Impediments to the adoption of desktop Open Source Software (OSS) in a South African Provincial Government Department

Abstract

Using a case study methodology, this research study set out to investigate the reasons for the poor adoption rate of OpenOffice.org to replace Microsoft Office on the desktop. The BRW Model (Brink, Roos, Van Belle and Weller 2007) for the successful migration to desktop Open Source Software (OSS) was used to frame the research, guide the data analysis and identify the critical success factors for desktop OSS migration. The research supports the literature review and theory that migrating from existing proprietary software to OSS on the desktop has got very high switching barriers and has to be conducted in a gradual or phased approach with dedicated ownership and support from all levels in an organisation. The financial savings that are obtainable from implementing free OSS such as OpenOffice.org can be easily outstripped by the implementation cost if due care is not taken in the planning and budgeting for the project