Why is open source management software unpopular?

In most cases, open source means free. The reason why users use open source software is not open source, but free. Small and medium-sized enterprises "don't want to invite dad" to promote informatization. There are many open source ERP and CRM softwares on the Internet, which can be used after being dragged down. Whether it is suitable for your own enterprise or not, at least it is open source. It looks like this free pie is delicious, but business owners don't think so. "We have also used open source management software, which is very convenient to modify, but we can't find anyone when something goes wrong, and the answering effect of the open source software community is uncertain. Later, technicians were hired for maintenance and development, which cost a lot of money and time. However, the software still can't run smoothly, and every day we just focus on repairing the software and secondary development, "said a business owner in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. I don't want to ask a father to wait on me, settle accounts, waste time and money, and buy 10 set of non-open source commercial software, so I can directly hand over the maintenance work to the software developer, which is more worry-free. "Open source software is characterized by open source code, which has two advantages: first, users can modify the code for their own use; Second, it is safe and transparent, and there is no "information black box". The problem is that the IT expenditure of small and medium-sized enterprises is always pitiful and they can't afford to hire software development experts. How many people will modify the code? Even if someone can modify the code, in the huge management software code base, even experts don't spend a certain amount of time digesting the code and dare not start work easily. Few small and medium-sized enterprises give you plenty of time to develop, instead of spending a lot of money on R&D experts every month, which can't keep up with the trouble of buying a set of commercial charging software. Regarding information security, enterprises believe in contracts in black and white, rather than trust and moral conscience between people. It is true that there is no information black hole in open source software, but who can issue such a certificate for a software? Even if the enterprise has a software development expert certificate, it will be more destructive if the expert does something wrong. The uncertainty of maintenance cost and technical support is the fatal weakness of open source software, which is enough to deter savvy enterprise users. What matters is a contract. In the view of small and medium-sized enterprises, whether management software is open source is not very important. Software developers are also aware of this problem, so they simply give up the gimmick of open source, reduce the initial use cost of software, and make profits by charging service fees and adding value to third-party services. Ding Jianting, technical director of C3CRM, an open source CRM community, presided over the development of open source CRM three years ago. The open source community has always been very popular, but users with a try-and-see attitude account for the majority. Few companies actually use this open source CRM software in practical work, but the code has been taken over by many people and sold at a good price. In this case, the only choice is to take the non-open source commercialization route. What users value is a paper contract and how much it costs. This paper contract stipulates the responsibilities, rights and interests of software developers and users. Users put the burden of software maintenance and secondary development on software developers, which saves worry and trouble. If something goes wrong, they can get a promise. Software developers also get the cost of maintaining the survival and development of software. The C3CRM community has registered a company named "Shanghai Ruice Software Co., Ltd.", named the software "Easy Customer CRM" and started charging entities. There were not many users at the time of free and open source, but there were more users after the start of charging. Enterprises really used Easy Customer CRM in their actual work. ShopEx, a well-known online shop system, is declared free, that is, free to use, and a service fee is charged if technical support is needed. In order to expand the user base, while lowering the use threshold, software developers also cooperate with third parties to expand the user base and integrate the use process to make the software more "popular". Hua Ding, head of sagitar data of IDC service provider in Shanghai, said that it is very attractive for customers who rent servers to buy a software server at a discount or to buy a server as a gift. As a result, IDC service providers and software companies have also achieved the purpose of cooperation: benefit sharing and cooperation sharing. The emergence of software is only to solve problems. If software can't survive, it can't solve the problem. How many users dare to use the open source management software made by the short-lived development team in the production process? Therefore, it is reasonable that open source management software is not popular.