[kwlug disc.] "people don't respect what they don't pay for"

Thu Sep 20 14:43:19 EDT 2007

On 9/20/07, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at mindspring.com > wrote:
>
> On Thu, 20 Sep 2007, Oksana Goertzen wrote:
>
> > If this is a good friend then I would look at it as an excellent
> > opportunity to illustrate everything you believe is wonderful about
> > open source. ...
>
> well, this is not quite the direction i was going.  let me clarify and
> perhaps redefine what i was wondering.
>
> > So, in this vein - I would illustrate what I find compelling about open
> > source (and your list is probably much more robust than mine):
> >
> > (1)  You know what's in the code - you can fix or modify it yourself
> > or hire someone to do so.
>
> ... big snip of many perfectly valid reasons ...
>
> imagine, if you would, that you're chatting with a fairly high-level
> manager who controls the IT purse strings, and the subject of open
> source comes up, and you off-handedly suggest that OSS is something he
> should consider.  and, being a busy man and not prone to wasting time,
> he says, "what's the business case?  give me some numbers."
>
> could you do that?  off the top of your head?  i don't think *i*
> could.  in fact, i think that most of us who are linux-heads are so
> comfortable in our belief of the superiority of OSS that we just take
> it for granted that our arguments should sway others.  but i don't
> think many of us are actually prepared with persuasive, snappy
> arguments if the situation arises.

The business case completely depends on what they're trying to do.  I would
suggest the business case here might be (a) you'll save money (b) you'll
have
more flexibility (c) your data will likely be in a form that's accessible..
therefore
you will be more competitive.  The business case however will depend on what

the problem is and what solutions exist that are OSS and/or whether you have
time/energy/interest to develop something if nothing exists.

busy managers generally aren't prepared to invest time listening to
> abstract arguments.  a lot of them are simply, "what's my dollar
> bottom line?"  and if you don't have a ready answer, the
> conversation's pretty much over.
>
> (i'm betting that those people on this list who make a *living*
> selling and supporting OSS solutions have those answers ready, but i'm
> fairly sure the rest of us don't, as much as we might like to think we
> do.)
>
> i'll go further and bet that i (and lots of others) could play devil's
> advocate and argue *against* OSS and make your life difficult if you
> were trying to sell me:
>
> you:  "well, first, it's free ..."
> me:  "nothing free is worth anything.  you get what you pay for."
> you:  "if anything goes wrong, you can look at the source."
> me:  "hell, i don't even look at *our* company's source, why would i
> want to look at someone else's?  and who do i call if something goes
> wrong?  where's this "linux" company?"
> you:  "well, there's not really a 'company' ..."
> me:  "no company!?  who do i complain to, then?"
>
> ... and on and on and on.  i'm sure we all have good logical and
> philosophical reasons for why OSS is the superior choice; i'm just
> saying that a lot of those reasons might not mean anything to someone
> who just wants to hear a solid business case, or he's not interested.

Playing devil's advocate here too -
  - Do you get what you pay for?  Microsoft anyone??  Anyone had a support
contract that wasn't worth the paper it was printed on?  Getting tied into a

proprietary solution more often than not, means you're at the vendor's
mercy.  Anyone tried to get decent M$ support after hours?
  - Who do you call?  Any shop that supports OSS - NetDirect or Novell
or Red Hat and so on.  Likely any large products/services that rely on code
have internal people supporting it.  HP & IBM support hardware that runs
Linux solutions.

I think some of the reasons I detailed earlier do support a solid business
case i.e.  no vendor tie in, you're not stuck with a solution years later
that
doesn't work for you anymore because all your data is in "X" format.

> And lastly I would let them play with Linux - loan them a laptop to
> > show them how cool, capable, robust, fun and sleek Linux really is!
>
> i'm sure that that argument would have absolutely no value in making a
> business case.  why would someone offer to invest any time playing
> with something new and unfamiliar when they already have something
> they understand?

Because of all the features described earlier...  (it is more secure, more
capable, more fun, more customizable, more robust).  And besides, most
people who work in Tech  *like*  new and cool and unfamiliar.  If they're
not prepared to look at something else because they're comfortable with
what they have.. I think there is another issue here..   being competitive
means knowing what else is out there and being innovative means searching
out creative solutions for problems.  Even busy IT Managers can recognize
an opportunity when it's presented.  Why are IBM and others investing
heavily
in making sure Linux works on their hardware platforms and providing
software
solutions that run on Linux?

in any event, i may have wandered a bit far afield here, but here's a
> challenge.  let's say you have one chance to make an impression with
> an IT manager or someone fairly high up that controls the IT budget.
> you have exactly one sentence to get this person's attention regarding
> the value of OSS so that he's willing to listen further.
>
> what's that one sentence going to be?

It _will_ save you money.

:)  Oksana

rday
> --
> ========================================================================
> Robert P. J. Day
> Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry
> Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
>
> http://crashcourse.ca
> ========================================================================
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