>Did I mention that ~no government person has a business card: you can meet >them at a conference and chat to them while they pass by your very expensive >booth, but following that up and turning it into sales is really tough. They >also tend to operate on a timescale that is extraordinarily long - after all - >there is little pressure to do any given thing by any given date.
These are all fair points, but what bugs me about this argument is that it sounds like Collabora did the right thing; hire a government relations expert to focus on business development. I recognize that it takes more than 5 years for government contracts to get accepted sometimes and this isn't always sustainable for a smaller enterprise; But personally I feel like Collabora is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it's still the right model IMO. Is it possible that Enterprise support is marketing to the wrong markets? Microsoft is embedded in the UK and many parts of Europe. Europe is also a wealthy region of the world; many companies can afford to pay for Microsoft Office even if they are not getting the best value for it. Meanwhile, many emerging market countries use LibreOffice in government, schools, and businesses. Brazil is a heavy user of LibreOffice thanks to the great translation and consultant community there. Could that 100,000 euro UK business development expert be split into 2 or 3 business development staff in emerging markets like Indonesia, Brazil, India (probably not because Zoho), and Nigeria? I guess what I'm positing here is that maybe Collabora/CIB are focused on saturated markets where MS Office is already the established and as such are fighting an uphill battle. Rather, if LO Enterprise focused on Developing Markets would they not be able to acquire more government and school contracts? LO is already less expensive than Microsoft Office, possibly with a business development person in these countries it would gain more support contracts and fill a niche that the MS Offices and other vendors aren't interested in. A grassroots/emerging market strategy.
