Webinar Discussion: Five Mistakes to Avoid When Acquiring Software

This is the place to ask your follow-up questions to the "Five Mistakes to Avoid When Acquiring Software" webinar on March 12, 2009. View the recording here: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=6qi7n3p5jhw2

Please either reply to this post if you have a specific question or comment about the webinar.

Thanks for posting this discussion.  I wasn't able to make the live session but I listened to the recording.

I have a question.  It certainly sounds complicated keeping track of all of the license issues with proprietary software.  I was wondering why you did not mention free open source software licenses which do not have any of the issues that you discussed.  There is a lot of software suitable for non-profits that use the free open source license. 

One simple easy thing that most non-profits can do is to replace Microsoft Office with the free OpenOffice.org software.  This can be freely installed on as many computers as desired with none of the licensing issues of Microsoft Office.

There are free open source software packages that can replace most of the proprietary packages that you mentioned in your session.  These can all be freely installed and used without needing to buy and track licenses. 

Linux can replace Windows XP, Vista and Microsoft Server software with no need to buy or track licenses.   Linux also does not have any viruses, trojans, or other malware due to it's better security design.

The story you told about a non-profit that was audited by Microsoft and had to pay a big fine due to lax license management should be a warning to everyone.  Free open source software does not have this issue.

You also mentioned that most purchased software does not come with support.  Free open source software has many avenues of support both free and paid.  I have found that it is much easier to find answers to open source software questions than most of the proprietary packages.

Hi mspohr,

I'm the fellow you heard speaking as the presenter in the webinar "Five Mistakes to Avoid When Acquiring Software," and I think you raise an excellent point.

If I had more time I probably would have mentioned Free software under the first mistake,"Not paying enough for software" and also under the fourth mistake "Assuming tech support is included", because of the risks Free software pose to organizations which are unprepared to implement it.

Nothing wrong with Free software as a class, but in my experience obtaining support for Free software can be a challenge for non-technical end users. Which is why I recommend that organizations wishing to implement Free software select a commercial package complete with technical support options that meet their requirements.

I think it would have been appropriate to mention Free software under the second mistake as well, "Paying too much for software". Certainly it is more appropriate in many cases to use 7-zip for file compression than to license Winzip for every computer in the organization. And there are many other examples we could give in addition to the ones you mention.

So yes, definitely worth mentioning and I will be sure to include more mention of open source software in future presentations.

Yours truly,

Zac