This post brought to you by Net10. All opinions are 100% mine.

Telecommunication consumers are currently concerned over what the economic crunch might mean for their unlimited and bucket-priced call and text services locally and abroad. Some networks are resorting to price wars and false advertising just to lure unsuspecting clients into their fold and bound by onerous contract.

Consumers fear that the unlimited service that they were being offered is only a farce that could explode on them anytime the network provider fail to realize their intended profits.

Fortunately, Net10 is not downgrading their unlimited text, call and data service which still stands at US$ 50.00 per month. This is a monthly plan every subscriber can enjoy to call their loved ones every day. There are no contracts, no surprising fees and bills and no intrusive credit checks. Net10 is not a phone card business. The Real NET10 customer can enjoy talking for hours at a time like they are next door and not worry about their bill. There is NO LIMIT in NET10's unlimited plan.

Net10's Easy Minutes Plus plan and Pay-As-You-Go plan can be used efficiently because they are an automatic minute and carry-over minute plans, respectively. These plans are really interesting. One of the "features" of the "always on" society is the fact that it actually ends up with better tools for managing time. The two money-saving plans provide options that replace the "old" telephone system which really don’t fit into that setup.

Mobile users all over the world already have other several platforms for making affordable long distance calls on their mobile phones, and now even in their internet devices. However, Net10 allows its subscribers to initiate calls from the U.S. to 74 other countries at only US$ 0.15 per minutes. The calls travel over international servers, and subscribers are connected clearly and without annoying static interference.

Check out their Twitter and Facebook accounts for more details or, better yet,  click on the Cute NET10 commercial below and start saving today!

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In all automotive industry, suppliers are classified into three tiers with the first tier supplying to the assembler, the second tier supplies to the first, and so on. The Toyota Cluster aims to expand the supplier value chain by strengthening its suppliers down to the lowest level through improvements in their productivity, quality, productivity, efficiency, cost competitiveness, and waste reduction and elimination.

The program focuses on the 5S and productivity improvement concepts and takes between 6 to 8 months to be completed. After selection and business diagnosis of the participants recommended by first tier big enterprises, orientation and training follow. Plan implementation comes next, then monitoring and evaluation, after which project turnover is carried out. Through the Program, benchmarking and knowledge sharing activities are also carried out. Prior to plan implementation, the participants visit other companies for benchmarking and knowledge sharing purposes.

Starting in 2005, Toyota Motor Philippines joined the EBESE with 5 other big enterprises belonging to the first tier and 13 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) belonging to the second tier. In 2006, Toyota added two more big enterprises and 19 SMEs. In 2007, 1 more big enterprise was added along with 19 SMEs.

The following are the first tier big enterprises that are participating in the program: AICHI FORGING (Metal Casting/Forging), FUJITSU TEN(Audio/Electronics), PHILIPPINE AUTO COMPONENTS (Electrical/Meters), TECHNOL EIGHT (Metal Parts), TOKAI RICA PHILIPPINES (Electrical/Mechanical), TOYOTA AUTOPARTS PHILIPPINES ( Transmission), TOYOTA BOSHOKU PHILIPPINES (Interiors / Seat Assembly), and TOYOTA MOTOR PHILPPINES (Auto Assembly).

So far, the Program has been successful in attaining its objectives. As of July 2011, the EBESE-Toyota Automotive Cluster has benefited 80 suppliers and has even reached out to third-tier suppliers. In 2006, one SME (MMET) was able to graduate as a big enterprise. During the same year, one SME (Malugo Philippines), was able to move up and enter the third tier level.

K&K Molding Inc. is a manufacturer and assembler of plastic components for printer and automotive industries. Through the Program, the firm carried out some changes such as re-layout and product chute installation for its Bracket Turn finishing process. With these improvements, travel time is down from 24 sec/case to 4 sec/case: an 86 percent improvement. Output per man hour is up from 138pcs to 166pcs/man hour: 19percent improvement. From 276 parts leftover per shift down to zero. In the Case Turn finishing process, the same improvements were achieved. Travel time is down from 26 sec/case to 5 sec/case: an 83percent improvement. Output per man hour is up from 109pcs to 126pcs/manhour: a 16 percent improvement. From 218 parts leftover per shift down to zero.

