This report on Open Source Software (OSS) and Collaboration Technology Infrastructure is based on the survey of about 100 participants during the 2nd Collaboration Retreat 2011 for select CXOs and Delegates organized by Mithi in September 2011.

The Collaboration Retreat 2011 offered a first-of-its-kind interactive platform for sharing CIO and CFO perspectives on Collaboration Infrastructure Strategies. About 20 CXOs and over 80 delegates from diverse organisations participated in the conference. The synopsis, photos, videos etc. can be seen on at http://www.mithi.com/cr2011-highlights.html

This report captures the opinions of IT decision makers in organizations across industries regarding the feasibility and future of OSS and Collaboration IT Infrastructure.

Trends inCollaborationTechnology &Open SourceSoftware,2011-2012.

retreat 2011 collaboration

Participants

Sample Size – Company Size

The participants in this survey were:CXOs

IT Strategy Consultants

IT Managers

Finance Executives

Solution Partners

Companies of all sizes were covered

Large [>1501 Employees]

Large17%

SMEs65%

MidMarket

18%MidMarket [501-1500 Employees]

SME [<500 Employees]

FinanceExecutives CXOs

IT Managers

SolutionPartners

IT StrategyConsultants

Sample Size – Industry Wise

Respondents belonged to diverse industry verticals viz., BFSI, Manufacturing, IT, Telecom, Healthcare, Government, Education, etc.

HealthcareTelecom

Government

Education

Services

Manufacturing

IT

BFSI 38%

18% 14%

11%

7%

4%

4%4%

InsightCost and Flexibility are the drivingfactors in the choice ofCollaboration Infrastructure.

Q: What do you feel are the advantages of Open Source Software?

Collaboration Infrastructure is a critical component of the IT landscape of an organization and has a wide-ranging impact on business. With growing competition and pressures on margins, it has become increasingly essential for organizations to control costs as far as possible. At the same time, CIOs are looking at bringing in flexibility in the IT infrastruc-ture by introducing open standards based systems into the network which can connect to the other business applications easily while delivering value to the enterprise.

1.1) Cost and Flexibility often determine the cost of IT Infrastructure

60%-

40%-

20%-

0%- 67% 30% 41% 15%Cost Performance Flexibility Choice

1

60%-

40%-

50%-

20%-

30%-

0%-

10%- 59% 22% 15% 22%HAS CFM RDCM RAM

Q: What are the immediate plans for your in-house IT team?

Q: What would be your preferred form of outsourcing?

48% of the organizations are planning to increase inhouse IT capabilities. With growing complexity of businesses, IT has become one of most critical functions in organisation and they are planning to grow in-house IT team for meeting the growing complexities of their respective business processes.

59% prefer Hosted Application Service which refers to internet based applications or applications that resides on server. HAS: Hosted Application ServiceCFM: Complete Facilities ManagementRDCM: Remote Data Center ManagementRAM: Remote Application Management

1.2) Organizations plan to increase inhouse IT capabilities

1.3) Hosted Application Service, the most preferred form of outsourcing

Grow ItReduce It

Keep It sameNo particular preference

48%

30%

19%

4%

Insight2

Q: How important is collaboration and collaboration technology for your enterprise in comparison to other business applications in your enterprise?

More than 75% of organizations rates collaboration applications more or equally important as other traditional business applications. Increasing diversification in other geographical areas and industries has resulted in increasing demand of collaborative applications.

2.1) Collaboration applications are equally important as traditional business applications

Enterprises consider Collaboration applications to be as critical as the traditional Business applications.

As Important

More Important

Less Important

Not So Important63%

17%

8% 13%

Q: Are you planning to outsource your collaboration infrastructure needs?

63% of organizations want to outsource collaboration infrastructure completely or substantially or partially.

2.2) Organizations prefer to outsource collaboration infrastructure

Completely

Substantially

Partially

Not at all

37%

41%

11%

11%

Insight3

Q: What would be your next initiative on collaboration infrastructure?

Priority of organizations in regards of collaboration infrastructure is to expand mobile access. 44% of the organizations have chosen to expand mobile access to the collaborative applications to cover more employees.

Organizations are looking at a combination of Open Source, Cloud and low cost Mobile Devices as a way to increase availability and reduce costs for their Collaboration Infrastructure.

3.1) Immediate plans to increase Mobile Collaboration

30%-

40%-

50%-

20%-

10%-

0%-Expand to

Cover moreemloyees

Reducecost

Expand Mobileaccess

ImproveReliability

30% 30% 44% 15%

Q: Which platform do you see solving the bulk mobile collaboration needs of your business in the next 5 years?

Q: What kind of a mix do you have in your IT environment (a mix of Windows, Linux/Unix etc.)?

Nearly 22% of organizations use OSS exhaustively for tapping their growing IT requirements. It presents a huge opportunity as proprietary licensed or patented software can take a back seat given that OSS assures information security.

3.2) Android takes over BlackBerry and iPhone on collaboration needs

3.3) OSS has huge scope going forward

26% 15% 70% 15%

30%-

40%-

50%-

60%-

20%-

10%-

0%-Blackberry iPhone Android Others

75%Linux-25% Window

50-50 Mix

25%Linux-75%Window

0% Linux-100%Window

22%

33%

30%

15%

Q: What's the size of mobile workforce that accesses collaboration applications over a mobile device in your enterprise (as a percentage of the total number users for the collaboration applications)?

11% of organizations have more than 25% mobile workforce accessing collaboration applications over mobile devices. As organizations are planning to expand mobile access for their next initiative on collaboration infrastructure, mobile collaboration applications have a huge scope in

3.4) Huge scope for Mobile Collaboration Applications

Very large[>50%]

Large[<25-50%]

Small[<10%-25%]

Very Small[<5%]

33%

56%

4%7%

Wrapping UpWith increasing pressure to cut costs, organizations are actively considering Open Source based Collaboration Technologies.

Organizations will give preference to such collaboration technologies that offer great flexibility in dynamically changing environments while bringing down costs at the same time.

Advances in Cloud based Services will see it becoming more preferred outsourcing option across enterprises.

Organizations are looking to expand over-the-air access to the collaboration applications beyond Blackberry and iPhone devices.

About@

Mithi Software Technologies Pvt Ltd:

Connect Xf - Mithi’s Business Email and Collaboration Server Software is Secure and Highly Adaptable. You can easily manage Email, Shared Calendar, Contacts on Mobiles, Desktop Email Clients and Browsers.

The solution requires lower upfront investments, enabling enterprises to create a low cost and high performance collaboration infrastructure. With its near-zero server downtime and a reliable multi-layered security, you can enjoy uninterrupted collaboration all the time.

Over 200 SME and large enterprise customers across 50 cities and 15 verticals use Connect Xf Email Server for their email and collaboration needs, deriving substantial benefits in cost savings and performance.

For more information, please visit www.mithi.com

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Please visit www.mithi.com to know how an Open Source based Email and Collaboration Server Software can benefit your enterprise.

ValueNotes is a leading provider of market intelligence and research, with expertise across industries. We provide a wide range of bespoke business research, financial research and competitive intelligence about markets, industries and companies. We serve global corporations, consulting firms, research and B2B publishers, PE and VC firms, and money managers.

ValueNotes offers customised research and consulting solutions for a variety of business needs:

Competitive intelligence (CI)CI consulting & trainingIndia entry strategyMarket segmentation / sizingOpportunity assessmentDue diligence/ partner selectionInvestment appraisal / M&A intelligenceEquity researchFinancial modelling & analysisNews monitoringPrimary research and desk research supportIndustry research reports and customised publications

For more information, please visit www.valuenotes.co.in