The Future of Supply Chain Information Systems: The Open Source Ecosystem

The open source phenomenon has made a significant impression, not only on the software industry, but also on software-intensive organizations in both the public and private sectors. The collaborative model offered by the open source ecosystem can potentially change the collective nature of organizations and is claimed to increase innovation and technology adoption while reducing costs. These potential advantages are influencing how organizations acquire software and are leading to significant adoption of open source products across several domains. In fact, a recent Forrester Research report found that 78% of companies surveyed are running part or all of their operations on open source and 66% use open source to create software applications for their customers. Unfortunately, limited research exists regarding the implications and boundaries of open source technologies employed for supply chain management. For a firm to decide whether or not to pursue open source strategies, the field needs more research that helps us to understand how a firm’s use of open source information systems relate to flexibility, agility, operational performance, and the triple bottom line. In this brief thought piece, we describe the potential for open source software to change the nature of supply chain information systems.