Introduction

Steve Millidge started C2B2 in 2002, to provide portal solutions and Java solutions for enterprises. The company also provides specialist consulting to larger companies like BEA, Atos Origin and Unisys, mainly around WebLogic.

During their various projects, C2B2 encountered a large number of expensive, proprietary portal systems, none within the grasp of SMEs. To provide an affordable alternative, they decided to build a SME-focused portal solution. They started work about four years ago, utilising many open source components; as a Java development house, they built iPoint as a Java portal, conforming to the appropriate Java standards (particularly JSR 168, the standard for Java portlets).

The result is iPoint, a feature-rich, standards-compliant Java portal solution, explicitly designed for managing SME portals. It is intended for non-technical business users, enabling them to publish their own public website and intranet. As well as content management features, the system also provides groupware functionality. Some of iPoint's features include:

• Integrated search engine, making all of the portal's content searchable
• Shared calendars (which integrate with Microsoft Outlook)
• Social networking tools, such as wikis, blogs and forums
• Document management and file sharing (via WebDAV)
• Workflow support (e.g. email and SMS notifications)
• Fine-grained permissions system, enabling editing privileges to be passed out for individual pages or sections of the portal

A new version of iPoint is released every quarter. Forthcoming releases will feature better internationalisation, enhanced communication and content management modules, and better integration with other open source products. Future plans involve delivering iPoint as part of a larger open source J2EE stack, consisting of iPoint, an ESB/EAI product, a reporting product and a content management system.

As proof of the system's capabilities, C2B2 staff "eat their own dogfood" and use iPoint to run their entire business: from their public website, to their intranet, to their customer portal; for project and case management; and to manage the development of iPoint itself, including tracking iPoint feature requests and bugs.

Deciding to open source

In 2006, C2B2 decided the time was right to release most of iPoint as open source, under the Open Software Licence. Community was the key driver behind this decision: Steve decided that the potential benefits of an active community around iPoint outweighed any potential loss of licence revenue. There was also a certain level of calculated altruism, with Steve deciding to feed some of the company's work to the open source community. The hope is that this will give as many people as possible access to good solutions, as well as pay the community back for the open source components which enable iPoint.

As well as the open source edition, iPoint is also available under alternative paid-for licences. These provide varying levels of support and value-added features, such as a patch service and managed code updates. Initially, C2B2 were charging a flat rate for this type of license, but found that this left many smaller businesses out in the cold. Consequently, they added different grades of license, to enable SMEs to use the product, but with less comprehensive support options. Companies can still use iPoint under the open source licence, but are able to hire C2B2 for assistance with installation, configuration and management. There are also some parts of the system, such as the Contact portlet, which remain proprietary and only available under the commercial licences.

The company's experience with open source has been mainly positive. Developers outside the company have helped to extend the software, submitting modifications to the code which integrate iPoint with LDAP directories. Others have made enhancements to the Calendar module and offered to help with translation of the interface to other (human) languages.

On top of code contributions, bug reports and feature requests from external users have helped stablise and improve iPoint. Feedback about installation has proved particularly helpful: as users attempt to install iPoint on a wide range of software platforms, they notify C2B2 about any problems they encounter. This enables C2B2 to make the installation procedure more consistent and well-specified, and helps to improve iPoint's cross-platform compatibility.

As contributions from the community increase, C2B2 have decided it would be more effective to manage these through Sourceforge, the world's largest repository for open source projects. This makes the project more visible (at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipoint/) and also makes it easier for C2B2 to manage contributions from developers outside the company.

OpenAdvantage recently engaged with C2B2 to help expose iPoint to even more of the open source community, providing some marketing opportunities (such as a speaking slot at the Open Source Showcase). We also provided some detailed feedback on iPoint itself, with suggestions about how to make the product more attractive to developers.

Open source challenges

C2B2 have found that open sourcing a product is not entirely trouble-free. There are challenges for a traditional software company releasing open source for the first time:

• You have to trust the community not to use your code "against you". A dishonest competitor to C2B2 could potentially make use of iPoint to build a competing product line, at the same time hiding the lineage of their software and claiming it as their own. The iPoint licence provides some protection, but there are no guarantees.
• Managing a relationship with the open source community requires resources. Writing basic documentation, managing source code, putting together web resources for the community, etc. all take time.
• Companies can expect too much support for free when a product is open source. The open source community itself has reasonable expectations about the resources a company can commit, and doesn't expect too much. By contrast, companies unfamiliar with open source will occasionally expect too much free support, above and beyond the level typical for an open source project. They will also use the commercial channel to get free support, when more appropriately they should go through the community.
• Open source can be a turn-off for some companies ("It's not Microsoft"); for others, it can be a turn-on ("No licence cost!"). The outlook for open source has become more positive over the last 8 months, with open source becoming more acceptable in the commercial environment. Mostly, though, whether the product is open source is irrelevant: customers are only interested in paying for good, supported solutions.
  

Summary

Despite the cons, C2B2 wouldn't go back to producing wholly-proprietary software. The benefits of the involvement of many developers from different countries, stretching iPoint's capabilities and finding new ways to use it, accelerate the speed at which C2B2 can innovate with their products.

Open source also enables iPoint to find its way into environments (and countries) where a portal solution may have previously been too costly or involved to consider, or where C2B2 wouldn't have targeted their marketing. A company may install the open source version of iPoint without paying C2B2 a penny; they may then use it for several months, again without paying a penny. However, they may give value back to C2B2 by providing bug reports, feature requests and perhaps even enhancements; eventually, they may even become paying customers when their requirements outstrip their resources.

As Steve Millidge, Director, states:

"The future of iPoint is for us to grow the Open Source community around it; hopefully the services revenue will follow. We expect it will take a couple of years to achieve significant community involvement. But we are convinced that this is the best way to innovate and gain market share for our software."