Alex Fletcher’s post “Meeting the needs of the unpaid on the road to gaining customers” raises a very interesting point for enterprise users of open source applications: What is the right level of support for the OSS needed in my organization?

Fletcher mentions this article on choosing commercial support to make the point that too often, support for open source is seen as an either/or option: free, as in do-it-yourself; or commercial, as in subscribe to our program and pay moderate to serious fees.

But he thinks there’s lots of room in the middle for support organizations to help the “unpaid” — or low-paying — enterprise user. This is both a customer-development strategy and a new business opportunity. Citing “building internal competencies” as a key reason many organizations choose an enterprise open source solution in the first place, Fletcher suggests:

Oddly enough, the intersection between employing open source and building self-sufficient competency is where support providers should examine how they can evolve into a more relevant entity. Perhaps instead of attempting to become the sole source for upgrades, vulnerability assessment and/or migration, support providers should seek to offer a wider array of flexible support (and licensing) options for those who choose to go it alone?

How about it? Would a pay-as-you-go approach to open source support appeal to your organization? Has your firm already purchased a support contract? Or does paying for open source support run against the whole rationale for using open source? Post your responses and comments below.

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This entry was posted by Ryck on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Community, Enterprise open source, Open Source projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.