Just like CRM, open source concepts are taking root at the educational level. A group of U.S. universities are building a set of enterprise applications – the first of which is a new financial management application for banks and financial services companies. You can read more about it here.

Besides the obvious financial and IT-related benefits such an initiative will bring to businesses, open source is laying a firm foundation for success down the road. The CRM industry has benefited tremendously from vendors opening their software and industry best practices to business schools throughout the country. Executive CRM programs at institutions like Baylor University laid the foundation years ago for the reverberating impact that CRM practices are having on corporate America today. Marketing and sales organizations are better off because of it, and I’m sure the same will be said of open source years from now thanks to projects such as these.