On 10-Apr-06, at 8:51 AM, Biju Chacko wrote:
Sounds impressive. But I wonder how much of a benefit these companies
derive from Open Source. If you look at how they handle it and how the
deals were structured, all they're getting is cheaper software.
I'm starting to suspect that cheaper software is indeed the primary
benefit open source has for India. This is as good as it will get for
a long time to come.
Organisations that take to open source for the low cost are being
pragmatic, NOT short sighted. Lower level aspects of the Indian
economy will have to change before individual organisations can take
the risk of regarding open source as anything more than low cost.
And I'll wager it's a risk, not a benefit.
To greatly simplify it: if you're going to hire open source geeks to
man your open source strategy, the experienced geeks are in short
supply, so you'll have to recruit rookies, train them at your
expense, and risk losing them to companies that can afford to pay
more because they didn't incur the training expense. Sure, there'll
be companies that buck this trend and emerge leaders in open source
strategy, but I doubt either Canara Bank or LIC has any interest in
holding this position. They're going for the no-brainer route: that
open source is a low risk, low cost solution for certain classes of
problems for which it will continue to remain a low risk, low cost
solution. This is a Good Thing! I do not want my bank or insurer to
risk my money attempting to wedge their way into an immature market.
Managing participation in open source can be someone else's headache.
There are enough companies clawing each other over this already.
They're fighting it out in stronger economies, as is (the US and
Europe). Attempting to compete from India is plain suicidal.
--
Kiran Jonnalagadda
http://www.pobox.com/~jace
