The Open Learning Centre

The Open Learning Centre and Open Forum Europe worked on behalf of The National Computing Centre to produce a white paper examining the significant advantages and the potential hurdles for business when considering Open Source Software.

Published in November 2009, the white paper considers areas such as Open Standards, Licensing, Management and Operational Factors, Evaluation and Assessment. The document provides a far reaching and in-depth analysis for businesses to use in their own research and to help formulate their own Open Source adoption strategies.

Free and Open Source Software (OSS), has a long history, but is now transforming both the Software Industry itself and user interest. Historically the remit of the technicians, it is now widely recognised as offering a competitive opportunity compared to many proprietary solutions, and many organisations now maximise its use under both ‘free’ and commercial business terms. The emergence of Open Source high quality enterprise software has already transformed the leading internet businesses. Equally, many suppliers of enterprise solutions have turned to Open Source for part of their portfolio, or have based their entire (commercial) business model on Open Source.

Organisations failing to examine and assess the opportunity to use this software are missing out on an important resource. Reduction in cost, whilst imperative in the current financial climate, is only one potential benefit, as these Guidelines will discuss.

The National Computing Centre (NCC) is the single largest and most diverse corporate membership body in the UK IT sector.

NCC champions the effective deployment of IT to maximise the competitiveness of its members' business, and serves the corporate, vendor and government communities.

NCC delivers a continuum of services including; independent and impartial advice and support, best practice and standards, personal and professional development, managed service delivery, awareness raising and experience sharing.

OpenForum Europe (OFE) is not-for-profit, independent of any organisation and was originally launched in March 2002 to accelerate, broaden and strengthen the use of Open Source Software in business and government. OFE’s role has now expanded and is a strong supporter of Open Standards and Openness and pursues the vision of facilitating open competitive choice for IT users. OFE is supported by major IT suppliers, user organisations and national partners.

The Open Learning Centre is a UK-based specialist consulting company providing insight, knowledge, skills and professional services to organisations looking to harness the opportunities Free and Open Source Software can deliver.

This NCC Technical Guideline Document is produced under a Creative Commons License and may be downloaded free of charge from . On 07/12/2009 we were asked by the NCC to temporarily remove the download links to the white paper.