Can open source software save organizations money?

Next year, given what is likely to be a grim funding year, nonprofit organizations are going to be hunting for ways to save money on technology. There are, of course, arguments that IT budgets should be, at least, level funded during slim times, but the reality is that organizations are going to reduce budgets across the board. One question that will inevitably be asked: can free and open source software save organizations money?

The answer, of course, is a solid maybe, but also a resounding yes. Confusing, huh? Open source software is both free as in “beer” as well as free as in “kittens.” There are no license fees, but it takes care and feeding.

The most important part of the equation is what you are implementing, and whether or not you need to factor in migration costs. Nonprofit organizations that did migrations to open source software from proprietary packages with large license fees during relatively fat economic times are reaping the benefits of that change now, and are in good shape to weather the storm. Organizations that haven’t been able to do that migration might find those costs to be prohibitive at this time – which is unfortunate.

But if you have a migration planned anyway, now is absolutely the time to look at open source software. At this point in the maturity of most open source packages that nonprofits would want to use, the implementation cost is very much in line with the implementation costs of proprietary software. So that means that you are saving money – no cost to acquire, and no long term license or maintenance fees.

All of the above adds up to that solid maybe – implementing open source software in your organization might save you money depending on what you are implementing, and what the costs are for migration. Where does the resounding yes come from?

This, if any, is the time for organizations to reject the standard “every organization for themselves” mentality of software acquisition and development. Find a solid open source package (like CiviCRM, for instance,) and help fund extensions to that software with other organizations that help make it what you need. Find 5 organizations that do similar work, and collaborate to build an open source application that can work for your part of the sector. Release it so a community can develop around it, make sure to make it modular so that it can be easily extended. Make it full of APIs so you can hook other software to it. Build it with open standards so the data is readable in perpetuity. Doing this will mean you will get far more application for the money you spend. Of course, it all takes effort and work. But it’s worth it – and the entire community benefits by an enriched software ecosystem.

It also ends up not just being about saving money. It also ends up being about building community – and community will be an incredibly important asset in the coming years. There is an appropriate popular culture reference: “live together, die alone.”