How to convince the board your business needs Open Source
Being an IT expert makes it easy to forget that the board doesn’t necessarily speak your language. So if you are a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technology Officer (CTO), it’s time to try to put across what you wish to implement in layman’s terms. This means talking less about the technology while talking more about what it can do for the business in terms of the freedom it provides to adapt your organisation, how it will save or contribute to achieving greater returns on investment and how it will increase your competitiveness.
Chief Financial Officers have a tendency to focus on costs more than benefits, so it’s a good idea to get your finance director on side before you speak to other board members. “It’s not all about cost-savings; it should be about the right tools for the job!” Mike Curtis, Executive Director of Service Delivery at LinuxIT, exclaims.
By talking to the experts at LinuxIT you can avoid:
- Focusing on the technology alone while forgetting to mention the business benefits
- Thinking that you won’t need any help with a migration to Linux
- Speaking a foreign language to non-technical staff and senior board members
- Spiralling costs, as Open Source is not totally free; you will need access to financial, technical and human resources to be successful
- Assuming it’s all about costs
- Being seen as just an Open Source evangelist as you need to demonstrate that the technology has a genuine business case that will increase the performance and competitiveness of your organisation
Learn more in our eGuide ‘The five biggest blunders you can make pushing for Open Source adoption at board level’.
