The best source of information on open source licenses and concepts is www.opensource.org, where the "master" list of open source licenses is maintained.

The open source licensing and business models open new possibilities for efficiency and collaboration among organizations large and small, as large as global enterprises and as small as individuals. With commercial software the real users of the software generally have only limited involvement with design and development efforts. Sometimes the only input users have is the money they pay for the software! Open source software brings you right into the action, as much as you want to be anyway. Because the software is driven by users and by real use, open source software matures very differently and much more effectively.

You're a smaller organization, and technology is a tool for you, not a core competency. What can you do with open source software? Who will make the software do what you need? Who will solve problems and fix things? Companies that offer solutions based on open source software can focus on the needs of your business. They don't have to maintain all of the software themselves because they work with a large community of collaborating developers. As a smaller company or with a more limited IT budget your dollars go into solutions for your company and are not dumped into a pot that is used to develop large generic software packages.

As a larger organization you have significant needs and you thought you had plenty of money budgeted to make sure those needs were met. No product on the market completely meets your needs. If you pay significant license fees for the closest fit you can find and then spend what is left to customize that software (which for the most part you can't change or see), your budget never quite seems to get you what you thought it would.

Basing your enterprise solution on open source software eliminates the high risk up-front cost and allows you to spend your dollars customizing the software for your needs. Avoiding that initial cost may help with the risky early era of a project, but what about later on? Over time it only gets better since you have full access to all of the software and you can customize any of it. What's more, software like The Open For Business Project is designed to be customized because most of those who developed it make their money (or serve the needs of their employer) by customizing the software. That will reduce your costs for years to come, and make it possible to automate data and processes that are simply not possible any other way.