Indeed i don’t know the amount of fees but i have an expression for that.
Free to use but not free to build
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Hi Giuseppe,
Apologize for my ignorance but I thought SME versions ( http://www.nethserver.org/community-or-enterprise/ ) where different from community versions or am I wrong? Do you want me to use community versions in businesses? How do I get professional product support if I need it? If I’m a reseller how do I get product support and education? do I have to buy it before I sell it to customers or should i go through the community? I can make this list very long and this has to be defined very easy especially if the SME product line is not jet a finished product?
If you go the Enterprise road you need to be able to tell customers your Mission and Vision of the concept behind the project. A road map must be defined for long term planning (This seems already be addressed in another thread). You have to be able what you are doing better then you competitors so the customers understands whats different with Nethserver (this could already be mentioned but I haven’t found that thread jet)?
To be honest the easiest way would have been to have 1 product or 5 versions for both community and SME and just a low fixed fee for annual support. The simpler the more competitive you become and the prizing should not be on request it should be transparent and available for everybody with no hidden fees or surprises.
I don’t like to talk about money but in the end it’s whats pays my bills. The difference we can do is to make Nethserver support so competitive for SME that it’s hard to turn down and that the project never gets sold which usually happens when you have a payed version of a project.
Thanks Kristian for your post , we are working about it and as soon as every thing will be clearer and easier.
Let us know what model of business what you like in order to improve our service
Ciao
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Hello everyone.
I am a long user of SME server, and it has always been a reliable product and perfect for the SME, although now getting rather dated. With that in mind I took a look at Nethserver, and have to say I am quite impressed.
My concern is the pricing structure. MS Small Business Server is finished, and I for one have a large number of customers wanting a product to replace the server. If you are aiming the product higher at Enterprise, with Enterprise pricing, then I do believe you will be a fail to get much of a takeup.
My ideal as a potential reseller would be a Small Business support group, of which an annual charge could be levied for supporting Nethserver. Resellers would learn the product, and only really use your support if needed. This group could have a private area for such support.
Contribs writes should benefit from this idea, the main site could in fact resell the contribs for the writers, taking a cut of the profits. Perhaps something along the lines of an apps store?
Other linux based products charge the earth, and I have bypassed them for use in my small business customer base. Typical example is a 10 user license for a linux based mail archiving program, £1500! Crazy! no small business can afford that. Think £25-30 per contrib, and then charge for app feature adds, but include bug fixes.
Hope that makes sense? and I really wish the project well.
Paul.
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I used e-smith since last century. 
NethServer is made by a group of consultants that sold e-smith support in Italy for more than 15 years. Italian market is made exclusively of SMEs, we do not work with big enterprises.
Now I think we choose a misleading name for the product.
Our resellers recognize that we are tied to reality, we aren’t developers on an ivory tower, but we are system integrators working on the field every day installing NethServer and adapting it to the requests made by customers.
Our business model in Italy is based on support in Italian, we are working on adapting it to English. We’d like to find distributors everywhere to offer support in their customers native language.
Final note: this is a place for the community, I’m not sure that this topic belongs to here.
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Were should those discussion be held? I’m still not sure if I understand the Enterprice part of Nethserver it seems none can really give me an answer to my questions I have asked.
Can it be that the Enterprice modules and packaging are not available yet?
That was the reason I mentioned enterprise. Seems a bit confusing to me. So Enterprise is not as the name implies for larger enterprise? then yes, I guess you could have picked a better name
Lacking a better place, I think it’d be better to continue here.
I agree that the name “Enterprise” was not a good choice, but English in not our mother language and we are big fans of Star Trek.
Here’s the better definition of NethServer Enterprise I’ve come up with:
NethServer comes in different editions: a free version called Community and a set of products (which can be mixed together) collectively named Enterprise edition.
The Enterprise edition differs from the Community in 4 areas:
- Updates: automatic daily upgrades, field tested
- Support: professional support, by mail and phone, knowledge base
- Monitoring: remote monitoring and real time alerting, weekly reports
- Additional products: proprietary software runs only on Enterprise
A Community install can be upgraded to Enterprise with a single command.
