1. Open-source still has a lot more potential.
The open-source movement has gained significant momentum in the operating system and database market, as evidenced by the wide acceptance of Linux, Apache, PHP, and MySQL.
This momentum has yet to have a significant impact on the open-source Web content management (WCM) and portal market. Although the number of Web content management open-source solutions available is large, the adoption rate remains low when compared to the market size.
2. Not all open-source solutions are the same.
The open-source ECM vendor landscape is divided between ECM frameworks and systems. Frameworks provide the building blocks for developing very complex ECM implementations, whereas systems are more comparable to commercial packages. The offerings come from a broad number of countries and with a wide variety of software license agreements. The systems can further be divided into fully-fledged ECM/DM and web content management (WCM) solutions.
3. Focus on product selection.
There is a great variety of open-source products in the market. It is essential that you select the right product, preferably a proven one with an adequate user base, in order to ensure that you also have the next release of it.
4. Even though you save on product price, you still have costs.
Even though you would get your open-source ECM product for free, you still have to prepare for spending quite a bit of money on the implementation. There are no (open-source) silver bullets.
5. Open-source support is excellent.
In many cases, the open-source support beats commercial vendors’ support. The communities are active, and many providers have commercial support in place, too.
6. Understand your open-source license implications.
There is a big difference in the licenses out there and the limitations and possibilities they bring. Review and understand the implications!
7. Leverage your experiences and code.
Hey, that what’s open-source is about!
8. Open-Source is mature.
Based on my experience, the functionality and maturity of open-source ECM is quite in parallel with commercial products.