Open source software can be very flexible and often has powerful features. Best of all, it’s free; free to own, free to modify to get it to work just how you want it to – so a bargain when compared with something with a licence cost, such as OpenAthens LA. Or is it?
It is important to consider the total cost of ownership and the cost with open source comes with the time and expertise required to implement and maintain it.
What happens when the person or team that installed the solution moves on?
To consider this properly, we need to look at the skills that are needed in your IT team to install or maintain open source options and whether these particular skills are widespread in your IT team because of the other things they do; i.e. is support built into your team or do you need to maintain a specialist? If you’re a large University then it’s probably already in the team; if you’re a small college then it probably isn’t.
Next we need to consider how often the relevant staff move on and need replacing. In a large team where several have the required skills you can take your time, but in a small team or where there’s a single specialist, chances are you’ll need to recruit a replacement in a hurry and if you want someone good, fast, you’ll have to pay more for them.
On the surface that seems simple enough to monetise: recruitment costs divided by reasonable churn. The number’s higher than you probably expect – ask your personnel manager. That simplicity depends on two assumptions. One, that the documentation of the installation and especially any customisation that’s been done is not only complete, but makes sense to the new person. This is by no means guaranteed even through one generation, but throw in a couple and you can be looking at a complete reinstall just so the IT guys can understand it. Two, it doesn’t break down while you’re between the people who understand it.
OpenAthens LA has been designed from the outset to be as hands-off as possible – there are no XML files to edit, you don’t need to know Linux, Java or Apache and you don’t even need to build any servers since it’s available as a pair of pre-built virtual machines. All this means that almost any member of even the smallest team will have the required skills, and there’s a full time service desk on the end of the phone if they need help.
A simple choice
If you have a large IT team with lots of skills and awareness of open source options, and if you have a low staff turnover, then they could be very good value for you.
If your IT team is small, or busy, or has a high staff turnover, then OpenAthens LA is definitely where to start. Find out more about OpenAthens LA.
