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

Le 29/04/13 04:46 AM, Ian Lynch a écrit :
> On 29 April 2013 04:34, Marc Paré <marc@marcpare.com> wrote:
> > Hi Ian,
> > 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.

If there have not been the right people for OpenOffice after having 
presence for 10 years on the scene, then, we need to rethink our 
marketing models.

> > 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.

Mine is based on close to the same amount of experience, but of in-class 
and on committee software evaluation/purchasing as well as being 
math/science/tech consultant. I was, up until my recent surgeries, on 
the committee advising purchasing, and yes, OpenOffice was discussed, 
but, there was no LTS version.

> > 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.

Economic conditions have changed, this is our best driving argument for 
change in our category. We market the fact that we have zero cost for 
licensing and of great file compatibility. If some of our lager target 
markets are not considering our product then we need to take a closer 
look at LibreOffice and identify the problem. One of the obvious lack of 
options is a version that is supported by a longer term, along with 
accredited dev support.

> > 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.

I am not sure how this would help when I speak to our group and passing 
on the information that in my experience an LTS version is what was 
lacking to even be considered a contender in the office suite adoption. 
Fullan may have it right but we may have it wrong.

> > 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.

We are not debating the term LTS. This not an issue. LTS, ESR, ... 
whatever term describes it -- I'm not worried about the term for this 
discussion.

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.

I am speaking from a N.American perspective where our educational plan 
are made on a wider political scale (provincial) and not locally.

> > 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.

Not in my experience. Those with deeper pockets now need to account for 
the money spent and they must also account for the reasons a more costly 
item is adopted.

In our case (LibreOffice), we do not appear on any acquisition list as 
we cannot provide organizations a version of our software that allows 
for a reasonable testing period and implementation. In all cases, the 
software needs to be tested on servers before deployment, this may at 
times take up to a year (some software play havoc with the setups and 
even the order of installation becomes a crucial consideration).

I am not sure that we would even consider such software for our own use 
on our servers. I am not sure, for example, that we would be using 
SilverStripe if changes occurred on a scale similar to LibreOffice. It 
would not take long for people, who depend on SilverStripe to run our 
website, to demand a change to a more stable termed software with support.

> > 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.

Well true, if you picked Wikipedia that offered all that their new 
adopters needed, But had Wikipedia was offered only in a downloadable 
version and then told its clients that they would need to re-install it 
a the same rapid-rapid rate as ours, then there probably would not be 
such a wide-scale adoption. Luckily, there is no need to update 
Wikipedia as it is offered fully updated at all times.

You are not making the right comparison. This is a case where a product 
that we market as being able to compete in large organizations, just 
does not have one of the key elements to get it even onto the "table of 
considerations". In my school board of 10 000 seats, the fact that there 
is no LTS version just disqualifies it. The product is great but it 
won't be evaluated as our group (LibreOffice) is not willing to stand 
behind a longer term version, the reason for which I cannot really 
understand.

If after 12 years of having such a great product and not making any 
substantial in-roads into large-scale installations, we need to take a 
sober look at our product and see if there is any tweaking of the 
package needed.

Cheers,

Marc


--
Marc Paré
Marc@MarcPare.com
http://www.parEntreprise.com
parEntreprise.com Supports OpenDocument Formats (ODF)
parEntreprise.com Supports http://www.LibreOffice.org


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