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Open Source is not a Business Model, it is a Development Methodology. 2010 marks 7 years of us running the TurboCASH project. With over 100 000 users and communities in over 80 countries, we are now the uncontested leaders in Open Source Accounting for small business. Still, rarely does a day go by without me being asked, "How do you make money out of a Free Product?".
Rather than go into a long explanation of the Open Source philosophy, I usually answer this question with, "How does it cost us anything if you download and use TurboCASH? Are we not better off if you use TurboCASH than if you use some other accounting software?"
People are surprised that TurboCASH is a business like any other. Our Business Model is about attracting loyal users. We intend to take a minimum of 5% of the entire SME. market. It is now commonplace in our times for a business of this nature to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. more ..
TurboCASH is an open source accounting package that is free for everyone
to download and distribute
under the terms of the General Public Licence (GPL) . It is one of the world's
first fully-featured open source accounts packages for small business.
TurboCASH is and always will be Free. However this is free as in libre not as in gratis. You do
not pay any licensing fees. (We do give you the option of taking the multi user as a licence) You can download, use and share TurboCASH with
your friends, partners, business associates, customers for absolutely nothing. If you are able to do this without using our addons or services, then you may well go on to use TurboCASH without ever paying anyone
a
cent to get it running. Good luck to you, thank you for coming and
please tell your friends. You are now part of our success story!
There are no tricks catches or hidden whammies to TurboCASH. There is no secret pan to get you to pay us. Our core product is free, we charge for plugins, but we drive the price of these plugins so low that they muliples below that of the competition. Our services are not provided centrally, but are provided by our community themselves and so are delivered at a market price.You get the best of both worlds. Free if you want it, with the ability to pay as much as you wnat to get as much additional input as you want. No one forces you into any payments.There are no salesmen in an Open Source project.
The aim of giving
away a free accounting package is to create a huge group of homogeneous
users that can help each other and can contribute free additions to the
programs that will keep TurboCASH getting better and better.
It is our development community that does it! Around this can form
consultants that create plugins and add on services that extend TurboCASH
to become a very powerful system. For example as the Project Leader, I work full time on the TurboCASH Project. I make my living
compiling TurboCASH, along with a host of
Open Source software and distributing it on CDs through retail chains.
I sell ebooks and and I develop plugins which I sell online. I also
work on specialised implementations of TurboCASH for larger
customers. These products and services can be purchased voluntarily. I hold training workshops to help isers get a better understaninding of the opportunities in the TurboCASH Community. I solicit sponsorship agreements and trades for parties interested in the SME market. I consult to TurboCASH users on business strategy. However all the above pale into insignificance compared to the huge
opportunityu that the capital vlaue of the TurbpCASH communtiy has as
it grows into a world wide community.
We have found that when computer code is freed in source forms and made openly available to all users and developers, development of the program happens at a faster pace than proprietary development and results in a higher quality product output. The free distribution makes for a shorter and faster delivery chain and information cycles much quicker through the community. As your business grows and because the Open Source model is so
efficient at developing software, the addons and extensions can be
delivered to you a price multiple orders below the other accounting
market offerings. If I am able to do enough of these and keep offering
you these addons at really good prices, this becomes a great business
for all of us involved.
Thousands of people make their living out of working on and supporting TurboCASH. They provide a range of value added services that make the TurboCASH community so much more than just software. These services range from training to business consulting. These consultants are either selp employed or employed by our users. This dispersed network, along with the strategy of one compile to many markets makes TurboCASH a really efficient way to make and deliver software. We don't have buildings, research departments, marketing departments, call centres, legal depoartsments, human resource departments, boardrooms, corner offices and preferred parking spots. More importantly we don't have boards of directors, accountants or shareholders demanding quarterly reports and dividend payments. We avoid these costs, which in the case of proprietary software have to get paid by the users of proprietary software.
Further because our software is freewe do not have to spend vast amounts promoting our brand and price proposition. The costs of media advertising, public relations launches and trade fares is all a cost that has to be paid for by the end users. We avoid this. So whereas glossy ads my ring out proclaiming the merits of proprietary software, you do not get this in open source. Users are surprised that when they do get to download adn use open source software, it is actually better than proprietary alternatives. Open Source works or work of mouth ad fortunately wiht the internet, word of mouth spreads fast.
A key element of the GPL is that all improvements to the program must be returned to the community. This means that any contribution to the program is made available free to the next person that wants it. Our TurboCASH, one program - many markets, Mission means that our program spreads faster to more widely diverse markets and is availabe to all at the same time.
In summary:
Information is free;
Service is not;
Contributions are priceless.
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