Companies looking to reduce their overall IT expenditure whilst retaining the ability to roll out high value applications should adopt Open Source software, according to Alistair Handyside, CEO, Simplexo.

This is in response to a revised forecast from IDC, which states that worldwide IT spending will grow at 2.6% in 2009, down from IDC’s pre-crisis forecast of 5.9% growth.

Alistair says: “Open Source is an attractive, viable business solution – particularly in times of economic challenge.  The subscription-based Open Source licensing model requires no capital expenditure and is funded via an organisation’s ongoing operating budget. This model has a proven track-record and is highly successful throughout both public and private sectors.”

In a recent Technology Audit of Simplexo’s Open Source Enterprise Search offering, which provides real-time information retrieval by searching both structured and unstructured information in a ‘Single Click’, the Butler Group agreed that “The most obvious benefit to user organisations is the ability to create a pilot implementation at very little cost, and to subsequently take out a support contract for live and large-scale deployment.”
 
The Butler Group Technology Audit also confirmed that enterprises of all sizes, geographies, and vertical industries are faced with an escalating problem of searching for all content related to specific topics.
 
“In the enterprise search arena, organisations are seeing enterprise search applications as a ‘must have’ rather than as an add-on IT investment traditionally used to generate further sales,” adds Alistair. The problem, he believes, is being exacerbated by the exponential growth of information that is received in digital format, or converted to digital format from other media. It is made more demanding by legislative requirements and an increasingly litigious business environment in which it is imperative that all sources of information related to an enquiry must be readily available.

Butler agrees that the result is a disturbing growth in the cost of finding information, both in terms of direct manpower costs and the related business costs of slow responses to information requests.

The sheer volume of information available is only one of the factors contributing to this dilemma. “With a host of business demands all competing for attention, the challenge has become one of agility – to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time,” explains Alistair.
 
Open Source Simplexo Enterprise Search ensures that organisations can locate vital information quickly, increasing