Another SME, VJF Precision Tooling Corporation specializes in tool & die, carbide parts, jigs & fixtures and other precision machining. Through the Program, it was able to improve its lead time by adopting 5S in its stockroom area and providing demarcation lines in the production area to enclose exclusive areas for machines, walkways, and location of safety devices. Audits are conducted every month and further expansion of 5S into other areas. All these resulted in a significant reduction in cycle time and faster turnover which enabled the company to accept more orders for toolsets. With the reduction in manpower overhead cost per toolset due to the faster time to manufacture it, the company was able to increase its efficiency, reduce wastage, returns and rejects, which created a large impact on their revenues.

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Everyone who manages a successful business know that information is the most important resource of any enterprise. Without it or the lack of it, any business would not run nor would it know what to do. But just as how invaluable data is, it could also become a point of liability and the hardest for a company to protect.

Losing important data and information is one of the main problems facing businesses with an IT infrastructure. The loss could mean having data accidentally or intentionally deleted, improperly organized and stored or stolen. This too much dependence on IT infrastructure for storing digital information would require equal amount of effort and as much knowledge and responsibility in protecting it.

Myla Pilao, director for core technology marketing of Trend Micro, says there are basic facets in data management, storage and protection that companies must know to ensure that their precious data is kept intact and can be easily accessed when needed.

Enforcing these required habits of data management will also go a long way against data loss due to theft especially for critical information.

"How basic corporate data is protected also mirrors how a company would protect the rest of their data, including critical information," says Pilao. "Knowing the key facts of data loss prevention can help a company formulate its own policies and processes on data management."

Pilao identifies these five facts. The first fact is that human error is the leading cause of data loss. A 2010 study by Kroll Ontrack showed that 40 percent of home, business, government and channel users of IT think that human error causes the most amount of data loss. Instances of human error include accidentally deleting files and forgetting to back up critical office data.

Many businesses also do not have a centralized storage facility. This means that employees and business partners are not able to access important data that could have streamlined their operations. Having no centralized repository also opens the system up for more human errors in data management.

The second fact is that data backups are a necessity and not a luxury. Backups ensure that there is still available information when data is deleted, be it accidentally or intentionally, from a corporate user’s PC. Unfortunately, many companies neglect this aspect of data management.

A 2007 study by AT&T showed that there are still companies, especially small ones, which do not back up their data at all because they do not see its necessity. Businesses may face financial liabilities if they lose sensitive data. They may, for instance, have to recreate lost data from scratch after a loss. Losing sensitive customer data can expose them to legal, apart from financial liabilities, as well.

Third fact is that data leaks can occur from even within a small company. Citing a study by Trend Micro, Pilao says small companies are increasingly becoming concerned about data leaks, both intentional and unintentional. Critical information includes personnel data files and financial performance.

Without proper data handling policies in place these data can be accessed by any employee. Data can be stored in a USB thumb drive and taken out of the office or the information can be e-mailed and accessed through unsecured computers.

The fourth important fact is that malicious software is a persistent cause for data loss. Pilao says businesses are prime targets of cybercriminals since they hold valuable employee and customer information.

Cybercriminals can steal several kinds of confidential corporate information ranging from employees' social security numbers to their personal information and to the company's online banking credentials. If these fall into the wrong hands, anyone within the company or the organization itself can succumb to information theft or, worse, identity fraud.

The fifth fact is the reality that in-the-cloud storage is becoming an evolutionary progression trend rather than a fad. Data storage facilities on cloud computing platforms are being developed and these allow companies to safely store their data in the cloud and remain operational in case of dire situations where data loss is inevitable due to disasters, both man-made and natural.

Cloud computing platforms also reduce capital and operational expenditures and in the case of data storage, perhaps millions in terms of purchasing storage hardware and the software to maintain them. Cloud-based data storage can be in the form of an internal system or through a third-party provider.

However, data loss can still happen in cloud computing due to hardware failure. Those using cloud computing services for data management and protection must install applications that ensure infrastructure reliability.

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This post brought to you by Straight Talk. All opinions are 100% mine.

Had enough of your existing network that charges high rates and hidden fees? Then change your network provider with one that can cut your bill in half.

With Straight Talk, everything you need in terms of calling and texting are being offered at affordable rates. However, this is not all. Your mom knows best that these are just only icing on the cake. Because there are no contracts, no surprise bills and no credit checks with Straight Talk's "All You Need Plan". It allows callers more flexible talk time with the loved-ones by offering 1,000 minutes,1,000 texts and 30 MB worth of web data.

Straight Talk unlimited monthly service of only US$ 45.00 combines the convenience of exact, pay-per-use per second charging and the affordability of a cheaper calling rate. It is ideal for subscribers who need to  hear more about the details aside from the usual hellos and how-do-you-dos whenever they call a friend. It is also recommended for those who want to give a lengthy update on the last instructions.

