01734nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245009200055210006900147260004200216520129700258100002101555856003601576       2009                        eng d  a1913-610200aThe Benefits to ISVs of Working with Large Enterprise Consumers on Open-Source Projects0 aBenefits to ISVs of Working with Large Enterprise Consumers on O  aOttawabTalent First Networkc01/20093 aSelling software to consumers is tough as they want perfection and expect to pay nothing. Consumers are fickle and the competition can be fierce. By comparison, large enterprises have big problems and buckets of money to spend on solutions, allowing you to focus your marketing on a small target. While large enterprises sound like ideal customers, the small independent software vendor selling to a large enterprise faces long sales cycles, extreme quality expectations, challenges integrating into a complex jungle of pre-existing systems, and the need to partner with others to create a complete solution.

At Fanfare, we believe that there are a variety of successful software business models that employ open source strategies. One such strategy is to sell closed source solutions constructed on top of an open source platform. In fact, the Eclipse Foundation considers enabling this kind of business model as one of its mandates. We sell a complete system test automation solution that is built on top of Eclipse and sold to customers as a "turnkey" solution using Eclipse's Rich Client Platform technology.

In this article, we examine six benefits of this approach. Some of these benefits apply to any ISV, but many are specific advantages for ISVs selling into large enterprises.1 aDuffie, Kingston  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/220