Adopting an Open Source Business Model Open Source Product Strategy. Utpal Bhatt, Actuate

Transcription

1 Adopting an Open Source Business Model Open Source Product Strategy Utpal Bhatt, Actuate 1 Actuate Corporation 2012

2 Agenda Introduction Product Strategy Options Actuate and Open Source A Product Strategy Checklist Wrap-Up: Conclusions (So Far) 2

3 Actuate Corporation Background Publicly Traded Revenues Profitability Employees / Community Headquarters Offices Customers BIRT on NASDAQ $138.9 million in FY % non-gaap Operating Margin in FY employees worldwide / 2,500,000+ BIRT Developers San Mateo, California Worldwide Sales Offices R&D: San Mateo, Kansas City, Shanghai, Toronto, Barcelona Over 5,000 top-tier accounts in banking, insurance, securities, government, health care, education, utilities and OEM in high tech Open Source Founded Eclipse BIRT Project in 2004 BIRT ihub BIRT Analytics 3

4 Actuate s Involvement in Open Source BIRT: Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools A New Generation of Data Visualization Technology Makes all data-driven content development easy Modern, web-page design metaphor Open and standards-based Flexible with rich programmatic control Full support for libraries and reuse Foundation for a range of solutions Simplicity that makes simple layouts easy BIRT Power to create very complex layouts 4

5 Open Source Product Strategy Options Platform Support Services Support for Open Source Bundling Cloud Provider Cost Reduction Using Open Source Embedding Contribution Open Source Project Development of Open Source Value Added Products 5

6 A Product Strategy Checklist Revenue Strategy and Triggers Licensing and Intellectual Property Feature Strategy Development Team and Process Open Source Project/Community Organizational Alignment Nurturing a Community: Evangelism 10

7 Revenue Strategy and Triggers Monetization in an Open Source World Revenue Generation Choices Embedding Open Source Open source technology leveraged in commercial product offering Cost-reduction strategy no direct revenue from open source software Support and Services Generate revenue from support, training, certification and/or consulting Leverage your expertise as sponsor/contributor to the project Dual License Open source code is available using a reciprocal/restricted license Offer a commercial license with a more permissive license 11

8 Revenue Strategy and Triggers Monetization in an Open Source World Revenue Generation Choices (Continued) Open Core: Value-Add Products That Extend Open Source Offering Commercially licensed products Strategy may assume a relatively small % of users will purchase these Advertising Open Source software is free and supported by advertising revenue Typically only used in consumer-oriented projects Exit Strategy Technology fits into a wider market that may interest other vendors Revenue comes from acquisition of technology (and user base) 12 Actuate Model is Primarily Open Core

9 Licensing and Intellectual Property Open Source License Choice Dual Licensing Open-Core Licensing Open-and-Closed Licensing Single Open Source License Assembled Open Source Closed License License choice is critical for adoption and revenue generation To develop and grow a community, the right license is required Is the license good for IT organizations? Is the license good for ISVs? Is the license good for extending the technology? Open source license that is too restrictive may limit adoption Open source license that is too open may limit revenue opportunity Actuate Model is Open-and-Closed License 13

10 Feature Strategy What to Open Source, What Not to Open Source? Provide Real Value to Open Source Community Open Source, but not useful, will not get traction Open Source, but needs your deployment platform, will not get traction Remember: Good Product Design is (Even More) Important Extremely easy to download, install and get started Ease of use is critical it is too easy for users to walk away Make your technology an easy decision for your target users Be Careful Not to Erode Your Revenue Strategy 14

11 License Feature and Licensing Strategy Find the Right Balance Avoid Eroding Commercial Opportunity Permissive Open Source Community Restrictive 15 Open Features and Functions Commercial

12 License Feature and Licensing Strategy Find the Right Balance Avoid Restricting Open Source Community Growth Permissive Restrictive 16 Open Source Community Open Features and Functions Commercial

13 Actuate BIRT Technology Family Complementing and Extending Eclipse BIRT Development Actuate BIRT Extensions Deployment Development Tools User Interactivity Deployment Tools High-Scale Distribution Skill-specific tools for developers and users Engage users with rich, interactive content Manage, schedule, secure, run and distribute Load-balanced, high availability for 100,000s of users Eclipse BIRT Meet Core Requirements + Deliver Real Value 17

14 Open Source Project/Community Possible Approaches Contribute to an existing project Create and lead a new project in an existing community Create a new project and community Existing open source initiatives and distribution channels Eclipse.org Apache.org GitHub Generating Awareness is Critical Factor 18

15 Open Source Project/Community Actuate and the Eclipse Foundation Instead of going it alone, Actuate chose to partner with the Eclipse Foundation Actuate Joins Eclipse Foundation as Strategic Developer and Board Member Actuate proposed and started Adds BI and Reporting as Open Source Project BIRT Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools Project 19 a top-level Eclipse project AUGUST 2004

16 Organizational Alignment Achieve Buy-In from All Stakeholders Open Source rules are very different Define Success Conservatively Revenues do not occur overnight There are no guarantees There are valuable intangible benefits Define and measure realistic goals Focus on Long-Term Value As momentum builds over time, you can: Raise awareness significantly Strengthen brand Build revenues to respectable levels Sustain high profitability Successful Open Source Strategies Involve Multiple Business Units It is Not Just an Engineering Initiative Be Prepared to Iterate on the Model 22

17 Organizational Alignment Sales and Marketing Sales teams are focused on short-term revenues, so they don t get excited about long-term, open-source benefits Starting Point for Entry-Level Accounts Initiate and maintain relationships with small customers by starting them with BIRT and growing them into a large sale a year or two down the road Set Sales Expectations Early and Often Open Source & Traditional Marketing Open Source distribution complements, but does not replace, traditional marketing approaches 23

18 Nurturing a Community: Evangelism The Open Source Community Successful Communities do Not Happen Automatically All strong communities have enthusiastic and active supporters Dedicate resources to working with and supporting the community: The Evangelism role Actively monitor and respond to forums Create How To and tutorial content for web site Work with and write articles for 3 rd party publications and web sites Traditional Marketing Management, Project Leads Opportunities Open Source Evangelism 24 Open Source Community

19 Nurturing a Community: Evangelism BIRT Exchange Community Site Centralized knowledge hub for BIRT developers Access demos, tutorials, tips and techniques, documentation Easy for users to contribute content, share knowledge Enables developers to be more productive and build applications faster 25 Explore Search/sort Rate, comment Forums Download Documentation Software Examples Contribute Report designs Code samples Technical tips

20 Wrap-Up: Conclusions (So Far) BIRT Technology Uptake Thriving BIRT Community Over 2.5M developers using BIRT in 157 countries BIRT technology deployed in many applications / products Growing Commercial Success Very high growth in BIRT-based product revenue High percentage of commercial business starts with Eclipse BIRT Cumulative BIRT Downloads More than 12 million downloads

21 Wrap-Up: Conclusions (So Far) Real Results and Business Benefits BIRT has enabled Actuate to: Penetrate new markets Extend reach into traditional markets Strengthen the Actuate brand Increase sales and operating margins well above software industry norms BIRT Actuate s new generation of development technologies Industries Manufacturing Telecom Retail Hospitality Geographies India China Other developing markets 27

22 28 Actuate Corporation 2012 Q & A