Let’s say that I am working in a software company that creates products for the self service industry. Now let’s say that this software company has a product which from features point of view is similar with the best products on the market. Also this product is very easy customizable to support different flows as per clients requests. Also let’s say that this product is actually more than a product. Is the first product made on a platform framework which can supports all possible self service transactional based applications.
For you guys to have a better idea about the selling price: we can charge up to 600$ per license and then anything between 15-25% per year in maintenance agreements.
You would say that we are in a very good position right now to take over the world of self service applications. Sadly is not the case due to the way the self service industry works and the fact that my company is small.
I was thinking what will happen if I am going to open source the product under GPL license and give the product for free (as in free beer)?
Am I going to be able to charge a small amount from the possible clients?
What should I do to manage to create a momentum?
Am I going to be able to charge a comparable amount from the clients after let’s say 6-12 months of using the product?
Am I going to be able to create a viable business model which could allow me to grow the company?
Am I going to be able to actually displace some of the heavy ones from the big retailers in US or Europe and take over the industry?
Maybe some of you guys out there can help with some answers to these questions.
Thanks in advance.
I would go for a dual licensing system, like the ones MySQL or SugarCRM use. Everybody can start using your product for free (and many will, if the product is really good enough and if its only major issue is the size of your company). IMHO many of these non-paying customers will ask for support from you at some point and even for further customizations (that most of them won’t know how to do). This will turn them into paying customers with a considerably smaller marketing / sales effort. Best of luck! (And remember me when money starts flowing
)
I completely agree with Andrei. It is a great idea and definetly a hit for the market selling such software. I think that having a lite version of your product as open source and selling the complex one as a separate product will actually be like the schema SugarCRM has.
The open source version might actually be very good as a starting point to develop an online community that would help with the feedback, testing, the actual development and last but not least spread the word thru blogs and forums.
Best wishes!:D