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2. Your deadline is tight and you can't afford to spend weeks trying to overcome the learning curve associated with DIY open source software.

3. A robust and highly customizable open source tool is overkill. You might have very basic requirements -- where customization isn't an issue -- that an off-the-shelf, ready-to-use intranet suite can easily fulfill.

4. You feel that the time and effort required to learn and implement a DIY open source solution greatly outweighs the payoff and purpose of your intranet.

5. Your existing IT infrastructure can't accommodate an open source solution stack, and you don't have the time to implement and learn the various components.

6. You want to be up-and-running as quickly as possible with little to no development required. Most off-the-shelf, proprietary software suites are ready-to-use right out of the box.

7. You feel uncomfortable with the "instability" of community-developed open source software and prefer the security of adopting a solution from an established commercial software vendor with a huge market share such as Microsoft or IBM.

8. Your senior level managers aren't likely to approve of "unconventional" solutions. Adopting an open source intranet solution might be perceived by management as untested. Justifying an open source model might prove to be difficult.

9. You prefer more the formal, one-on-one technical support provided by commercial software vendors rather than the DIY, community-based support provided by open source software. Formal technical support is also more immediate, unlike community-based support where you have to wait and hope that someone in the community has an answer for you.

10. You don't have the time or expertise to keep up with all the activity in the open source software's community and tool, preferring to let others do the work of creating software upgrades and patches.

Closing thoughts

Open source software, for all its flexibility and customization, is going to be a difficult sell to senior management -- especially in larger organizations where establishment and toeing the line is the norm. And despite all the advances in open source software, many still perceive it as being "not serious" and used exclusively by small groups of freewheeling techies who have no business sense. Free or not, management is much more likely to pour money into an established tool from one of the "Big Guys."

Proprietary, off-the-shelf software is the established and accepted norm in the big business world. But huge software markups can exclude small businesses or not-for-profit organizations with very limited IT budgets. Once you do invest in a commercial software tool -- tying your organization to the vendor and tool -- you'll be subjected to the rolling costs associated with owning proprietary, commercial software.

Proponents of the open source and proprietary software camps will go to great lengths to prove their case in order to win you over. But you might end up having to choose one over the other by consequence rather than by choice. When you boil down all the rhetoric, marketing, and promotion, it really depends on your needs and resources. All the reviews and arguments are useless if the software's not a right solution for you, or you're unable to implement it within your organization. A perfect tool amounts to nothing in the wrong hands.

Paul Chin (www.paulchinonline.com) is a freelance writer and journalist. He has previously worked in the aerospace and competitive intelligence industries as a software developer and intranet specialist. He currently writes on a wide range of IT topics, including systems development and security, digital communications and media, content management and web design.

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