? Well, many reasons that will become apparent as you read my posts each week. Allow me to start off with a story from this past week.

Background

My new client (Acme Industries) runs a well-known ERP. (The name of the client and application aren’t really relevant for the purposes of this post). They had some challenges on a previous version of the app’s time and attendance (T&A) application but figured out ways to work around them. About four years ago, the vendor announced the eventual decommission date for the T&A app after introducing it in the mid 1990′s. Beset by current economic conditions, Acme was not in a position to spend $50,000 or so on the forced upgrade. Yet, faced with running an “unsupported” application, management finally agreed to make the plunge.

Last week I conducted training to Acme end users on the new application. They were justifiably curious about whether the vendor’s new app (call it Absence Management [AM]) would address the often manual process of managing employee vacation and sick balances. While AM’s automation trumps that of its predecessor, attendees in my class could not believe the amount of setup involved in AM to enable that automation. For example, to decrement employee balances, no fewer than nine steps are required in the new application. What’s worse, all of that setup still meant that retroactive changes will probably need to be calculated manually.

Ouch.

Now, I’m no newbie to the scene. I’ve been working with enterprise apps long enough (nearly 15 years) to know that no vendor is going to please everyone. I realize the following:

• There is no such thing as perfect software.
• Enterprise software is usually complicated to some degree because enterprises and government regulations mandate a certain level of complexity.
• Some app changes are more visible to end users than others. Back-end changes to database schema, table indexes, or batch processing are often invisible to everyday folks. However, everybody notices changes to GUIs.
• For every client that finds a new application or version cumbersome, there’s another that welcomes it with open arms. Translation: you’ll never make everyone happy.
• It’s completely unreasonable to expect major software vendors to support antiquated versions of applications run by two percent of their client bases.

So, what did I tell Acme’s end users? I’m an independent technology consultant and can call a spade a spade. I agreed with Acme’s folks because, in my view, the squeeze of the upgrade probably wasn’t worth the juice. Of course, they really don’t have a choice.

My experience this week reminded me of this video on enterprise software vendors and their often questionable tactics:

Lessons

What does this little yarn say about open source? Quite a bit. Imagine a scenario in which organizations can decide if and when they want to upgrade. Imagine clients not being beholden to vendor decommission dates and threats of being unsupported. Imagine having the flexibility to adopt only desired features. Imagine not paying support on shelfware. Imagine actually achieving lower TCO in the process. Sound too good to be true? It isn’t.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Open source is no panacea and, I’d argue, it’s not right for every organization, every type of app, and every industry. But the days of OS exclusively as a tool for geeks in dark rooms have come to an end. As long as stories like Acme’s continue to proliferate, more people will realize this.

What do you think?