Not only do open source technologies offer greater flexibility and lower cost, they make user organisations more attractive to the best IT talent on the market, according to the three finalists in the Utilities/Media category of this year's iTnews Benchmark Awards.
Lengthy and expensive lock-in contracts are no longer the way many businesses - like News Corp and Energy Australia, alongside fellow finalist Tabcorp - want to operate.
News Corp CTO Alisa Bowen pointed out that her CMS replacement overhaul, using the open source Wordpress platform, involved developers from 13 different countries around the world - a structure she said wouldn't have been possible with a more bespoke platform.
Energy Australia was also keen to avoid the "millions and millions" in costs it would have borne from each customisation it would need to make to meet regulatory requirements, if it was using an off-the-shelf product.
Listen to their comments from the Benchmark Awards panel sessions below.
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