Open Source in Big Business: A Consulting Perspective

There is often a perception within big business that because a vendor provides a proprietary software solution, that vendor is also in the best position to support it. This is largely an illusion.

The truth is that said solution has passed hands through seven acquisitions over twenty years, and all the original developers have since left for greener fields. Nobody's quite sure how any of it works any more and the new hires dare not touch the obfuscated "goto spaghetti" that is critical to the correct operation of the system.

It's months before small change requests see the light of day. Mysterious deadlocks are the norm. Meanwhile, the vendor can charge top dollar to allow the client the privilege of suffering this mess -- largely because the vendor is the only one with access to the code base!

Consultants like myself have an obligation to make the best possible choice for our clients. Do we really want to earn the reputation that comes with the above scenario? Open source is in a unique position to free businesses from this recurring nightmare, and our clients need to be made aware of it.

In this presentation, I will argue that open source gives consultants who "get it" a serious edge over the competition while eliminating vendor lock-in for their clients. I will further infer that the use of open source can be a huge win for consultants *and* for their clients.

I will then discuss how consultants and consulting companies can use, contribute to and create open source software to deliver real business value to their clients. It is far from being the risk it is sometimes perceived to be.

This will be backed up by real world examples: my employer, Shine Technologies, has delivered real world open source solutions to meet the needs of clients like Sensis, NAB and Loyalty Pacific.

Presentation Slides