Using the open-source model for IT development

Collaborating on a Common Platform

Creating a common industry platform can address the IT challenge of integrating solutions from different vendors and help accelerate the growth of a fragmented market.

A consistent requirement of IT organizations is the need to integrate solutions from different vendors. For instance, CRM systems often need to be integrated with e-mail systems; financial institutions need to integrate data feeds from many providers; and large-scale manufacturers, such as automotive or aerospace OEMs, have extensive supply chains that need to integrate across the product lifecycle. Typically, the integration is a cost of doing business, not a core value, so creating a common platform that is adopted by a number of industry players effectively streamlines the integration requirements.

Establishing a common platform in a fragmented market of providers can help grow the entire industry. In fragmented markets, significant investment is often duplicated across solution providers but provides no real customer value. In addition, a valuable market ecosystem cannot develop because the market share of each provider is not big enough to sustain investment on one particular platform. Therefore, if multiple players agree to collaborate on a common platform, it can reduce the barriers for increasing the size of the overall market.

Factors to Consider When Establishing a Software-Innovation Network

Open-source software development provides a proven model for creating shared implementations, however, the ultimate goal of a software innovation network is to increase business value. Therefore, we need to consider several aspects of OSS that allow for value creation and value capture when establishing a collaboration amongst equal partners.

Open-Development Process

The success of OSS development in facilitating collaborative development is in an open-development process. Most major open-source communities, such as Apache, Eclipse and, work on the following principles:

1. Openness: being open to participation by any individual or organization, including competing organizations.

2. Meritocracy: Openness does not mean democracy; in fact, successful open-source projects work on the principle of a meritocracy. Therefore, newcomers are invited to participate based on their proven merit and ability.

3. Transparency: having important project discussions, plans and meeting minutes available in a transparent manner so anyone can view them.

Enabling a Governance Model for Collaboration

All successful long-term organizations require a set of rules that establish a governance model for setting policies and strategies. Governance becomes even more important if the organization is a collaboration among competitors. It is, therefore, critical that the governance model not allow a single player to control or influence the organization. The perception or reality that a single participant controls the overall community can inhibit the participation of others.