This global survey focused on the following key areas concerning Open Source software: awareness and adoption levels; benefits and barriers to adoption; adoption influences and Open Source Business Intelligence (BI). More than six hundred IT and business professionals from financial services and other industries provided detailed data showing enhanced awareness and adoption of Open Source software. The results indicate that 42.9 percent of respondents are already using Open Source, 23.6 percent are currently using Open Source BI and 31.2 percent are likely or very likely to consider using Open Source BI solutions.

“These survey results show that Open Source software is moving into the mainstream and that Open Source is rising in influence,” said Mark Madsen, president of Third Nature and faculty at The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI). “Half the organizations surveyed stated that Open Source is either the preferred option or is explicitly considered in the software procurement process. One surprising note is that one-third of the organizations surveyed are now likely to consider Open Source business intelligence in their evaluations. This is a huge shift from just a few years ago.”

• 2007 Survey Highlights – Financial Services in North America, Germany and U.K.
  • A total of 192 responses were collected from IT and business professionals working in financial services.
  • Among responses in financial services, 49.0% are already using Open Source software and 29.8% are already using Open Source BI.
  • The key benefit cited for Open Source software is that there are no licensing fees (60.6%).
  • Other significant benefits include: vendor independence (48.4%), flexibility (45.7%), access to source code (44.7%), software that is built on open platforms (38.8%), freedom from Microsoft environment (35.6%) and standards-based technology (34.0%).
  • Over half of the respondents (50.5%) chose Open Source software as either the preferred option or a specific consideration when procuring software. While a further 37.0% say that it is not a factor in procurement, only 12.5%have a policy of not using Open Source software.
  • Additionally, 29.8% of participants are already using Open Source BI, 32.3% would likely or very likely consider an Open Source BI tool and 18.2%were familiar or very familiar with the BIRT project.
  • The barriers to adoption perceived by participants in implementing Open Source technologies are the lack of availability of long term support (52.7%) and maintenance (48.9%). Others included: absence of in-house skills to implement (38.3%), incompatibility with existing applications (35.1%), no proven track record in real world applications (30.9%) and the inability to provide indemnification (30.3%).

• 2007 Highlights from North America
  • A total of 390 senior personnel in the United States and Canada participated in this online survey, conducted in May 2007.
  • In North America almost half of the respondents (47.7%) are either using or planning to use Open Source software with 10.5% currently evaluating implementation; 29% are already using open source BI and 36.8% would likely or very likely consider using it.
  • The proportion of North American respondents who observe that the benefits of Open Source software outweigh the inhibitors (51.9%) is five times as high as the proportion of respondents who view otherwise was (10.5%).
• 2007 Highlights from United Kingdom
  • A total of 117 senior personnel in the United Kingdom participated in this online survey in May 2007.
  • The financial services sector respondents represent large and medium Financial Services companies across the banking and insurance sectors. Almost a quarter (22.9%) describe their organization’s level of familiarity with Open Source software as “high,” with a further 47.9% rating it as “moderate.”
  • The proportion of financial services respondents using Open Source software is at 45.8%; 27.3% are already using Open Source BI.
• 2007 Highlights from Germany
  • A total of 95 senior personnel in Germany participated in this online survey in May 2007.
  • Overall, Germany records the highest percentage of respondents already using and/or familiar with Open Source software (65.2% with level of high or moderate familiarity). This is believed to have many contributing factors which will be explored further in the full report.

“This year’s survey has yielded a tremendous response with more than 600 senior business and IT professionals taking the time to give us a unique snapshot of their views and insights into Open Source software adoption trends, especially in the BI market,” said Nobby Akiha, senior vice president of Marketing at Actuate. “The survey results illustrate that there is increased demand for Open Source. The results also help us set our strategic direction to meet the demands of our customers and to assist organizations with their current business challenges.”