For those who are anxious because of uncertainties in other parts of the world, Straight Talk recognize the need to stay in constant touch with friends and relatives who are overseas by making more options available. Since mobile phones are still the most immediate way of contacting loved-ones abroad, Straight Talk are making their international services available to help ease the worries of our family members wherever they are.

Known as one of the leading mobile service provider for its international services, Straight Talk is relentless in growing partnerships to provide the world-widest coverage and the most affordable offers to its subscribers. Their reconditioned phones are available from as low as US$ 10.00 and it already has a camera, mp3 player, mobile web access, and blue-tooth capability.

With Straight Talk, young users can now browse, email, tweet, go on Facebook, and do more online with their affordable LG, Motorola, Kyocera, Nokia and Samsung units.

For mobile phone subscribers who want to learn more about this latest offer from Straight Talk, check out the video below from Straight Talk - Fantasy Fishing Team:

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The world market may have weathered the current uncertainty prevailing in the U.S. economy, but some companies have yet to successfully navigate their way through financial recovery. Many are still mired in the aftermath of announcement that the U.S. has been removed from Standard & Poor's list of risk-free borrowers. Either way, in these tough times company executives seem to struggle in trying to integrate these two opposing initiatives:

• Cost savings to mitigate the negative impact of the economic climate on sales


• Innovation that can propel a company beyond the crisis as quickly as possible

Neither of these initiatives can be sacrificed for the other, especially for companies that are seeking to do more than just merely stay afloat. The challenge is finding practical ways to accomplish both objectives at once.

While their competition is reeling from the impact of Standard & Poor’s downgrading the U.S, debt capacity, visionary companies are taking advantage of this time to push themselves ahead of the pack through innovation. Obviously, the first companies to emerge from these tough times will be tomorrow's leaders.

New solutions are necessary not only to create or sustain this business leadership but also to address major challenges facing manufacturing companies today and in the years to come:

• Product integrity is a must have in highly competitive markets. Product failures and recalls cost companies dearly. A product that needs to be repaired or replaced severely cuts into profits and badly damages brand image.


• Product safety is an ongoing concern across all industries. Minimizing — or, better yet, eliminating — risk of injury from the use of a company's products and processes is always a top priority. Products need to be safe throughout their entire life cycle.


• Green design is increasingly important, with sustainability and ecological issues leading to unprecedented levels of innovation in product development processes.

Companies are locked in a race to the finish line, and the focus today is on innovation. Winning at developing high-demand, high-quality products means breaking with the past and redesigning legacy product development processes that decrease costs, shorten time to market and reduce financial risks.

Business as usual is no longer an option. For major innovations, the traditional approach of creating numerous physical prototypes and conducting lengthy test cycles for each design is not practical because doing so would require large budgets that cut into profits, and long development cycles that often bring products to market too late. Rather, new processes must be implemented so that companies can design higher-quality, innovative products on time and at lower cost.

According to a report from the Aberdeen group, best-in-class companies utilize engineering simulation to systematically design new products in the virtual world. Such companies spring back from tough times faster than competitors by optimizing their development process and implementing a get-it-right-the-first-time strategy by predicting and analyzing product behavior earlier in the design process. They also evaluate more design iterations in the concept/design stage.

There is no doubt anymore about the potential benefits of engineering simulation, and laggards will quickly experience the downside of non-adoption: an inability to maintain innovative competitiveness. Tomorrow's leaders will systematically develop detailed virtual models, leveraging these simulation tools to optimize cost savings and innovative new designs that will yield huge competitive gains in the coming years.

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Now that the U.S. economy is facing a major financial challenge to keep recession at bay, small-scale businesses and enterprises must remain vigilant in recognizing flicker opportunities and obstacles for growth. In today's interconnected world, it is impractical for companies to suspend their innovation initiatives until the worst of the storm blows over. Doing so would put them at risk of falling well behind the curve when the economy recovers from the downturn. This is not the time to lay down in the couch while the business is losing precious ground to competitors who found creative ways to keep their establishments moving during the darkest days.

Stock market players and investment strategists were one in saying that the most significant impact of the Standard & Poor’s downgrading the U.S. is that it adds uncertainty to an already sluggish economy and making recovery a little bit longer than usual.

However, they offer some very powerful themes that could dampen the impact of the expected recession. While others are tightening their belts, truly successful companies use the recession as a chance to leapfrog their competition. Some of these innovative ideas are found below:

Start scenario planning now. Forecast two to three years out and evaluate the likely changes and outcomes from the recession. This will help identify new ideas and opportunities.

