Deliverables:
FAQs, Talking Points, Fact Sheet from other industries
The Myths
- OS is free
- OS means there's no support
- OS means vendor won't be around for long-term
- OS is not secure
- OS means I'm on my own
- OS means hard to use
- OS is not enterprise-grade or can't be used for fin service
Patrick: AMFI Ghana wanted one system for all MFIs to get easy reports for all MFIs - tried to sell Mifos - couldn't convince that open source was secure - another consultant had wrote paper that said Mifos/OS was insecure and MFIs would lose their data --> rejected in first round of proposals.
OS is Secure
Craig: What's most insecure OS?
- Windows - closed and hard to reveal and find what's wrong.
- LInux - most secure - many people finding bugs and reporting and fixing them.
- Craig: likewise
- FUD - fear, uncertainty, doubt. - used about OS
OS for Enterprise Grade
- When you need mission-critical, will choose open source
- Space Station
- What is most widely used web server? --> Apache
- What is most widely used mobile OS? --> Android
- What is most widely used DB? --> MySQL
OS means there's no support
- OS is software, support is a business/service - every software that is proprietary or open source, needs people who are providing support.
- Raj: end user perspective - how much support is available in the market? If it's limited - who can do maintenance, fix bugs, can't rely on internal guys.
- Steve: we address this as a community
- Raj: needs support that can ask for on-demand.
- Raj: needs to build to scalalabe support where there are more providers.
- How do we build large support services around Mifos?
- Need a deep bench of support - need more widely available services.
- Patrick:
- Why Polly needed to move from Mifos to Bankers Realm --> too much time to get a feature if don't have money to build it.
- If have more support providers, need to
- Polly
- Need guarantee
- Need support there and need continuity that they'll be there for more than several years.
- Need to see other companies that can assure of worries and issues that come up
- Mifos today and Mifos 2030 - don't want to grow out of it and not be less
- Accountability - fear of working with int'l company - like working with local presence.
- Needs depth, breadth, quality
- Need proper training center to provide training and send staff for training
- Training center:
- Community doesn't know that training is available -
- Craft silicon: has on-site training, annual local conference,
- What would be willing to pay for training?
- Depends on format, if there's sponsorship.
- Raj: initially load must be shared - both by community pushing solution and users using the solution.
Action:
- Need to build out channel
- Have more local support