Showing posts with label open platforms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label open platforms. Show all posts

Why is an open platform good for business?

By  at 9:46 PM  , , , ,  

Image you are using expensive software of a company. The company is famous and has a lot of customers because expensive software is safe.

But one day, the company is out of business. All of its customers are stuck with software that is no longer updated or supported. It is all proprietary software built on closed platforms and no one could support or improve it. Then, it is completely out of date. You are one of those unlucky customers.

Here is a lesson here that you should choose a product operating on a flexible and open platform. Why?

Here are 4 reasons why choosing a product with an open platform is critical:

 1. If the company is out of business, the product is not out of date.

A product built on a closed, proprietary platform is dead if the vendor goes out of business. Nobody could maintain it. However, a product built on an open platform is still supported by a large user community even if the vendor goes under.

2. Customization options.

An open platform product is easily customized to fit your business needs while a closed, proprietary product is customized only by the vendor. It means that you have many options when customizing an open platform product.

3. Integrates well with your current product.

An open platform product work well with your current product and systems. You know what this means? You don’t have to type the same information into different systems.

4. Works well with each other.

An open platform product works well with other open platform product.

When you buy a closed, proprietary product, you depend on the vendor. You are stuck with unsupported products if the vendor goes out of business. On the other hand, an open platform product doesn’t tie you to any one vendor and works well with others. It means that it puts you in charge of your own future.

Why can open platforms beat proprietary platforms?

By  at 5:55 PM  , ,  
Do open platforms bring benefits?

Of course, they are useful. However, can open platforms beat proprietary platforms? 


In fact, It is thought that open platforms are considered as an enigma in the business world. We have a question why a business stakeholder cares about what technology is used as long as it solves a business problem and effective. This seems like it wouldn't matter but there are a lot of hidden factors that play here. Open platforms can beat proprietary platforms for the following reasons. 

Flexibility:

Proprietary platforms traditionally do not allow users to extend and integrate with other platforms easily while open platforms do. In fact, proprietary platforms have been around since computing appeared. Thus, a lot of organizations have no experience or are locked in with open platforms. 

Cost:

As you are aware open platforms are free while implementing and/or migrating to open platforms can cost more expensively than proprietary platforms. But typically costs involved with implementing open platforms are associated only with the short term. Costs including vendor lock-in, maintenance and services fees which can equate to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars annually are eliminated when open platforms are using in the long term. 

Business Alignment:

Business alignment is critical to the future of IT. In fact, a specific need is solved by most open platform methodologies while business needs are solved by a lot of proprietary platforms. They often require many months to years to implement because they are big and bulky. While open platforms have short implementation cycles, which provides business agility and immediate return on investment to the business.

Source: chicagonow