Redouble the focus on customer needs. Customers always have problems to solve, even in a downturn. The recession itself is eliminating some jobs customers previously needed to get done, while at the same time creating new ones. At the very least, the current economic conditions are wreaking havoc on the trade-offs people make when they consider “hiring” a product or service to get a job done, with convenience now factoring lower than cost for many customers. Invest time learning how your key customers’ priorities have changed, and quickly realign your business models to meet their needs. Rethink your business starting with the customer, and work backward from there. How can you eliminate their pain? How can you help them to contain their costs?

Strengthen the positioning of products and services using marketing innovation. Customers need the assurance that they are hiring the best possible supplier to meet their needs. Are the products and services your company is offering differentiated enough so that customers can see the advantages they offer? Make sure that the personnel handling customer service clearly understands how key customers determine value, and your products, services and marketing with that value. Focus on key customers and how their needs have evolved, but don’t neglect markets complementary to the ones your company serve. As competitors pull out, there may be new opportunities there, too.

Prune the innovation portfolio. Get rid of some of the riskier, longer-term, or overly broad programs, and redeploy the funds to support more promising initiatives with shorter time horizons. Shut down the least promising ideas now, and focus on those with the greatest potential. Many companies that claim to have no resources actually have plenty of resources, but they are tied up in the wrong activities and projects.

Look for opportunities to inexpensively test new ideas. Fail fast and cheaply. "Build, test, and learn – cheaply" is the mantra that many experts suggest that should be followed.

Embrace open-source innovation. Look for opportunities beyond your firm’s walls to continue R&D, but at a lower cost and lower risk. This can be done by sourcing R&D talent from low-cost countries such as China, Philippines, and Eastern Europe, or using services like InnoCentive that enables submission of ideas to a large community of expert problem solvers. Partnering with other firms who provide complementary products and services is another way to share costs and risks, and maintain theR&D momentum through the downturn.

Look for creative ways to extend your current products. Consider adding value-added services to products, and brainstorm ways to provide new customer experiences. Think in terms of other uses for existing products. If customers know that the products provide greater utility than those from competitors, they will be more likely to patronize the former. Also, look for incremental improvements to products that can significantly increase their value, at a minimal additional cost. Finally, take a fresh look at some of the incremental improvements or R&D projects that may have been shelved before the downturn because the timing wasn't right; some of them may do a great job of meeting customers' current needs.

Take a fresh look at the supplier relationships. Many companies habitually undervalue their suppliers. Chances are, suppliers can improve the efficiency of collaboration, logistics, and other elements of the supply chain. Strengthening these relationships may help a company recover faster when the market upturn comes. Brainstorm other potential partnerships that could increase the value of a product to key customers.

Conduct a disruptive threat assessment. There is a need to identify any emerging competitors who may see the firm's current weakness as an opportunity to advance. Remember Clayton Christensen’s advice in The Innovator’s Solution: Incumbents tend to ignore new entrants because their products and business models are too basic to be taken seriously. But many incumbents are already providing products and services that have already "overshot" the needs of their core customers, who may be looking for more basic, inexpensive options during the recession. Don't just think about innovation in terms of products, services, and business models. Why not spend some time brainstorming with a cross-functional team on how to identify and reduce areas of waste, which can uncover huge opportunities for cost savings?

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This post brought to you by Startupr. All opinions are 100% mine.

The global business economy may be facing another catastrophic challenge when Standard and Poor downgraded the US government’s lending capability, but this does not mean start-up enterprises and budding entrepreneurs will just take the back seat view and not adopt innovative approach.

This early, some Asian businesses are pooling together and adopted a combination of marketplace/small-business incubator approach in running their operation. This incorporation service approach was introduce before in companies such as the Embarcadero in San Francisco, the Brewery in Los Angeles, and Pike Place Market in Seattle.

Sharing and contracting out the administrative support to operate is a practical and efficient way to deal with current business uncertainties. And it makes sense. Office and administrative support supervisors and managers coordinate this support. They are employed in every sector of the economy right now while working in positions as varied as teller supervisor, customer services manager, or receiving supervisor.

The specific functions of each office and administrative support supervisors and managers may vary significantly, they share many common duties. For example, supervisors perform administrative tasks to ensure that their staffs can work efficiently. Equipment and machinery used in their departments must be in good working order. If the computer system goes down or a fax machine malfunctions, the supervisors must try to correct the problem or alert repair personnel. They also request new equipment or supplies for their department when necessary.

