As F/OSS advocates we can articulate the benefits and ethics of the community approach to software development with knowledge and enthusiasm. But when we do so to a financial person they don't hear ‘community’ and ‘continuous innovation’ and ‘this is the year for the desktop’. They hear ‘risk’, they hear ‘uncertainty of costs and support’ (indemnities, warranties), they think they hear passion beyond reason.
Let's put passion aside for a minute and consider things from the point of view of these bean counters. To a CFO or FD there are three main issues:
- What are the numbers? Does it pay back? What is the NPV over three years and if we scrub the numbers what additional costs will we find haven't been included?
- What are the hard financial benefits (they’re not interested in intangibles so forget the ‘nice to do’ stuff)
- What is the risk of these benefits not being realised?
Their attitude may seem bleak and uncompromising, but when looked at through the other end of the telescope it can become a real asset. If you can just get these finance guys to listen for long enough for them to sniff a whiff of a cost cutting opportunity, they'll be great at grilling other managers inside the enterprise, along the lines of ‘Have you considered a F/OSS alternative? What's the F/OSS perspective on this?’
So, don’t think of financial people as foes because they could be your new Best Friends, and like all BF’s if you treat them well, you’ll be able to turn for them for help with, for example, crunching the numbers and preparing the case.
In the current economic downturn, money has become a dirty word, especially when used in the context of spending it. IT can be seen as the one of the biggest investment areas for a company (if not in fact the biggest - in a sense we’re all in IT nowadays as so much of our operations depend on it). Yet for financial managers, it's seen as a black hole, and software as a black art. Too many IT projects are :-) at the start and :-( at the end when the programme directors come cap-in-hand for more money to finish the job – leading to trade-offs for cost, quality and delivery dates.
Yet as advocates for F/OSS we have to look at ways to de-risk and mitigate this on behalf of the financial manager. So...
- Have we done the basic business case benefits?
- Have we worked out what the cost profile is over time – calendarised by month?
- Are we taking responsibility for getting to the benefits faster?
The good news is we have several advantages on our side:
- No fixed licensing costs and no exit penalties
- You can download code and start straight away – de-risking implementations
- You can test the code
- You can have it independently supported and integrated
The bad news is we can’t ignore the potential pitfalls:
- In the absence of a conventional vendor who supports it – do we have any strategic ‘Go To’ suppliers with experience and case histories in this area?
- How complex will it be to integrate/stitch together?
- Is it finished code or a project part way through?
- What licensing structure is in place?
- When a problem arises, who gets the call? i.e. who takes responsibility and who is accountable?
Be prepared, have answers ready to address these anxieties. Suggest that you work through the numbers together (after all, that’s where their passion lies) building on cost assumptions that they can help you make.
If the case isn’t compelling, don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board and work with them to find another way through – there always is one. Once you’ve found the formula that delivers bottom line benefits to their business, their previous scepticism will be replaced with a passion to rival your own.