exchange - opengroupware cost comparison: do you think you are

hi helge,

>> - paying licenses for TRYING an opensource solution:
>>   you are crazy!

>Well ZideLook is actually not an OpenSource solution and only users of 
>proprietary clients are hit by the licensing cost.

i did not mean it has to be free. i ment it must be free for trial to get a user base. 


>> so ... now i'm wondering:
>> - who makes zidestore?
>
>ZideLook is developed by a partner company of SKYRIX.
which one, if i may ask? if you are not the right person for "trial version" maybe they are more
open to this concept.

>> - how do you define "competitive"
>With regards to the target audience, which is companies that do not 
>want to run Microsoft software on the server yet need to support 
>Outlook on the client in the best possible way.
you really think a company exists which does not want to run microsoft
software on the server (the bigger ones)? the main driver for exchange today
is companies sales people, who want to have their "crm" solution, and
communicate with everybody in the company. and these people generate
companies revenues, and are the "bosses" (technicians sometimes call
this "boss by ability", they are only able to use simple software).
evangelism is (nearly) dead.

>If the target company has no objectives using Exchange on the server 
>and wants to use Outlook as the clients its pointless. Its almost 
>impossible to compete against that setup.
>First step is to convince people why Windows on the server is a bad 
>idea - and this can't be the job of OGo. Next step is convincing people 
>not to use proprietary Linux groupware solutions, this is the job of 
>OGo ;-)
in our case:
- we were prepared for opensource
- we prefer linux to microsoft on server, we run both and know both
- we could not test zidelook
- we don't buy things we don't see working
- and decided for exchange

a "normal" decision-maker does not care about "opensource and free". he cares about cost, and
risk. at the end of the day, you have to have a running business, at fair cost. there is no room
for politics or evangelism.

risk: does it work, will it work in 5 years.
cost: what does it cost to judge, what does it cost to buy/deploy, what does it cost to run.

risk of zidelook: does it run
cost to judge is equal cost to buy.


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