Comments on: When will open source get the SMB market right?

The SMB market is billed as a natural for open source, but most open-source vendors continue to emulate the complexity of enterprise software, stifling their relevance.

[pzb2]

I think one of two things is required to get SMBs to use source:
1) It runs on a Window server
2) It runs in the cloud/is SaaS

As much as I would love to suggest that businesses can run only Linux (or BSD) servers, the reality is that lots of software simply is not yet available for Linux. A key example I ran into recently is the Blackberry Enterprise Server; it supports Lotus Domino and Novell Groupwise, both of which run on Linux, but the BES itself must run on Windows Server. I don't think iPhone users are that much better off, but feel free to correct me.

[OrchestraTeam]

We always say that if you can't create a solution to a problem, you might as well make things as good as possible with what you've got.

To that end, our firm is actually turning small businesses on to using open source applications everyday. And as we all know, if more people would become aware of the benefits of open source in certain areas, they just might clamor for it in others.

We're showing companies the value of Drupal as a web platform, as well as SugarCRM and civiCRM, and of course Ubercart.

We're integrating these open source applications on the web to their closed source applications running their businesses.

All the while, people are being turned on to the benefits and possibilities an open source solution and it's community provides. They are joining Drupal Camps and even attending with us, all because they ARE hungry for an actual solution to their problems. And more and more, small and medium businesses seem to be catching on. At least from our perspective, that is.

The first step to the perfect solution is improvement in the current environment.

If you would like to know more about how we're helping small and medium business see the benefits of open source, check out our website at www.orchestrateam.com. Or visit with us at DrupalCamp Colorado on June 27-28 in Boulder.

Disclosure: We really like Drupal.

[javivazquez]

Matt, it's nice to hear of such a combination -make software easier to use and cloud (SaaS)- as a right approach to the SMB market, it's quite aligned which that we are following at eBox. Actually, we target IT providers making easy to deploy and manage an open source network server.

And here my point: IMHO, SMBs rely on their IT local providers, no matter whether the software is open source. They look for solutions to their problems, currently looking also for better TCO proposals (say, cheaper).

Therefore, the real customers are the SMBs, yes, but the IT providers (SMBs themselves). The channel is the key to reach the SMB market.

An offer that combines software easy to use -deploy and manage-, what means saving time while offering a better service to their customers; and at the same time gives the channel enough freedom to build their own value proposition on top of that, will be the _right_ combination for open source.

Finally, monetization, I agree, would be not only based on the typical support services offered to the channel (again, your real customer), but also in SaaS, a more scalable model.

[jmitja]

@pzb2

Openbravo ERP runs both on Windows and Linux servers (or actually on any other operating system). The vast majority of our clients, both small and large companies, prefer to deploy in on Linux.

We are also witnessing a growing adoption of Openbravo deployments in the cloud with small companies, too.

Josep Mitjà
Openbravo