[Wylug-discuss] Open Source Software Support Contract Terms

[Dave Fisher]

Hi all,

Please forgive me if you believe that the following is unduly off-topic.
It is definitely not a sales pitch, but rather a request for
information from a tiny subset of the wylug membership.  I hope that the
uninterested majority will tolerate the use of the mailing list to
enable the interested minority (however, small) to contact one another.

As many list members are aware, GBdirect are soon to launch a range of
commercial support services for OSS systems, applications and
installations.

We've been offering bespoke, high-end, OSS support for years.  We are
fairly clear about what people need in terms of technical support, and
we are fairly confident that we can cover the logistical issues of
scaling to mass market 'solutions'.

Our main problem is that we're relatively unfamiliar with the commercial
packaging and marketing of commodified support contracts.

Most research suggests that while potential customers are favourable to
OSS pricing, licensing, and community-based development, they definitely
prefer the kind of financial and contractual relationships with which
they are familiar.

With that in mind, we'd like to learn a bit more about the kind of
commercial packages and contracts that people currently take out on
run-of-the-mill workstations and servers for proprietary platforms ...
and how they would see them translating to OSS.

Since several people have posted to this list asking about the
availability of OSS support, I wondered if any of them would mind
talking to me about the kind of commercial packaging they would expect
or look for?

Since the kind of issues I'd like to ask about are entirely commercial
in character, I think it would probably be best to take the discussion
off-line.  So, if you are interested in following up on this, please
write to me personally rather than the list.  To save everyone's time it
might be best to conduct much of the discussion by phone, so numbers
would help.

Best wishes,

Dave