One of those companies specializing in taking care of administrative task is Startupr. They are focusing right now on startups with global ambitions. They can provide a wide range of service that can even go as far as provide customer service support, find business partners or help in any way to the budding enterprise.

Their pricing, however, may be a little steep for some because they require a deposit amounting to US$ 1,000 for the duration of the service.

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Based on the eyes and ears of Standard & Poor', the U.S. government is no longer rated Triple-A country, hence, should be removed from its list of risk-free borrowers.

The drop on rating came as no surprise since it happened after a gridlocked U.S. Congress finally agreed to spending cuts that would reduce the debt by more than US$ 2 trillion—a tumultuous process that contributed to convulsions in financial markets.

Moody's and Fitch, the other leading rating agencies, has confirmed the drop in ratings, but was quick to acknowledged that the US is far from being considered as “junk” status, like say, Greece. Nevertheless, they have worried about the long-term prospects for the United States.

So, what does this means for developing country like the Philippines foreign exchange reserves are denominated in US dollars and are mostly invested in US Treasuries?

According to Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, given the links of Philippine markets to the US, any unfavorable event in the world’s biggest economy is expected to somehow dampen even their performance.

The Philippines' gross international reserves (GIR)—the reserves of foreign currencies that determine the country’s ability to purchase imports, pay debts to foreigners, and engage in other commercial transactions with the rest of the world—stand at about US$ 69 billion and the bulk of these are invested in US Treasuries.

For Philippine-based stockholders, it might result to large volume of selling during the stock market trading, which is understandable since this is really the usual knee-jerk reaction to negative market perception. However, history has shown that when a country loses its AAA credit rating, it's not necessarily terrible news for the stock market.

When Canada lost its AAA rating in April 1993, for instance, the country's stocks gained more than 15 percent in the subsequent year. The Tokyo stock market climbed more than 25 percent in the 12 months after Moody's downgraded Japan in November 1998.

Stock market players and investment strategists were one in saying that the most significant impact of the downgrade is only to add uncertainty to an already sluggish economy and making recovery a little bit longer than usual. The only sensible thing to do right now is, therefore, to dial down risk in the equity portfolios by gravitating toward shares of larger, stable companies or those that bore blue chip stocks and are globally diversified. Diversification in emerging markets such as China and Philippines can help offset the possible negative outlook of the US market.

You may ask, why not go directly to the emerging markets and abandon any plans of buying depreciated US stocks? It is because U.S. multinationals are trading at much more attractive values than emerging market stocks, which have been on a tear for the past decade. And large-cap multinationals tend to pay big dividends, which may come in handy during periods of slow growth.

Also, US corporate profits are one of the major factors that could make the downturn a little bit milder than the previous financial crisis. Corporate profits are at record highs and, adjusted for inflation, were 22 percent greater in the first quarter of this year than they were in the last quarter of 2007.

With regards to stashing some green, it might be prudent to keep those extra cash in FDIC-insured accounts, money market funds or short-term Treasuries because they will not be so affected by the downgrade. For example, money in a FDIC-backed bank account would be protected by deposit insurance.

The money market mutual funds, on the other hand, although may be insured, but these are generally investment in short-term debt, and discussion of a downgrade has so far been limited to long-term U.S. bonds.

For now, one thing is clear. Even without an AAA rating from S&P, US debt is still seen as one of the safest investments in the world. It was obvious this week when investors were buying Treasury and driving up their prices, while some stocks were plunging. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which falls when the price rises, fell to a low of 2.39 percent on Thursday (4 August 2011) from 2.75 percent Monday (1 August 2011).

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One of the most important components of being an online entrepreneur is how to protect your information whenever it appears to be on the target list of a growing number of cybercriminal. These modern-day thieves, robbers and underground elements have capitalized on a variety of social engineering techniques to target the weakest link in any type of information security structure — the employees.

The usual security software that are available in the store shelves are often designed to face external threats with very minimal security measures in place to prevent data loss from the inside. Thus, monitoring and investigating employee activity inside the establishment is crucial.

The most confidential information is the initial target and this could range from the business owner’s personal banking credentials to management plans to in-office politics. This can be easily accessed and can be leaked if employees are not careful or intended to be careless in handling and sharing sensitive information.

Based on the latest information, there are already an estimated 23 million Filipinos that have access to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. If the projection is correct, this will further grow in the next couple of years.

