Your share in the Open Source Ecosystem

• The best tools for the Social Intranet are often Open Source, this is no accident: Open Source projects have had to develop smart "ways of working" to enable their own communities to work together effectively.  Open Source tools for the Intranet are not only tools we can use to collaborate in, but are also tools we can collaborate on. We will continually feed the developments back into the Open Source community, allowing this positive way of working to continue.

• We appreciate that it can be difficult to understand how to deal with Open Source systems, especially for Public Sector organisations. Surevine can help by playing an active part in the relevant communities on your behalf. We will gain an understanding of how vibrant each community is and in what direction the software development is going, allowing us to review and test the latest contributions before recommending them for your environment. We can then contribute back any changes and fixes made by you, or for you, to the Open Source community.

• We will help you to put in place the right type of controls required to effectively manage and maintain an Open Source project, using successful models from the Internet as case studies.

Supporting an Open Source Social Intranet

• Open Source software does not come with a license fee, and consequently the market for support is wide open to competition - unlike licensed systems where clients often have to join the queue behind clients with deeper pockets, waiting for the vendor to address their specific concerns. We can provide a responsive and professional support service, not only for the social tools which make up the Social Intranet, but also the Open Source stack of applications on which these tools run.

• Our support comes in a variety of packages, from specific support for each isolated tool, through to support with industry leading partners for the whole Open Source stack. This support is provided on a subscription model, with support levels defined by the particular package agreed.  Clients purchasing this support model have preferential rates for future customisation and tailoring of those social tools covered by the support contract.