Open Source Software & Digital Transformation

And by tying out through APIs, through tying into different legacy systems on the enterprise, or if you're a smaller company, a medium size company, tying your email marketing and your click through to your website and then video outreach and other things. Bringing those stats together, seeing those points of engagement. You're able to say to your customers, we see you, we hear you, and this is what you've said you're interested in because they're willing to give you that information.

Kevin Craine: We are speaking with Karim Marucchi. Karim is CEO of Crowd Favorite, a firm specializing in digital strategy and Open Source development. You can find him and find out more at crowdfavorite.com. Now Karim, information is what we're talking about here. Data, it's the currency of business today, whether you're a large enterprise or a smaller startup and cashing in often revolves around that data and who owns that data. What is the role of data ownership in the future of business and how does Open Source Software fit in?

Karim Marucchi: We see a lot of trends that start with some of our larger enterprise clients. And then we see that it sort of filters down towards the medium enterprise and then eventually small business. And one of the things that's been most powerful is this idea of data ownership. Some of our largest clients have said for years, we don't want the information that we're gathering to be sitting out there on third party systems. We wanna be able to keep that private. We want that to stay within our tent. So they're working with Open Source systems and they're working with even some SaaS vendors out there who are willing to parse off and keep their data private to mitigate the risk of it getting out there.

Data security for the consumer, for the end user is very important these days. You want to be able to say to your customers that you are taking it seriously, not just that you're not gonna send them email or sell email lists, but you're also going to keep it private and not let it sit out there on somebody else's server. The idea of it being under one umbrella is becoming more and more important.

Kevin Craine: How do that though? I mean, in these days of cloud services, open data, open software, we are treading this line, this line between having personalized experience and sort of a modern experience customer wise, data wise, but also protecting privacy and so forth. How do we effectively do that? That balancing act?

Karim Marucchi: So in this instance, we're not talking about the security of one particular server. We're actually talking about the security of how many other organizations have access to that data when you're collecting it. So, one of the ways that we work with our clients to do that is we say, yes, we can use service X or Y to go out there and crunch certain data, but how do we anonymize it while it's outside of your servers?

So that you’re keeping the data to yourself as a company and as an organization. So that way, if there was a breach at that third party service, or there's a problem with anything that's outside of your direct control, you're not just a victim of it. So there's interesting technology being developed right now around how to let SaaS do its efficient job of crunching things offline and away from your servers to keep your servers humming well, but yet keep the data local and some of the best SaaS services out there today will let you have a local data store and they're coming in doing their crunching, but they're doing it through an anonymized layer.

Kevin Craine: You mentioned smaller businesses. And, and I'd like to ask a little bit about how Open Source Software development can level the playing field for smaller players and maybe have them, give them the ability to outcompete their larger competitors. Do you have any advice for smaller organizations, how they can gain that advantage?

Karim Marucchi: I love that question, Kevin. Thank you. I get this a lot when I'm out there speaking. And one of the things I talk about is the fact that, even as little as two years ago, if you wanted to have conditional content, if you wanted to have, deep personalization and, progressive profiling, you could only go to Adobe or Sitecore as a content management system. You would have to spend five or six figures per year on licensing, plus all the costs of development and upkeep. That was the reality. Today you can literally use WordPress and free plugins, or if you're more concerned with security, some very cheap plugins for literally hundreds or just a couple of thousand dollars a year, you can actually do the same types of data crunching that are out there with these large CMS systems. So you can have somebody who is a small Independent maker of athletic footwear put up a website that has the same features as nike.com.

Kevin Craine: That doesn’t bode well for the large enterprise solution providers, does it? Do you think the cat's out of the bag?

Karim Marucchi: Well, this has been a question we've been facing for the last 25 years ever since we started playing with the internet, and I think the Nikes of this world, the large enterprises will always have the advantage because they have the budget and the forethought. They're playing with AI today, where we're just getting our hands at the smaller level. We're just getting our hands at open AI systems that we can play with, but it's still very expensive to get a good system to really play with that.

