App2Me - Free to Fee - The Importance of Free Software to Large Enterprises -CIO Study

By Daja Phillips

With the recent launch of App2Me, there are many debates about whether or not Ricoh should charge for software widgets that run on the users PCs or mobile devices. According to new research* commissioned by Global Graphics, just over half of large organizations (51 per cent) will deploy more enterprise-wide free software in 2010. Even more astounding is that 76 percent of the large organizations surveyed state that they already use free software across the enterprise. Indeed, over half (54 per cent) of large organizations use more than 10 different free software products. The findings are based on interviews with 400 CIOs from organizations with over 1000 employees across the US (300 CIOs) and the UK (100 CIOs).

Free to Fee -Alive and Well in Large Enterprises

"Free software is a critical part of large organizations' IT strategies," says Gary Fry, Chief Executive Officer, Global Graphics. "Large organizations are perfectly prepared to use free software where possible, and upgrade to a full paid-for version of the product where it makes sense for them."

The trend is partly driven by the pressure on enterprise IT budgets; with two thirds of CIOs saying their budget is the same - or less - than in 2009, but 47 percent (of CIOs) stated the need for free software to complement existing desktop applications to extend functionality to users that could not be provided using paid-for software.
 
According to the report* the most deployed piece of free software is Adobe Reader which is used by 78 per cent of organizations (at an enterprise or departmental level), with Java Runtime Environment and Adobe Flash Player completing the top three. QuickTime, OpenOffice, Google Docs, Skype and Microsoft Save as PDF also make the top 10 most used free software applications.

The replacement of Adobe Acrobat was cited by 38 per cent of CIOs, while 24 per cent
are looking to free software to replace Microsoft Office.

* The full report is available at www.globalgraphics.com/freesoftware