Majority of those with social network accounts check their sites using computers in their offices. Cybercriminals can piece together data from information uploaded by employees in these sites to create convincing ploys that would eventually give them access to vital places inside the network. This can potentially lead to information theft through malware attacks or data leaks endangering company trade secrets.

Recently, Facebook users encountered the "Nicole Santos" spam and the fake Bin Laden execution videos. These are just two examples of cybercriminals taking advantage of the social medium. These attacks employed social engineering tactics that tricked people into clicking links that directed to malware.

With the increase use of mobile services such as tablet PCs, laptops, netbooks and smartphones in the workplace, is there a way to minimize if not eliminate data leakage or the execution of malicious scripts? Aside from implementing a policy that prohibits access to social networking sites at the office, are there any other preventive measures?

Unfortunately, at this time, short of stifling access to networking sites, there is no 100 percent means of stopping cyber-attacks. Instead, there are a couple of suggested steps that can be taken to minimize and, in some cases, frustrate the would-be attacker.

Firstly, there may be a need to combine automated security and workplace computing policies to keep the workplace safe from data breaches and leakage. This means that enterprises should let their employees access only the information or resources necessary for the tasks assigned to them. In addition, it may be necessary to create comprehensive yet flexible policies and restrict access rights that will govern the use of portable devices and social networking sites without hampering employee productivity.

Secondly, all employees, even the management group, should be educated on the impact of data leakage through orientations on e-mail handling, file sharing, mobile device usage in the work context, and how they should conduct themselves on social networking websites.

Thirdly, this is really a no-brainer, but not enough people are doing it, everyone should try to back up important data in case the system is compromised. Furthermore, company programs, applications, and operating systems must be patched regularly to avoid having vulnerabilities which cybercriminals can exploit.

Lastly, one blogger recommended that businesses should make it a point to re-evaluate their current security software. The in-place security solution should be able to provide real-time, 24/7 network monitoring without burdening the system’s performance.

The security software must be able to scan, monitor and encrypt private data in endpoint input and output devices, as well as defend all possible network channels, blocking unauthorized data transfers through e-mail, HTTP/S, FTP and instant messaging.

Without any of these, companies and start-up enterprise may be exposing themselves to unnecessary online risk.

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Newsbytes.ph reported that a recent study by research firm Gartner found that more than half of organizations surveyed have adopted open-source software (OSS) solutions as part of their IT strategy.

Nearly one-third of respondents cited benefits of flexibility, increased innovation, shorter development times, and faster procurement processes as reasons for adopting OSS solutions.

However, the survey revealed that only one-third of responding organizations had a formal OSS policy in place.

Gartner conducted a primary research survey of 547 IT leaders in organizations in 11 countries from July 2010 through August 2010. The goal was to determine current and future OSS adoption and usage habits.

"Gaining a competitive advantage has emerged as a significant reason for adopting an OSS solution, suggesting that users are beginning to look at OSS differently — if they can customize the code to make it unique to their company, they have created a competitive advantage," said Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner.

"As external service providers emerge to support commercial offerings, OSS is and will continue to be used in both non-mission-critical and mission-critical environments," Wurster said.

"With greater in-depth understanding and access to the necessary skill sets, end-user organizations will continue to find new deployment of OSS. Although a search for reducing costs by adopting OSS continues to be a major driver, with this survey we see more respondents looking at OSS as having much-greater value than simply getting something for free."

Gartner’s survey indicated that just over one in every five responding organizations (22 percent) was adopting OSS consistently in all departments of the company.

However, a much-higher number of respondents (46 percent) used OSS in specific departments and projects. In addition, 21 percent of respondents revealed that they were in the process of evaluating the advantages of OSS usage.

The top corporate-wide Gartner-defined key initiatives supported by the use of OSS were: data management and integration; and application development, integration, architecture, governance and/or overhaul.

Other key initiatives supported by OSS were business process improvement or re-engineering; security, risk and/or compliance; data center modernization and consolidation; and virtualization.

"Based on these results, we see that OSS components and building blocks are utilized together with internally developed software to augment and enhance existing systems through integration and automation, as well as to improve business efficiencies and security," said Bob Igou, research director at Gartner.

With each Gartner OSS survey taken in the past five years, the amount of OSS that makes up responding organizations' portfolio has increased, from less than 10 percent five years ago to more than an expected 30 percent within the next 18 months. In that same period, the rate of proprietary software has decreased at about the same rate as OSS usage has increased.

However, internally developed software has also increased, suggesting that OSS is used most often in conjunction with internally built software rather than as a complete replacement for proprietary software.

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