Open Source Software is starting to lose its step-child stigma in South Africa and can add a meaningful contribution to the IT capability of especially smaller corporate entities. This is the opinion of Christine Anderssen, CEO of Tailormade4you, a company that specialises in Open Source Website development.
Open Source software is normally viewed with suspicion by corporates due to the fact that one of the prime drivers for purchasing decisions is not in fact related to what features software can offer in terms of functionality, but rather what the supporting infrastructure is behind the company that is selling or supporting the software. This is why most of the banks for years tended to flock to the comfort that IBM represented - at least if things go pear-shaped there is a big fat company at the other end to blame and help pick up the pieces.
The tide is slowly but surely starting to change, with Open Source Software starting to carve out a place here and there in corporate architectures.
Of course the rise of the use of Open Source software has been given a tremendous boost by people like Mark Shuttleworth with his Shuttleworth foundation as well as the adoption of Open Source by the Government.
But the biggest place where Open Source can shine is in the SMME market. Smaller companies are often not that concerned with having the backing of a Big Blue type vendor behind them, preferring to rather trade the comfort of a big, expensive maintenance contract for a lower cost, if more 'risky' option of either taking on the support burden themselves, or banking on the support of huge user communities that lie at the heart of the Open Source phenomenon.
Tailormade4you is well positioned to leverage off the power of Open Source, with the capability to develop interactive websites for the SMME market that offers a wealth of functionality that would normally be very costly to implement.
"The biggest power of Open Source lies in its capability to leverage off existing functionality and provide for low cost, but extremely sophisticated, solutions for interactive website requirements," says Christine.
For more information on how Tailormade4you can provide a cost effective, Open Source based website solution, contact Tailormade4you on 011 782 5173
Websites: http://www.tm4y.co.za
http://www.tm4yhosting.co.za
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