Less expensive, and proud of it
I’ve been having a discussion with a group of friends on the advisability of calling out the fact that open source is cheaper. With other benefits (Flexibility. Open standards. Performance. Quality of code. Etc.) arguably trumping cost, I decided to ask the only person that matters in the debate:
A customer.
This particular (Alfresco) customer vetted various proprietary ECM solutions before going with Alfresco. The price for Alfresco’s top competitor in the deal was 20 times Alfresco’s. 20 times. They eventually discounted it so that it was only 10 times more expensive. We sold them a similar system for under $30K (one that actually performs better, is easier to use, and won’t lock the customer’s data into Alfresco).
You do the math.
Now, if I’m a CIO, I’d better have a darn good reason for not choosing Alfresco in this scenario. (And if I’m that other vendor, I’d better be buying indulgences or something to assuage my guilt for over-charging so much for a relatively simple ECM requirement.) Is open source primarily about lower cost? Absolutely not. But should buyers care about cost? Of course they should. And they do.
Price may not be a long-term competitive barrier, but it sure is an excellent short-term opportunity for open source. Use it.