Alfresco Takes Open Source ECM Momentum Into Europe

July 6, 2007; 06:29 AM
Alfresco Software Inc., the first and leading provider of an open source enterprise content management solution, today announced that it has officially launched operations in Europe, having witnessed significant traction in the US since its launch there in 2005.  Counting more than 300 paying customers, 12,000 active installations and over 600,000 downloads, Alfresco brings real project experience to customers looking for a flexible alternative to traditional proprietary systems.  Alfresco also today revealed the findings of its first “Open Source Barometer”, a community research initiative aimed at providing on overview of open source adoption trends around the world.

Alfresco is lead by some of the industry’s most experienced and respected campaigners:

• John Powell, CEO, former COO, Business Objects
• John Newton, CTO, co-founder of Documentum
• Dr. Ian Howells, CMO, former VP Marketing SeeBeyond
• Kevin Cochrane, VP Web Content Management, former VP Web Content Management, Interwoven
• Matt Asay, VP Business Development, Founder and Organizer of the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC)

Alfresco launches into the UK having completed a number of successful local customer implementations for both public and private sector organizations such as Reed Managed Services plc, Swansea Housing Association, The MOD Defence Academy and Amnesty International.  These customers, amongst many others, are already benefiting from Alfresco’s open standards approach to enterprise content management – technology that is five times faster and 10 times cheaper than its traditional proprietary counterparts.

“With such strong ties to Europe, we’re clearly very pleased to be officially opening operations here, especially on the back on the success we’re seeing over in the US,” commented John Powell, CEO, Alfresco.  “European adoption of open source is growing rapidly and Alfresco’s proposition has already become a default choice on CIO shortlists.  The enterprise content management drivers are evolving constantly and Alfresco is perfectly positioned to help customers meet these challenges head on without getting weighed down by proprietary vendor lock-in.”

Having polled its 15,000 community members, Alfresco today also announced findings from its first “Open Source Barometer”, a biannual research initiative aimed at informing the industry of open source adoption trends.  With over 10,000 responses from around the world, the research is thought to be the largest of its kind and resulted in some interesting conclusions.  Community members were asked to report their usage of operating systems, application servers, databases and portals, whether open source or proprietary.

According to the figures, the top five open source adopters by country (biggest first) are the US, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, with the UK only managing 6th place.  While large enterprises in the US are driving open source adoption in their search for increased value, continental Europe’s lead over the UK is a direct reflection of respective government open source initiatives – initiatives that are not actively encouraged by government in the UK.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have such an active community and the response we’ve received regarding the Open Source Barometer has been overwhelming,” said Dr. Ian Howells, CMO, Alfresco.  

Finally, adding to its existing roster of 100 partners, Alfresco also recently signed agreements with systems integrators Buserdi, OA Solutions and Kraai to its North and South American partner network, and Knowings, Smile, Smartup, Sollan, Amexio, NSI, Mediamine, and IECS to its partner network in Europe.

Alfresco’s headquarters are in Maidenhead, UK, with dedicated sales operations for Germany, France, Benelux and Spain.