| To date only IBM has really got behind open source, so there could be quite a "land grab" in the coming year as more firms seize its potential. Mick James, former Editor of Management Consultancy magazine, speaks with the executive director of the Open Source Consortium to find out more. |
| Open Source - the next big opportunity for consulting firms? |
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| | By Mick James
Could Open Source
prove to be the next big
money-maker for the
world's consulting
giants? To date only IBM
has really got behind
open source, so there
could be quite a "land
grab" in the coming year
as more firms seize its
potential. Mick James,
former Editor of
Management Consultancy
magazine, speaks with
the executive director
of the Open Source
Consortium to find out
more.
Historically
consultants played a big
role in the
commoditisation of IT,
giving many users the
confidence to move away
from proprietary
hardware made by the
likes of IBM to cheaper
Unix and PC-based
systems. The
order-of-magnitude cost
savings more than
justified the
consultancy fees and the
stranglehold of
proprietary hardware
architectures was broken
forever.
One might have
thought that consultants
would be looking to
repeat the story, only
this time with
proprietary software
vendors as the target.
Unfortunately, this
doesn’t seem to be
happening: major | |
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| | represents a significant
opportunity,” says
Taylor. “The open source
phenomenon is a natural
corollary to commodity
hardware--the future is
in the services. Open
source is often talked
about as if it was an
entire stranger to the
rest of the software
world. In terms of the
services that are
wrapped around it it’s
the same—you need good
business process
management, good project
management skills and so
on.”
Many businesses don’t
understand where the
support for open source
systems comes from and
part of the OSC’s remit
is fill that gap.
Representing most of the
open source players in
the country, it is also
putting together open
source consortia to bid
for public sector
projects.
Ironically, one of
the few big players that
is getting behind open
source is IBM itself.
There may be some
element of sour grapes
here, in that a future
triumph of open source
systems would pay back a
number of old scores.
But it may also be the
case that IBM’s previous
bruising experiences in
trying to preserve its
own proprietary
territory, compared to | |
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| | its stellar success in
the services and
consultancy space, have
taught it some valuable
lessons about where the
value lies in its
market. But the rest of
the consultancy industry
seems slow to follow.
“Some consultancies
are starting to
tentatively act on it
but most of them don’t
really get it yet,” says
Taylor. “I think they’re
reticent and that’s a
mistake—there’s a danger
of being outflanked by
an emerging consulting
industry that’s fully
adjusted to open
source.”
While some
consultants acknowledge
that open source may
have a role to play at
the infrastructure
level, the idea that
open source products
could take over at the
middleware and
application level seems
to stretch credibility.
“All paradigms
change,” says Taylor. “A
million secretaries
screamed when we took
WordPerfect 5.1 away
from them. Open source
produces its own
‘category killers’. Open
Office will at some
point scream past
Microsoft Office.”
These category
killers have emerged
most rapidly in the
internet arena—the | |
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| | FireFox browser and
Apache webserver being
just two examples.
Proprietary software
provides a comfort zone
for many people, but as
Taylor is keen to point
out, it isn’t
necessarily that
comfortable: “You try to
get support for Win NT
nowadays,” he says. Look
at (financial software
product) Quicken, which
was arbitrarily and
rather suddenly
discontinued. People
should be very concerned
with proprietary
software, they can and
do pull the plug at a
moment's notice.”
Taylor believes that
open systems can work at
any level and that
consultancies should get
behind it.
“Consultancies have
got almost all of the
resources they need,” he
says, pointing out that
open source has strong
government backing. “The
main thing is to
understand where open
source is coming from.”
All views expressed
in this article are
those of Mick James and
do not necessarily
reflect the views of
Top-Consultant.com and
Consulting-Times.com
Contact Mick with
your views or
suggestions at:
mick.james@top-consult
ant.com
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| | consultancy firms seem
to be happy with the
status quo, and are more
likely to use their
intellectual muscle to
rubbish open source
solutions than to
explore the
possibilities.
It’s a situation that
puzzles Mark Taylor -
executive director of
the Open Source
Consortium,
“I’m amazed,” he
says. “The big
consultancies should be
all over it and if they
are not then the
existing consultancies
will be.”
Taylor says that
there are a number of
“cognitive barriers” to
people accepting open
source software, not
least of which is
understanding how anyone
makes any money out of
it. In fact, there are a
number of viable
business models, but the
one that should interest
consultancies revolves
around the far more
lucrative supply of
services and support.
“Open source isn’t a
threat for consultants
and consultancies, but | |
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