Mark Leslie, a lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, closed out SugarCon 2008 today with a stimulating presentation that delved into the economics that both start-ups and established businesses face today, and how those challenges are reflected in their sales forces.
Speaking to the open source model specifically, Leslie outlined its efficiencies over proprietary business models. Namely, the ability of open source companies to provide consumers with a lower point of entry in terms of price, yet develop a superior product via a community-driven development model that that creates a marketplace of ideas. This lower point of entry also leads to quicker profitability, which has certainly been exemplified at SugarCRM. While other industry vendors, such as NetSuite, continue to struggle to stay cash positive following their IPO, companies such as ourselves have managed to run cash flow positive business for the past year.
Posted in Conferences, Open Source, SugarCRM | 1 Comment
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Open Source relies on the idea of being Open. The benefits accrue when the so called network-effect helps the software users through using the software with the likes of discussion forms. The forms have information for the users but importantly also for the developers of the Open Source software. Forms are an emotional experience, emotional is how people make choices. Emotion is part of every sale. Forms are free emotional marketing information, does this community feel like a community, can help be found in the wilderness, can I Trust these people with my business.
It’ always good to here the BAD, it makes you stronger. I’m trying to get at the idea that Open is a two way street in this simple forms example. Given a trusted Open Source process and community, progressing to a non-Open version may be more likely but not a sure thing. Take the example of the SugarCRM forms, I think they need more attention to give the feeling of a Trustable community. When problems are identified within the Open Source versions fast fixes or acknowledgment of a problem at a minimum builds Trust. That Trust could result in a level of Trust to sell a non-Open version or an Online service version subscription. As of now I’d say further improvements to improve Trust are need starting with the Open forms. The next item would be the User Manual.