Companies urged to look into OS business models

As more end-users these days start to utilize open source software in their IT applications, an emerging innovation ecosystem is starting to take shape even in business models.

In his presentation at the First Open Source Summit in the second ICT Summit held at the CICC, Ferdinand Contreras, president of Imperium Technology said that open source has different sets of business models which technopreneurs can make use of in jumpstarting their own business environments and one of which is the so-called self-consumption.

He said that using open source systems requires a company to have in house talents which will provide the technical support to make their open sourced systems sustainable.

With self consumption applied on the business aspects of a particular set-up, Contreras assured that huge capital expense will be saved.

The set-up and install business model on the other hand replicates internal success of standard processes and it requires out-of-the-box set-ups and minimal coding. In the business side, this particular model can provide income through standard install services or through providing full-proof installations, said Contreras.

The preaching and training business model is the evangelization of open source systems wherein trainings and consultations based on prior experiences is provided.

 “This model extends capabilities of open source to adapt to enterprise needs. This makes use of the “glue application” that will mix and match independent software products to come up with a better one,” he explained.

Enhancement and customization on the other hand is filling in gaps which are not in a particular open source system whereas application development on the other hand is creating open source-based developments through re-usable components.

Productization or the parasitic use of open source software is another business model that Contreras discussed. He said that this is making use of shortcomings of others and “productizing” these into tangible and palatable software products or enhanced programs.

Contreras said that it is best for technopreneurs to always look out for knowledge of good business practices so to be able to execute any open source venture.

“You can deploy everything through open source and you can use open source to execute good business practices. Most people may think you do it for free but you actually get your revenues from something else,” said Contreras. – Rhia de Pablo