MESSAGE
| DATE | 2002-05-25 |
| FROM | From: "Ruben"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Re: Does GNU/Linux really save businesses money?
|
[This is an email copy of a Usenet post to "alt.accounting"]
In article , "Todd
Stephens" wrote:
> "A. L. Meyers" wrote in
> message news7d6w7u8cg.fsf-at-nomad.consult-meyers.com...
>> Here is the link to an interesting article on the captioned subject:
>>
>> http://www.linuxjournal.com/print.php?sid=6057
>>
>>
>>
Hello Todd
I'm watching this thread on the alt.accounting news group and think I can
speak with some authority on the question of training cost with the
GNU/Linux desktop, specifically in the accounting practice area. I think
I can also address the question of the question of how to obtain cost
effective corporate training costs over the longer haul.
My name is Ruben Safir, and I run a local Free Software support
organization called NYLXS in New York City which specifically is designed
to address the questions of corporate and small business needs, as well as
a variety of other questions which impede the adoption of Free Software in
a multitude of venues.
In addition to founding NYLXS, I also have a large part of my consulting
business coming from accounting firms. I so I'm familiar with the needs
of accounting firms specifically. In fact, one of the NYLXS board
members, Joseph Maffia, is an accountant, as well as one of our most
active members. I'd like to review a couple of aspects about Desktop
GNU/Linux usage in accounting and in business in the general. First, in
terms of training, the cost of training personal is a serious and
expensive part of any IT budget which is often overlooked. With the roll
out of ever forced upgrade of the Microsoft Windows platform, and the
Microsoft Office business suit, huge expenditures in train need to be
either addressed, or absorbed without a formal training plan. The
training of office workers is a huge business, with top dollar paid for
training, not only the Operating system, but also for applications. When
a medium sized or large company does roll out an upgrade, either do to
being forced to by Microsoft, or because of a choice on the part of the
business, it's advisable to discuss immediately with the initial planning,
the cost and plan for training employees on the new system, as well as any
new applications. In addition, it's important to have available a
continuing availability of training for new employees as they come into
the organization, to optimize the investment of the company in that
employee. NYLXS recognized this need early in it's organization, and we
made it a top priority to be able to provide that training for the NYC
business community at affordable prices. We call this "The NYLXS Desktop
initiative" which is being spearheaded by our professional trainer, Diane
Rollins.
Training is a constant process in business, as new software and new
platforms constantly are introduced into business. Training is the most
basic investment that corporations make in their employees. This matters
little if the training is due to a new application, or, with the upcoming
wave of upgrades to MS Windows XP, due to platform upgrades. It is our
experience that the cost of upgrading skills of employees from MS Windows
2000, or Windows 95, to a GNU/Linux desktop will be less expensive than
one from upgrading to XP. In addition, the long term cost to upgrading
the GNU/Linux now, in terms of training and employee investment, is far
less than the change to XP.
The reason for this is because the current GNU/Linux desktop is easier to
use, and over the long term, is far easier to customize according to the
needs of the individual employee. In addition, Free Software desktops
have far better compliance for the use of systems with disabled employees
and the blind. In fact, "SUSe Linux" immediately probes for Braille
consoles for the blind. NYLXS applies the principles of Free Software to
trainign and support. We provide very inexpensive desktop training for
less that $300 an employee, as opposed the traditional training costs of
$1800 and more for learning to use MS Word or excel. We are also
developing an online study course and video series. The best part of this
is, that once you adopt Free Software desktops, you are OFF the upgrade
escalator permanently. This means that over the long term, say over the
next 5 years, you will never have to change your platform look and feel
again. This will substantially decrease the cost of your overall IT
budget, and fatten the bottom line of your business.
If you think back over the last 5 years, I'm fairly certain your not using
the same suit of business tools on the desktop as you did then. But with
Free Software, you can continue with the same basic systems, putting a
real cap on you training costs, and licensing frees, for the life of your
business. In addition to this, you also will have the great advantage of
being having the whole Free Software community standing behind these
products, the best developers and software providers in the world. You
will have a direct line with they lead developers of your desktop, and all
the applications which run on this platform. It's hard to imagine anyone
placing their faith in the hands of a few tech support people from a
single company, like Microsoft, when you can have direct access to the
product development team of the software you run daily. I personally have
contacts with the developers of my supported network systems, desktop
applications and databases. And I've had development done specifically to
fill the needs of clients, as it needed to be done, in addition to hacking
code myself. My business clients are never left hanging when in need of
training, support, or development. We get it all done. We never get this
level of support with proprietary software. I always feel like I'm
pulling teeth. And if your making these decisions, remember, it's your
reputation on the line when things don't work because Microsoft fails to
address an obvious problem. With Free Software, the community stands
behind you, and they'll pull through for you, every time.
Lastly, I'd like to point out that the current Free Software desktops
available are just technically better than either Apple of Microsoft.
They allow for more security, better collaboration, easier training, more
stability and they generally comes with more software than other systems.
With the new Microsoft pressure to try you into "Software Assurance"
contracts, and licensing agreements which deny your business basic
ownership of the computers you use, it would be irresponsible to not do a
serious investigation of a switch to a Free Software desktop. It will not
only save you money, but the Freedom that Free Software affords your
business will assure that you can always be in a position to be a step
ahead of the competition with your systems, as it will be exactly
designed to work in the best method for you, with a maximum amount of
security and privacy.
Ruben
> What the article fails to address is the cost of both time and money in
> getting the _users_ up to speed on this. Having your IT staff trained
> to support Linux is easy enough. How on earth are companies going to
> train legions of workers, born and raised on NT, to use Linux in a
> timely, cost-effective manner? The average worker has neither the spare
> time nor the inclination (read: desire) to learn a new system. This may
> work fine in a medium-sized _IT_ company, but I think implementation of
> something like this in any traditional industry is a long way off.
>
> --
> Todd Stephens
>
>
____________________________
New Yorker Linux Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
|
|
