COMMENTARY--Not too many things are good about an economic downturn, but there is one market dynamic that favors buyers: the power to choose.
This is especially true when it comes to software. Some companies such as Microsoft force customers to adopt a proprietary operating system or buy bundles of software containing much more functionality than they really need. But when times get tough, vendors are more willing to negotiate to get your business, and even companies like Microsoft find their monopoly power waning.
Case in point: Microsoft's losing campaign to convince the City of Munich to upgrade thousands of desktop PCs with the latest versions of Windows and Office. Microsoft offered to let the city buy only Microsoft Word for some PCs and remove other applications. It also agreed to allow Munich to have as long as six years without another expensive upgrade, instead of the traditional three or four year period.
In fact, Microsoft revealed that its own research shows that 30 percent of PC desktop users don't use the entire Office suite. They only use the word processor.
This means that a huge percentage of businesses are being forced to pay for functionality that they don't use. It's like going to a car dealership and being coerced to purchase a fully loaded, gas-guzzling SUV when only one person will be driving the vehicle to the train station. A Mini Cooper would do, but you're maneuvered into buying the Hummer.
Lessons to learn
The same argument applies to IT spending. If your business is in the market for new IT products, there are two lessons to take away from the Munich deal.
First, you should demand that companies like Microsoft sell you only what you need. If you don't need the Excel spreadsheet for every desktop user, don't buy it. If you don't want to upgrade your software every three years, negotiate another arrangement.
Second, consider adopting technology such as Java or Linux and move away from proprietary vendors altogether. The beauty of open source code like Linux, or technology such as Java, is that they are built to open standards and you automatically get choice and freedom without begging for it. Not surprisingly, this has lead to a broad range of commercial products that are solid alternatives to Microsoft.
Java applications are not tied to specific operating systems. Businesses that build Java-based infrastructures can use and reuse applications throughout their business as needed. Applications built originally for Windows will only run on a hardware platform that Windows supports. Heaven help the developer who has to reuse Windows COM functionality on a non-Intel box such as the IBM zSeries, because Windows doesn’t live there.
As for Linux, it has no licensing fees, expensive renewals or proprietary secret kernels. You can even modify or repackage the operating system or its services to create whatever solution you need. For example, the Linux kernel can easily be rebuilt to remove unwanted features, you can include extra functionality such as security, better performance, or specialized networking and device support. An enterprise could establish a specialized in-house Linux distribution that contains a custom kernel configuration and services.
Customers can enjoy further freedom with Eclipse, which extends open source to tool integration. With Eclipse, developers can easily use a simple, portal-like interface to integrate tools from hundreds of commercial vendors. They no longer have to spend hours or even weeks making different tools work together, and they’re not locked into a single operating system or device.
Sadly, the tired old argument of quality features and better support from Redmond just don’t seem to pan out. Recently I mentioned to a customer a news article about the latest security flaw in Windows Server 2003. His response was, “Yeah, I don’t pay attention to that any more. They just bombard me with problems faster than I can keep up with them.”
Maybe that why, despite heavy pressure from Microsoft, the City of Munich decided to standardize its desktop PCs on Linux. Microsoft underbid IBM and SuSE and still didn’t get the contract. The IT managers in Munich must have realized that even if an initial purchase price looks appealing, being tied to a proprietary infrastructure is bad for business in the long run.
Where does that leave Microsoft? A big municipality chose Linux over Windows. They rejected Redmond’s “prix fixe” menu and chose to order a la carte. They didn’t take the easy way out, but instead pushed open the door to freedom of choice. That’s good business.
biography
Tony McCune is the Director of Business Development at CrossLogic, a software and consulting firm that focuses on IBM WebSphere solutions on the iSeries. Tony works with both marketing and product development to design Java and WebSphere based portal software for the AS400 community. .
