Archived thread 1802613 from United Kingdom Team. Markdown source: United_Kingdom_Team/thread_1802613_How_to_Market_Ubuntu_to_SME's.md
I am doing a Marketing project at University and I would like to know your thoughts on how best to Market Ubuntu to Small-Medium Sized Enterprises.
I hope that this thread would also be useful for LoCos and ideas can be discussed about spreading the word of Ubuntu.
I think the key aspect is to market open standards in file formats etc (eg ODF) so that data becomes reliably exchangable across OS, otherwise businesses essentially have software platforms imposed upon them for compatibility.
Only a subset of SMEs could probably switch to Ubuntu, its not surprising given there has been around 20 years of hardwiring business applications and data around proprietary systems.
Did you identify ang candidate domains more likely to switch?
M.
The cost of expanding is a good point. All SMEs want to grow and in doing so the IT infrastructure will need to expand. Using open source both for desktop and server requirement will make cost savings at these risky times for companies, also you dont get locked into using one OS due to investment.
To me, the discussion of ubuntu and similar systems being reliable pretty much got settled around two years ago. These systems are reliable, period. It is not about the OS anymore. It is about what people can do with it.
On top of that, yes, you have the economic aspects. They are free, highly compatible, blahblahblah.
Where is gets hairy is now on software support for Linux platforms. Which kind of software does an SME need? (as varied as SME's are there). In this case, you would want to classify SME's according to their industry and then actually see if there is software that can competitively run on Linux. Some examples:
Graphic design/advertising: Where is the Adobre Creative Suite? Will an SME use GIMP/Inkskape/Scribus instead of CS5? I doubt it.
Architecture/Engineering: What about AutoCAD, SolidWorks, etc?
GIS and Mapping: We nail this one. Open Source GIS in plain awesome. It is not up to the standard of ArcGIS, but it can pay up if you put in on a cost-benefit analysis.
Music/Video/Media? I think Open source holds up ok. Accounting/Business management: Some good software out there. Can do the job.
Research SME's: yes... lots of modelling, statistics a scientific software out there. I would bite.
Web development: no idea... feedback anyone?
A good site to visit is http://www.osalt.com/ which outlines what open source substitutes are available to replace closed source software that SMEs cant just do without.
Joomla is a great solution for web.