Brandenburg, Germany - September, 2005

Patricia Cabero Tapia is System Engineer and actually is doing the master course Technology and Innovation Management (TIM), at the Brandenburg University of Applied in Sciences in Germany. During an internship in InWent, she knew the it@ab Network. The elaboration of this report represents a contribution to the it@ab network.

The report was possible thank the support and collaboration of the InWent’s project managers Christiane Weber and Renate Finke.

The present document was revised for Prof. Bettina Burger-Menzel of the Brandenburg University of Applied in Sciences. Her recommendations are already included in this version.

Commentaries and suggestions about this report please remit to pcabero@gmx.net

SUMMARY

it@ab - the Southern African Knowledge Network on “Information Technology in African Business” is an institution with a broad mission in the African continent. The network integrates relevant aspects for the integration of ICTs into the social and economic development in the SADC region.

The presence of the network in seven countries – i.e. Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania – and its 25 members configure an interesting business scenario in the IT area. Within the it@ab members are universities, consultancies, IT- training institutions, internet providers and trade promotion organizations.

Goal of this report is to propose general guidelines for the introduction of open source software (OSS) in the business portfolio of the it@ab network; taking in account research in the literature, the actual situation of the network and the results of a survey about this alternative.

An analysis about the OSS alternatives for enterprise is necessary in order to get an understanding about the open source philosophy, which is different to the normal commercial software and represent an extension in the software market. In this sense, on one hand this work concentrates in the open source business models and explains briefly different aspects, like market segment, channel distributions, actual situation on the global market, main characteristics, etc.

Open source presents more challenging business models, because the licenses of this kind of software allow third parties freely copy and distribute the software (1). For this reason on the other hand, the present document introduce to the fundamental license models, i.e. GNU General Public Licence (GPL), GNU Lesser/Library General Public Licence (LGPL) Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), Mozilla Public License (MPL).
The distribution licenses enclose different criteria and conditions, which play an important role for the business models. In the praxis the business models have been adapted to the different conditions of the license scope.

According to Spiller (2.), the open source business models have a distinction between product-related businesses (distributors and retailers) and service-related businesses. The first classification includes the Linux and specialty OSS distributors, retailers of OSS distributions and complementary products, and the producer of appliances. The service-related businesses comprehend the service and support providers.

The later part of this report analyses open source business alternatives for the it@ab network. In this context three alternatives for the network are identified and discussed.
· it@ab can provide service and support in open source products,
· it@ab can retail of OSS distributions and complementary products,
· and it@ab can produce appliances

The last alternative entails a more technological level but at the same time represents an interesting option for the future, for this reason it is a possibility for the middle-term or long-term, but it@ab must define a strategy now in order to get the necessary skills. The other two alternatives can be implemented in the short-term. In this case taking into account the core competence of the members and the situation in the SADC region are imperative.

Additionally this report provides such data in the form of the results from a survey about the use of OSS in the it@ab members, about their motivations for using OSS, and about the benefits they derive from its use. This year during the Namibia conference the survey was conducted and senior managers of the it@ab members filled the corresponding questionnaires.

This survey took in account concrete aspects of OSS – i.e. the internet infrastructure, the skills of the employees, the position of the OSS in the business portfolio and the open source perspectives in the SADC region and its impact of the it@ab network.

Final conclusions regarding to the introduction of open source software in the it@ab network are:
· it@ab requires the definition of a general strategy at network level.
· It is important that the members introduce open source in its business for the development of the required skills at organisational and technical level.
· The definition of promoters within the member organisations and the active participation in open source projects represent the base for the expansion of open source within the members and in the network itself.

(1.) Smith (2002): The future of Software: Enabling the Marketplace to Decide, p. 74
(2.) Spiller et al. (2002): Basics of Open Source Software Markets and Business Models. P. 41