Nethesis, the company sponsoring NethServer has above 1000 installations of the Enterprise version in Italy. Work is in progress to translate commercial material to English, together with a commercial offer targeted to SME consultants. The product “NethServer Enterprise” is ready and selling since two years, but the “control center” website and the KB are in Italian. We are now ready to offer support in English, but we still need time to translate the control center and the knowledge base.
I’ll try to answer all the questions, but, please, remember I’m a programmer not a sales guy. 
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Big funs of Star Trek 
! thanks, you make me laugh. Thanks!
About the business model concern, I think that the clearer that it is, the better community the product has. The example is, obviously, Zentyal. A few years a go, the community was very active. Now, it’s almost… dead?
The problem was clear (at least, for me). The product was designed as a SME server, all in
one. The community grew up with it, an then, the company toke a very different way. That’s wrong.
About the prices questions, and reselling terms, I think that this is not the place to discuss, because that’s Nethesis, not Nethserver community. We can always email the sponsor to ask for information.
I agree with @drifting that the resellers/partners should have some different documentation available, in order to sell the product and explain the VA of the “Enterprise” versions.
In my point of view, to be a reseller implies a support for the main sponsor, to make a better product, and finally, the community has its benefits too. We can support the community in different ways, and this one is an economic way, if somebody wants to put it a name.
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To be honest Enterprise fits perfect because SME stands for Small Medium Enterprises and thats usually companies that are small but need Enterprise features & solutions for there products (usually specialized small firms). SMB (Small medium businesses) is a total different story in my opinion those are new small firms with no specific IT requirements and those usually can leave with an all in one solution. So I hope Nethserver SME is an SME solution as I described.
That means that the Enterprise software editions are not free without support?
Why not making one nethserver installation with several software editions that can be installed depending what scenario you need for the server? That would also be good because everybody could contribute too those solutions and if you need support you just sign an agreement? Wouldn’t that be so much simpler both product/developer and finally test wise?
Some of the software used in the Enterprise version is not free. When we could obtain a free or different license on those software we could re-think the enterprise proposal.
how about GroupOffice in Enterprise version ?
For me personally it’s very important to know what the future is for Nethserver on the Enterprise roadmap because that will define if I will stay or leave the community eventually. I’m mostly interested in the SME versions and that’s were I want to contribute. I have a clear vision about open source and that is that software has always to be free because I fully believe that it’s the only way that you can have a transparent and secure system. As soon you add proprietary software you have to trust that the provider is trustworthy and that is impossible to proof.
I deeply hope that the future of Nethserver software will be completely open and stays open in every aspect.
m2c
I fully agree with you. AFAIK, some parts of Enterprise are proprietary because there was nothing free to be used for those particular features. Maybe we could develop something free to replace the closed software.
The Community edition is yours as is mine and of everybody interested in developing and supporting it.
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But that’s just partly what I’m looking for in an SME solution. What made me interested in Nethserver was that there were several SME versions which I had hoped were community driven and open to download and specially designed for SME’s so we didn’t have to invent the wheel all the time. Solutions should be tested and maintained by the SME businesses and more advanced users from the community who test updates in real live scenarios. The community version is an all in one solution which doesn’t fit my needs in an business and to invent a decentralized solution based on an all in one solution is not what I need or want to build businesses on in the future.
@filippo_carletti can you please tell me if the Enterprise versions are something that already exists as an installation or are those versions based on the community version of Nethserver and a consultant that customize the installation everytime from scratch depending what scenario is requested? Or do i get documentation were I myself can install the Enterprise versions?
Totally agree, @malvank @drifting do you need more info about enterprise side and reseller revenue model? Please ask to Nethesis, sales guys will be glad to help you. Please don’t talk here about prices or wherever, NethServer is free and open source… so this isn’t really the right place 
From the community side, this post and that post should be enough as explanation
I already did that, remember when I joined the community? it was an request of the sales person that I tried it out even though I wasn’t interested in an all in one solution.
To be honest this discussion shouldn’t be behind closed doors . Can a sales representative get in contact with me after they have read this thread and clear out the question I have?
Hi kristian, I wrote you about your request on your skype account
Ciao
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I think it should be since not NethServer related