Ron Bongo on getting your business ready for Open Source:

One of the most common topics for companies and businesses that are current end-users fora variety of business applications and programs is regarding the use of open source applications. Questions abound as to whether a business can really benefit from the “free” or relative “cheap” alternative to high-costing applications that open source offer. For one thing, many current users see the use of open source software low-risk, meaning they can change back to their old systems should they see the open source alternative as unsatisfactory.

So, the question remains if the business would be ready to jump into the open source bandwagon and re-structure their whole system based on these alternatives. It would all depend on what the business has as its objectives for making the change. Is it economical, thinking the “free” concept can save them with considerable amounts in savings? The business should understand that although the application and source code is free in itself in most cases; documentation,technical support, maintenance and advice are not given free and in most cases require paid subscriptions to these services.     

One area that made open source application an alternative of choice is its high capability and availability for customization and for interfacing to existing systems.Companies can develop their own modifications according to their more specialized needs as long as the changes stay within the set boundaries set by the original developers. The problem however, lies in further development of a particular application. The improvement of an open source package depends on the community sharing responsibility for its development. Without this community, or if support for a particular package cease to exist, the company using the application could take on the development responsibilities using their own resources, or be stuck with the current level of the software as it is.

To learn more about the benefits of open source and how it can help your business or profession come and visit this blog as brought to you by Ron Bongo.