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Open Sourcing a Vertical Market Application?
BigCanOfTuna asks: "The company I work for is considering the possibility of turning over one of thier enterprise applications to the open source community. They are doing this for a number of reasons including raising thier profile in the OS community, developing relationships with other Energy companies that would be willing to hire us as consultants, and of course just for good will (if there is such a thing in business!). Since the application is very specific to a vertical market, can one expect to see the same results that other open source projects see? Are there any other successful OS projects out there that are geared to a specific niche?"
I think you'll be surprised at how many will want to use your application. There are usually some surprising consistencies between business types which may not occur to those who haven't worked in each. So don't be surprised if your application which was made for an energy company becomes, with a tweak or two, very popular among, say, watch manufacturers.
One of my favorite ideas in marketing was always that you will almost always hit a larger market than your target, no matter how specialized your target. Like Avon's skin-so-soft, for instance. You know, the mosquito repellant?
For the Google Disabled:
A vertical market is a particular industry or group of enterprises in which similar products or services are developed and marketed using similar methods (and to whom goods and services can be sold). Broad examples of vertical markets are: insurance, real estate, banking, heavy manufacturing, retail, transportation, hospitals, and government.
Vertical market software is software aimed at a particular vertical market and can be contrasted with horizontal market software (such as word processors and spreadsheet programs) which can be used in a cross-section of industries.
Taken from here.
I personally like the "Broad example of a vertical market" phrase...
-Adam
You make some good arguments, but you're looking at it from the wrong angle.
His product will not directly benefit other businesses. It will, however, benefit contractors that implement OSS applications within these businesses.
I'm in a similiar position. I have two decently sized applications that I developed and licensed out - there is only one client per each. I would like to see them developed more, and hope someone could use them--perhaps I may be able to make a few bucks down the road as consulting for this.
In reality, I am not really missing out on any income as the chances of someone picking this up and going after a client that I even know exists are pretty slim. I will, however, gain a better understanding of the application itself, maybe make a few acquaintances and hopefully pay back the community that has helped me in so many ways already.
Isn't that what it's all about?
Jason