Centre for Technology Management

ADOPTING NEW TECHNOLOGY: THE CASE OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE AT MARCONI

Francis Hunt, David Probert and Stuart Barratt*

Centre for Technology Management, Institute for Manufacturing,

University of Cambridge Engineering Department, Cambridge CB2 1RX

*Marconi plc, New Century Park, Coventry

ABSTRACT

Open source software is out of the headlines these days, but is being used to real effect in industry. This paper looks at the use of open source software in the products of Marconi, a multinational telecommunications company. We compare this to what is known about the open source involvement and strategy of the companies IBM, HP and Apple. The benefits being obtained and problems encountered were investigated via a case study approach. A series of ten interviews revealed a spectrum of open source use, from examples where open source was being used essentially as a closed source product, to projects where access to the source was enabling optimisation and integration of "free" functionality. Among the 16 benefits mentioned in interview, the most popular were the reduction in cost, the expectation of continued development, and the availability of community support. The key barriers encountered were legal risks, legal uncertainty and the concomitant communication issues. The paper discusses and assesses the issues raised. Areas of opportunity for further developing company open source strategy include, amongst others, the promoting technical standards through open source software, and using open source to access innovation. The paper concludes with a series of questions a company should address in order to extend open source strategy beyond cost reduction and provisional guidelines for those in companies using open source components for the first time .

Keywords: Open source software, company motivations, strategies, benefits, drawbacks, guidelines