Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Re: Indian academic institutions forced to use MS Office

On 29 April 2013 04:34, Marc Paré <marc@marcpare.com> wrote:
> Hi Ian,
>
> Le 28/04/13 06:20 AM, Ian Lynch a écrit :
>
> > It's more complex. It is different in different European countries.
> > Some have more central political control than others. eg in Germany
> > education is by the sixteen Länder in England individual schools have
> > local management. The details are even different in Scotland and
> > Wales. This is why it would make sense to find the country/region most
> > open to LO take up in its schools and put the effort into one place
> > and show how it works. Then show how it can be replicated and the
> > unique selling points (USPs). Target the easiest first, don't waste
> > time and effort on ones that are going to be nearly impossible. The
> > early adopters will make it easier for those to come on board later.
> > Once you identify the easiest target put all effort into a strategy
> > that will make it a "no brainer" for them to adopt. If you can do that
> > you have a chance.
>
>
> I am not sure I agree; if this were the case, they would have moved to
> OpenOffice already.

Why? No-one with any expertise in their industry has spoken to the
right people. Don't under-estimate the time and effort involved.

> I am more of the opinion that we should go to the harder
> targets as they have a reason why they will not adopt.

That is the opposite of what all the research on mass marketing tells
us. My comments are based on thorough research and visiting probably >
15 countries over the last 7 years coupled with about 35 years working
in the education industry, most of it with senior people at a national
level.

> We need to take a
> close look at the conditions that make them unable to adopt and see if there
> is a way for us to accommodate these hurdles.

If one of those conditions is not rational and that is very likely,
the first thing they will ask is who else has done it? People
generally don't like change. They will look for reasons not to have to
change so brute common sense rarely works. You need to find people who
are ready so you are pushing at an open door with at least one local
champion who has enough influence to help you.

> Also, most of the places that are having a problem moving on to our
> LibreOffice are doing this for specific reasons, which they have found that
> over their years of experience, despite the savings on licensing fees, make
> it too difficult/inconvenient for the change -- don't forget, they are not
> spending their own personal cash, but the cash that was allotted by their
> funders/governments.

I'm well aware of that and that simply reinforces why it is difficult
to get change in the public sector. Not impossible but very difficult.
It's largely not about rationality, it is a management of change issue
and if there is no-one with professional training and experience in
change management its like trying to code LO with people who don't
have in-depth knowledge of C++. If targeting education change you also
need expertise in that sector. Try Michael Fullan's books on education
change to get an insight into the difficulties in getting meaningful
change.

> Of these, I am suggesting that one of the major hurdles
> is not having an LTS version. Something that, IMO, if we really want to gain
> a foothold in larger markets, we need to consider.

I doubt that has any significant influence on the decisions here in
the UK. Most would be more familiar with LTS as Linux Terminal Server
that Long Term Support. It might be an issue in those jurisdictions
that prescribe the technology to be used centrally and pay for it
nationally. If you identify such a jurisdiction as ready in other
respects it would be worth considering LTS but it really needs the
market research done rather than just guessing.

> Rather than picking the easiest targets, we should be looking at the tougher
> targets, which more than likely are the ones with the deeper pockets in the
> educational field, and by finding a way to accommodate them, we will more
> than likely gain the easier targets along way.

Those with deep pockets are unlikely to go through the hassle of
change when they can afford to just carry on as they are.

> There is nothing more convincing that to see larger organizations move to a
> new distro for the smaller ones to follow. The reverse is seldom true.

The principles of disruptive innovation research from Harvard Business
School show the exact opposite is true. Community projects usually
bring new people into a market by making the product good enough for
their needs at a price they can afford. eg Wikipedia. They then get
better moving up the market displacing competition that can not
reposition without destroying their own cash cows. A reason MS has
taken so long to get 365 out to compete with Google. It could destroy
revenue from MS Office. Have they left it too late? Time will tell.

-- 
Ian

Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications

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