nationwide vision
--------------------------
Since Nationwide Vision is a local outfit, it might be interesting to
figure out who set them up with Linux and perhaps have PLUG create a
case study --- reasons, cost, retraining, stability, manageability, etc..
businesses & Linux
---------------------------------
People could case less about operating systems. the fact that not a lot
of "suits" showed up is not terribly surprising. For many people, that
probably sounds about as fascinating as having a tooth extracted or
attending a meeting on new GAAP accounting regulations or similar.
What business people respond to is costs. Plain and simple. If they can
do something to increase profits, then they are all for it. If you truly
want to get business people excited about deploying Linux, then you have
to show them that others have done it and have been very successful at
increasing the bottom line.
How do you do this? My thoughts on this:
1) Determine the target market's general tech budget --- computer system
costs, software cost, support, etc..
2) Determine how using Linux can reduce the budget (or allow the budget
to go toward other things) -- use of LTSP, reduction of license costs
(software, CAL, etc..), reduction of virus/spyware removal costs, etc.
3) What other benefits are there? no vendor lock in? increased security?
reduced support costs? centralization?
In order to reach the business audience, you need to think like a
business person. You need to be focused on the bottom line but
furthermore, be able to provide quick answers to very serious concerns
--> what about support (perception of lack of support options)? What
about windows-only custom applications (or industry specific apps)? What
about training costs? What about hardware compatibility (perhaps)? What
about employee productivity? What about compatibility with existing
Microsoft infrastructure (domains, active directory, file formats,
etc..)? What about the long-term (will Linux vanish? is it just a fad?)
Ultimately to attract the business people, you need to be kinda flashy,
but not geeky .. ie "How to reduce your IT budget by 40%" or "How to
increase your bottom line 15%" -- that is something that business people
know. Use Linux as the means, not the end itself.
I am not necessarily directly this right at you, but more so as
something that people can think about who want to get more FOSS into the
workplace. Personally I think getting a Microsoft shop to switch over to
Linux wholeheartedly is a bit too much of a risk (in their eyes). I have
been slowly introducing FOSS Windows-based solutions to businesses that
are cross platform. Mozilla is a great starting point. Slowing pushing
them toward considering Microsoft as a liability (what if they go
under?) and as a result, inquiring about cross platform support for
their business-specific software. When the time comes, switching over to
Linux will not be a big deal .. they are already use to the apps and its
simply a matter of a few minor things changing..
(text/plain)