Open Source software growing in importance

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 01 October 2009 13:23

Business IT - Open Source

The increasing ease of integration and compatibility with different platforms has seen businesses in the Asia Pacific region increasingly evaluating Open Source software as a viable alternative as they continue to look for ways to reduce operational expenses.

According to IDC in its Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) Open Source software adoption report for this year, Indonesia is the country in the region that has a high percentage of respondents that plan to deploy new Open Source CRM applications (34.5%) over the next 18 months.

Generally, IDC found that the software with the highest percentage of respondents from each primary market that intend to use Open Source over the next 18 months include CRM applications (9.7%), database management (8.4%), and virtualization software (7.4%).

IDC market analyst of Asia/Pacific enterprise applications research, Ridhi Sawhney, said "verticals like distribution services (13.0%), infrastructure services (12.1%) and public sector (11.8%) plan to deploy Open Source for CRM applications within the next 18 months," and he added, "the public sector has started to consider Open Source not only because of obvious benefits from cost reductions, but also with an aim to build an ecosystem, lower the entry barrier, and promote Open Source adoption.“

According to Sawhney, vendors position OSS as a solution, rather than a point product, by customising to the needs of specific verticals, and he says focus is also on building a partner ecosystem and facilitating vendors’ expansion through partners' sales support and services.

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