Defining Total Cost of Ownership of Government Software – Part III: The “O”
Ownership. It’s a beautiful word in government. “Ownership” exudes control over technology in a sector where control is often hard to come by. There are always new laws, new elected officials, new mandates and new needs. While technology is often purchased to address these needs, sometimes the technology isn’t able to controlled by the folks in government either. Sounds pretty counterintuitive, doesn’t it? The good news is that if owning the software is something that’s important to government today (in my humble opinion, how can it not be important?!), there are options out there that work. Because the software vendors won’t always share your idea of ownership, here are some ideas that may help you to pick a solution that you can “own,” ultimately allowing you to meet your goals to decrease the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your software. A new definition of ownership – “Ownership” used to mean software disks, hardware servers, server rooms, etc. Today, document management solutions can be delivered in the cloud or shared among government entities. Given reductions in government funds and staff, we need to transform our sense of ownership from where software is installed, to getting the best solution for the best value in whatever way that solution is installed. When it comes to ECM software, the SaaS alternative is tried and true with some vendors, making it a real option, especially if you’re facing limited resources and staff.