community means that applications experience an ongoing increase in both areas, which benefits all users. For example, the interoperability of open-source software is usually much higher than that between different closed-source programs. This is because open-source developers often use as a basis a software stack that was developed jointly in the community and is regarded as a benchmark for certain functional scopes. Communication and service disruptions can thus be avoided far more easily because the individual components are compatible with each other and can all be controlled and operated under a common interface.

Promoting transparent collaboration

When the world turned to working from home in the last year, many companies had to jump into digital transformation headfirst—and without much warning. In a short time, the use of collaboration and workflow tools for digitalized processes became indispensable in everyday business life, and it is not difficult to imagine that such tools will not only maintain their relevance in the aftermath of the crisis, but also that they will continue to play a significant role in the way we work.

However, even after a few months, the downsides of the platforms that were hastily chosen by companies have now become obvious to many users. Connectivity problems, administrative hurdles, vendor dependency, and reliability weaknesses as well as data protection and security risks are the most common causes of dissatisfaction with the decisions that businesses had to make under pressure. And when users are busy struggling to work with the tools in front of them, they certainly are not driving innovation forward.

The more critical these applications become for workflows, teamwork and remote capability in companies, the more important it is to select the right collaboration tools. The well-known software giants have recognized how explosive the situation has become and are trying to secure the future market with their proprietary systems. However, they also have to face the criticism regarding closed source in the new work scenarios, which they were already confronted with in the days of conventional office workplaces. These include weakness in innovation, lack of interoperability, non-transparent licensing complexity, non-transparent pricing and the various efforts to force customers into a vendor lock-in through proprietary restrictions.

Business-critical applications should be open and controllable. The transparency of open source is diametrically opposed to the sealed approach of closed source, where codes are kept in a black box and sealed off from view. Open-source solutions, on the other hand, benefit in terms of security and product quality from the worldwide developer community, which ensures constant further development. This means that the entire open-source community can react far more quickly to critical situations or new challenges than with the inevitably limited developer resources of closed source.

The not-so-small matter of budgets

By opting for the open-source path, companies are also able to not only reduce costs quite dramatically, but also to relieve budgets of expensive, unnecessary parallel and exclusive solutions. As a result, innovations can be accelerated more cost-effectively, leading to an increased scope of innovation.

Perhaps more importantly, however, the sheer flexibility enabled through open source also promotes innovation. In an age where the digitalization of business processes is evolving rapidly, companies must be able to adapt and react faster than ever before but also remain unbound to the limitations set by proprietary closed-source options.

Open source, by its very nature, facilitates experimentation on a global scale, offers transparency and flexibility, and simplifies the search for precisely the right solution that will put the digitization of the company on the most successful, future-proof path.