The other day I was talking with with someone on the phone who was interested in becoming an xTuple partner (As Director of Business Development, I talk to both current and potential partners every day). In this particular conversation, as with nearly every conversation I have with potential partners, the question was posed, “so - what's the theory?” He meant, of course, what's the catch? How does xTuple make money if you're just giving your software away with the PostBooks edition? There must be a catch!
To answer this question I explain that while we always welcome the opportunity to upgrade someone from the free PostBooks edition to one of the commercial versions, there really is no catch. The “theory” is - more people using xTuple, whether they pay for the software or not, is good for everyone, including xTuple.
As proof of the success of our “theory”, here are a few examples of how PostBooks users are making our software better:
- Pete Bisson, PostBooks user, sent a nice enhancement that sets inventory defaults.
- Julian Strandring, PostBooks user, has made several contributions, one of which was the ability to look up vendor prices on purchase orders.
- PostBooks user Zak Richmond with IHS Door Company in Wisconsin contributed patches to make PostBooks work on OpenSolaris.
The ways in which PostBooks users contribute to the community aren't limited to product enhancements either. PostBooks users support one another by answering questions, providing feedback and solving problems on the forums. The contributions made by our community allow us to concentrate on larger projects. Projects that may take other software companies months if not years to complete, xTuple can bring to market in a fraction of the time. Also, with so much feedback from our community, we know exactly what our user base needs most urgently, and we concentrate on those enhancements.
Not incidentally, having a free version has generated lots of interest in our commercial products as well. In fact, we've spent the past few months preparing a campaign to bring on new partners to help us manage this increased activity. In addition to providing details about the benefits of the xTuple partner program, we've included in the campaign material answers to some of the more common questions we get from potential partners as well as a detailed description of the various xTuple partner types.
So...maybe there's the “catch” -- we make PostBooks available at no cost, you contribute back to the community, and we all win!