Is free worth what you pay for it? Part II

As organizations continue to struggle with increasing need and decreasing or stagnant budgets, the allure of free becomes very strong. On the other hand, many people strongly believe the adage "you get what you pay for." As I've noted in my post on GMail, I'm sometimes one of them. So, what's a cash strapped organization to do?

I think that very often, that adage is true, and that makes it risky fr organizations to make acquisitions based solely on purchase price. A cheap computer may be cheap, which creates costs in terms of lost productivity, increased service costs, and reduced morale. On the other hand, that computer may be "cheap" because it is missing features - but features that you really do not need. So, just as you may get what you pay for, it's important to only pay for what you need.

On the other hand, sometimes things are free, yet they don't seem to fit that adage. Are they really worth your time, or are you jut missing the hidden catch. Sometimes, you are missing a hidden catch, and it can be significant. For instance, in evaluating a software acquisition, I discovered that the one product has both a free and non-free version. Of course, I was expecting to find some limitations on the free version, so I was not surprised to find that to be the case. But, a really significant issue was that it was not possible to get any professional level support for the product - not even for a fee. As we knew that we were going to need implementation support, I knew that we were going to have to look elsewhere. This was just too significant an issue. Sometimes, the hidden catch just is not significant enough to be a problem. If you need to roll out a dozen copies of an office suite, and you are not eligible for a TechSoup discount on MS Office, you may want to look at Open Office. Yes, you will have to pay for support if you need if, and it does not have the new "ribbon" style interface. Considering that you get little real free support from Microsoft, these limitations are not significant, and free should be very, very attractive. Of course, there may be there "gotchas" that apply to you. So, always analyze the situation for your organization.

Just realize, that sometimes free really does work. And sometime, it does not. You need to decide on a case by case merit.