And, what they're doing today in trying to use artificial intelligence in the next year or two, we'll be able to bring to the medium enterprise and then the small enterprise. Right? So there's this constant cycle that they're iterating and then the medium enterprise and the smaller enterprise are benefiting as this comes sort of downstream, because as it's built for the large enterprise client, we're finding, especially if they're using Open Source, we're finding ways to optimize it, make it easier to use for that smaller enterprise.

Kevin Craine: This is an exciting conversation because often our listeners comment that it can be difficult to translate the notion or the promise of digital transformation into real world applications and achievements that move the needle. What is your advice, Karim, to overcome that gap? What digital transfer transformation efforts should we target that will make a difference?

Karim Marucchi: Well, no matter who you're gonna speak to today, if you're in the position of asking somebody that exact question, whether it's an agency or a product, think of it this way. If today you invited somebody into your home to do a home renovation. You don't wanna hear what kind of features they have on their skill saw or their drill. You don't wanna hear about which shovel they're gonna use. You just wanna know it's gonna be built well and what you're gonna get out of it.

You know, am I gonna have a place to put my TV that's bigger than the one I have now. So, no matter how they're talking to you about their features, always bring the conversation back around to how are you gonna solve my problem? How does this work into my way of working with my process? Every organization out there from the largest enterprise to the small 50 person enterprise out there, they have the same problem of how do I adjust my process to technology? The answer is don't adjust your process to the technology. Talk to people who want to adjust the technology to your process.

Kevin Craine: We have been speaking to Karim Marucchi. Karim is with Crowd Favorite and an expert in helping organizations successfully integrate Open Source into more impactful digital transformation strategies. You can find him and find out more at CrowdFavorite.com. Karim, we have reached the action item round of the show. I'm wondering if you could please provide us with three quick action items that our listeners can do to begin to take advantage of your ideas and advice.

Karim Marucchi: Absolutely. Number one, if today you're on a small CMS, or you're on a small all in one system, look to see what those limitations are. Think about if you could build it from scratch forgetting technology, what are the functions you need? Because most likely with using Open Source as a hub and looking at what's available in some of the SaaS systems that are out there, you can solve that. That's the first thing.

Number two. Don't think Open Source versus SaaS (software as a service), they actually work very well together. We always talk about a hub and bespoke solution. If you're keeping Open Source as a hub, you can branch out to any of those SaaS systems out there without having to think about re-platform or how do I churn away from a platform if you outgrow it.

Lastly, consider the partners for integration. No matter how brilliant your team is internally, talk to somebody who has expertise in varied Open Source projects, not just us, anybody, because it's important to understand that just because somebody knows your industry or knows a particular piece of software doesn't mean they’re experts at solving larger process problems. Look for an organization that is an expert with helping process problems. We do try to do that, but that's really what's key out there. Don't look for technology. Look for the solution.

Kevin Craine: Well Karim, it's been great speaking with you today. We're almost out of time, but before I let you go, one last question. What should CIOs, executives, business owners be thinking about now, and strategizing for today in order to be prepared for the world in five years time?

Karim Marucchi: I think an idea that's catching on hopefully quickly today is, not to just look at those business processes, but really at the very beginning, when you start thinking there might be a technology out there that helps me solve a problem, is looking at the team you have. Looking at whether you're a solo-preneur or whether you have a team of 5, 50 or 500. Think about the human process, the human aspect of how to bring the people that you're gonna actually work on this day-to-day together with those technologies. Too many times, I have people come to us and say, here's a solution that has this list of benefits. That's why we want to use it. And if I ask them, even the first benefit on the list. How is that gonna play into how you're working now? They're like, well, I don't know. It just says it's gonna solve it. Think about how the human aspect is of how you're gonna work with that technology.

Kevin Craine: That is Karim Marucchi with Crowd Favorite. Karim, thank you so much for being our guest today on the digital transformation podcast.

Karim Marucchi: Thank you, Kevin. It's been fun.