NGO/Non-profit

[nsomaru]

Greetings Alfrescians,

We are a non-profit organisation located in India. Here is the sequence of events:

1) Googled 'open-source sharepoint alternative' –> came upon Alfresco
2) Began testing Alfresco 3.3g on an old machine
3) Satisfied with what we saw and the roadmap
4) Googled for an Alfresco Indian Partner – came across Cignex
5) Contacted Cignex India on the phone and was handled by an extremely rude individual who told me it would be US$20,000 to set up Alfresco. That's an impossible fee for us.
6) Decided to contact Alfresco, after some badgering got through to Ana Hortas-Barros
7) She insisted on a budget requirement, and I explained our (modest) use case, limited funds. She did not provide a quotation and instead referred me back to Cignex
😎 At this point I give up.

The 'rounded up (ceil)' current USD:INR = 1:46.

Through a program called Bigtech which offers discounted software to NGOs, I can get the following:
Microsoft Sharepoint Server Enterprise @ Rs 11,935 (~$260)
CAL's for Sharepoint Enterprise 2010 @ Rs 222/license (~$5)
(http://bigtech.in/directory/2)

Compare the cost! Despite this, I am an advocate of the Open Age. I like Alfresco, I like the community, I like what we stand for. I know this does not include 'support' but we are not looking for _major_ support – mainly just access to the Enterprise Version and an email now and then to help us fix things if they break. Not like some 24/7 dedicated super-ultimate-platinum membership.

We only have one IT guy, that's me. I do training, maintenance, backup, everything. Our organisation totals about 100 people, about 20 of which know how to use a computer. We are located in a village in rural India and we have a 'home' broadband connection serving 5 desktops and 6 laptops. It's uptime averages 43%. We do not have access to the network from the internet due to an unreliable connection. We are looking for a stable repository to store and collaborate on information (locally) so as to leave a legacy that people coming after us can follow. Alfresco, so far, has checked all the right boxes save the cost issue. The alternative of the Community Edition does not sit well with the trustees. They are familiar with Microsoft and I have strong opponents.

Bottom line is this: Is Alfresco able to provided an affordable option for NGO's and the like? If I am not able to convince the trustees that we do not need the Enterprise version, I might be forced to go down the beaten track, and Sharepoint it will be.

Any assistance in this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Nikhil

[mrogers]

You need to use the Community version if you don't want to pay.  There's other guys from various charities and NGO's using it successfully.

There is also an option of a "Hosted" version of Alfresco and there is work going on for a SMB offering but in the meantime you will get useful stuff done with the community version.

[nsomaru]

Mr Rogers,

It's not that we don't want to pay. Our work is important to us, hence the need for stability provided by Enterprise. We do not want to fork out $20 000. We will not trouble Alfresco Engineers so much as to justify that expenditure.

Please consider the moves Microsoft is making with the Bigtech foundation. $250. +$5/user.

Thanks,
Nikhil

[mrogers]

The community version should be sufficient for your needs.

And Alfresco's offer has always been better!  Alfresco + mySql + linux  $0 per user.
And much less hardware costs as well.

[seaton]

Sorry to jump in here….

Yes however the question remains, what if someone running community does want to pay for commercial support?

Non of the alfresco partners will touch it, I've approached a local alfresco partner and spoken to them regards to training and discovery.  Apparently, contractually they are not allowed to support or even touch the community version.

I've also spoken (via email to the the Alfresco regional manager in Australia) regarding options and the ONLY option I was presented with is a Hosted solution (other than the full Enterprise version).  I repeat that this is not a solution, especially were big bandwidth pipes, let alone reliable internet connections are not available in regional country areas of Australia (in the past we have been offline for over a week while equipment was replaced in a local exchange - out of our control) so a week without access to key corporate data is not on.

I've been down this path as I'm in the same boat.  A Non Profit Local Government organisation, We want to go enterprise version and willing to pay an affordable amount for it based on our size and pay for support as and when required, however we cannot justify the mega-$$$ invloved for the current enterprise licensing model, so it does not make it feasible for our size ~50 users…and as stated above hosting is not an option.

So the question remains……if a small organisation is to go down the community version what "official" support option are available if they were to get in trouble and require support?

Regards,

Stephen…

[warren_mcdonald]

I would also like to jump in here,

to suggest that Alfresco may want to consider extending their thinking into what market there may be between pure Community users and those that can afford to take up the full Enterprise supported product.

My idea is of another tier of commercial offering. This would obviously have to be differentiated from the full Enterprise product in terms of value and price but should retain the core principles of:
    access to some level of support on a formal, commercial basis
    access to the current patched stable code version

Having been involved in these types of exercises before, I know arriving at an appropriate structure for smaller commercial offerings would not be trivial, but feel it may worth it. It would open a range of interesting opportunities in terms of creating a revenue steam for Alfresco from a increasing number of organizations no longer content to stay on Community support, perhaps also involving a tier of accredited support organizations to enable the support provision.

Is there any hope for this extension of the commercial model?

I would really like to encourage a broader discussion on this,

Warren

[mrogers]

It was announced at Alfresco DevCon there are plans for "Alfresco Team" which will be tailored to smaller organisations.    There's nothing firm or available now however it is on the radar and is in the process of being planned.

[warren_mcdonald]

That's great news.

If your product manager type people want any help in getting feedback together on a desirable definition for "Alfresco Team", I am more than happy to help.

Regards,


Warren

[seaton]

I agree with Warren, thats great news. 

It's good to see that Alfresco is listening, I was starting to feel unloved

I look forward to furture progress on this and would be happy to offer any input as a potential customer if required.

Regards,

Stephen…

[mikeh]

Posting your thoughts here would be useful - either that or create a page on our wiki and use that for discussion.

Thanks,
Mike