| 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
consultancy firms seem to
be happy with the status | |
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| | 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 its stellar
success in the services | |
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| | 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
FireFox browser and
Apache webserver being | |
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| | 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-consulta
nt.com
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| | 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
represents a significant
opportunity,” says
Taylor. “The open source | |
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