Why We Love Open-Source Retail Consultancy Right Now
It's a good time to be in open-source retail consultancy, but the industry still needs some convincing when it comes to the value of open source
Posted by Killian McAleese, 28th April 2011
At Open Plus we're about open-source, retail consultancy: front-end, customer relationship management (CRM), warehouse management, HR, finance, catalogue management, you name it.
The reasons for this, we admit, are probably as diverse as the numerous turns in the road made by all our team members that took us to where we are right now.
But we all agree that there are a small number of core values in the industry that we aspire to and cherish: openness, fairness, transparency and cooperation, flexibility and growth are but a few. But what we're all really looking for is a better way of doing things.
Open Source Successes
That's why this is a great time to be in the open-source consultancy profession. Just take a look at how some of the big names in open source are doing.
Magento eCommerce is a no-brainer when it comes to measuring success. Talend, Pentaho and Alfresco are moving from strength to strength with ever improving releases, and Apache projects are scooping up prestigious awards, in some cases ahead of the likes of the iPad and Wikileaks.
Red Hat also looks set to be the first billion dollar open-source company ever in 2011, and Rackspace Hosting saw the highest sales of network services during the last quarter of 2010 since the beginning of the international financial crisis.
Retail Challenges
So our partners in the open source industry are doing well, but where does that leave a company like us in the middle?
Our eyes are, of course, fixed on the online retail industry as much as they are on the open source industry, so it should be no surprise that when we hear from IMRG that the first quarter of 2011 saw the strongest growth in three years for e-commerce and muli-channel in the UK, it's music to our ears.
But there are, nevertheless, major challenges. It hasn't escaped our notice that although e-commerce and multi-channel are in good shape, our high street colleagues are having a tough 2011. Although part of this story is likely a move to online shopping with technological advances, it is also due to consumers' increasing tendency to look for deals in their shopping behaviour.
So as much as we're in a major upswing on the online front, the trend can't last forever.
Open Source in Retail
But one of the biggest challenges is convincing the world about the true value and potential of open-source software and how effectively it can be leveraged in the online retail environment.
At the core of this potential are lower costs, flexibility, lack of vendor lock-in, and the ability to leverage the advantages of cloud computing.
It's our fervent assertion that these are precisely the qualities that an online retailer needs from software to optimise high growth.
Open Plus and Open Source Consultancy
If you'd like to find out more about how Open Plus leverages open source and cloud as part of our consultancy services, whether it's implementing it for you, training your team to use it, integrating into your other systems, or more, you can phone us at 0207 107 2688 or fill in the form on our contact page.
Alternatively, see our Open-Source IT Solutions page for all our open source partners.
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