One of the major denominators of web 2.0 is ‘online collaboration’. As Don Tapscott puts it in his book ‘wikinomics’: ‘The old notion that you have to attract, develop, and retain the best and brightest inside your corporate boundaries is becoming null. With the cost of collaboration falling precipitously, companies can increasingly source ideas, innovations and uniquely qualified minds from a vast global pool of talent’.
While offshoring has been growing in popularity over the past 10 years, the real breakthrough is yet to come. And while Linux started about 15 years ago, the open source movement has only started to gain momentum.
Offshoring
Many people describe offshoring as a ‘hype’ and believe it will start declining. But considering the major benefits a company can achieve from offshore outsourcing, why would it be a hype? People are merely ‘getting used’ to working with people on the other side of the globe. Standard ways of working are being developed and choices are being made between captive offices or working with a vendor. Once it becomes ‘normal’, any job that can be done with the use of a pc screen can be done from any place in the world. With the high western wages and the problems of finding skilled people, offshoring will grow into a normal way of doing business.
Companies are still used to the idea of having to keep the people inside their company. They perceive knowledge as major competitive advantage and believe this can only be sustained by keeping the people on the payroll. With more work moving offshore, this perception will change and people will start realizing that having a lean organization within a strong network will create a much stronger competitive edge then the old notion of ‘do it yourself’.
Open source
The same happens with open source. In the Netherlands, the government has set out a task group ‘NOIV’, to stimulate open source and open standards within the Dutch government. With the amount of open source solutions available on sourceforge and more packages that are launched every day, it seems an unstoppable development. Even ERP solutions, which have been one of the major cash cows of the software industry in the past decades, can be downloaded from the internet.
There are a few developments needed in the open source world. We need more open source system integrators that specialize in the implementation of open source solutions and deliver support. We need more big organizations that lead the way and share their open source success stories. Once these two develop, open source will become a normal way of ‘doing software’.
Bridge helps companies benefit from both web 2.0 developments. We have a solid experience in several open source solutions and deliver our services from our 4 offices around the world.
One of the major denominators of web 2.0 is ‘online collaboration’. As Don Tapscott puts it in his book ‘wikinomics’: ‘The old notion that you have to attract, develop, and retain the best and brightest inside your corporate boundaries is becoming null. With the cost of collaboration falling precipitously, companies can increasingly source ideas, innovations and uniquely qualified minds from a vast global pool of talent’.
While offshoring has been growing in popularity over the past 10 years, the real breakthrough is yet to come. And while Linux started about 15 years ago, the open source movement has only started to gain momentum. (more…)
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There used to be a time when everybody on the golf course was talking about R/3 or Navision or other cool key words. CRM is not exactly a new key word on the golf arena or in the sailing club, but what has changed is that this is now a hot buzz factor for any small to medium sized company.
Last Tuesday, Bridge organized the first Open Coffee of Alkmaar. With a great amount of people (more then 50), we can call it a success already. The sometimes ‘boring’ character of a networking meeting doesn’t fit open coffee. In a very relaxed atmosphere and with a cup of coffee (how can you start your day better than that?!), you easily get in touch with other people.