> How do I sell Free software to a large company? I work at a call center, and
> I want to convince the Powers-That-Be to use Zope in place of the webserver
> they are currently using (which is probably IIS), and PostgreSQL as the
> backend database.
>
> I had created an Access database for all of the people in our call center to
> use, and it would have normally had a shortcut to everyone's desktops from a
> shared drive, but someone thought it would be a good idea to upload it to the
> webserver and just put a link to it, and it work somehow....But no....I
> wanted to show them what I've done with Zope/PostgreSQL on my own to explain
> how much better and easier and more flexible and secure it could be...I
> wanted to introduce this software combination to them, but I got bogged down
> in the "Free software" type of explanations...what is free software, why is
> it better for because it's free...etc. I know (almost intrinsically) why it's
> better, but getting that across is a problem. For instance, the licensing
> problems that come with either IIS or Access/SQLServer vs. the lack of
> problem with Zope/PSQL....I wasn't very prepared for the presentation, but
> I'd like to be in the future if I'm going to get anywhere with this stuff. I
> want to explain the benefits, without getting too much into the tech part of
> it, and without getting too deep into the philosophy behind it. This
> introduction of this software is very tricky...
>
> Russell
Maybe the fact that the software is F/free isn't the most important
reason to use it. If you can sell them a solution that is more
powerful, easier to maintain, and isn't MORE expensive than what they
are doing now, you might have more luck. The licensing fees and legal
restrictions for IIS/Access are probably not a compelling reason to use
something else, and if the fees have been paid and the solution is even
halfway working, switching to a different platform to save on licensing
fees is probably a bad business decision. Now if their solution crashes
a lot, impairing their ability to respond to their customers, you might
have an "in". There are situations where licensing fees and
restrictions are a major factor (like, say you are desiging a TV-set-top
box to be manufactured in the hundreds of thousands of units and be sold
for less than the cost of a Windows license), but this doesn't seem to
be one of them.
--ronan
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