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Guest Column: Honey, Have You Seen My Market?
1/25/2006
Given a possible short-term reprieve from the worst effects of rising supplier power, we in higher education need to work hard and stay focused. Our power as buyers is indeed waning. That is dangerous. Some of us remember what it meant to "sleep in blue pajamas." We need to strengthen our power as consumers. Quite frankly, the open source movement in higher education (and elsewhere) is simply a way to do this. In Porterian terms, that movement increases the threat of substitutes.
First, we in higher education need to continue to develop alternatives that can provide choice-that is, a healthy competitive market. We need to do this in a grown-up fashion: we must be honest with our colleagues that "freedom [from vended software] is not free," and we must remind ourselves that software often represents only a small part of the total costs of an enterprise implementation. Second, we must focus attention on the art of collaboration-not merely on the intent or rhetoric of collaboration. Third, we need to concentrate on architecture. What is our next target application environment? Will a services-oriented architecture (SOA) really lower costs, add flexibility, and improve interoperability, or is it just more marketing hype? Fourth, we must foster the conditions that will allow a healthy ecosystem to flourish around open source applications. Finally, and most important, we need to acknowledge that the commercial providers are critical even in the context of open source solutions. We need to work with our traditional suppliers (many of whom have become trusted partners) to determine how to produce a synthesis that balances their goal of maximizing profits and our need to control costs. We must remember that software, like hardware, is likely to become a commodity. Our vendors are fighting for survival, and frankly, so are we.
So maybe I won't find my old market in the closet. And maybe I won't shake my fist at the sky. Perhaps it's time for us to discuss and craft the new market for software in higher education and our new role. What fun!
"Our vendors are fighting for survival, and frankly, so are we." So we fight smarter, and look to partner when we can. Good advice in early 2006.
This guest column by Richard Katz is reprinted with permission from EDUCAUSE Review, January-February 2006, p. 76.
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