Engaging: Consulting

Business analysis and consulting for enterprise-ready software solutions that align operations with your community.

Just starting? What software do you need to run your organization? Should you install desktop applications, or are there online versions available? How do you find and assess all the options out there? You already have plenty of questions to answer and challenges to meet in starting up or running an organization. Let LOCUS PLEXUS find the right software to enable your work and realize your vision. Best of all, because we only serve and support open source software, you'll enjoy a full suite of business software without any costly software licensing fees or facing the risk of long-term vendor lock-in.

Re-evaluating? What's running where, why, and scariest of all... how? Many organizations simply don't know or understand what's running behind their screens, relying on poorly understood systems and expensive services that are rarely used or under-utilized. Unfortunately, many organizations pay for more than what they need. Let LOCUS PLEXUS help you understand your current software portfolio and identify new tools to complement your existing infrastructure or, even better, options to replace costly proprietary systems.

Neutral and unbiased evaluations. The open source software community offers a tremendous variety of high-quality desktop and enterprise applications to fulfill your organization's business needs. Knowledgeable and skilled service providers support each of these. LOCUS PLEXUS works within these communities to review open source software options and assess each service provider we recommend to our clients. Our Open Source Maturity Model is an industry-leading approach for evaluating the readiness of both the open source software we recommend and the service providers who support that software.

LOCUS PLEXUS helps organizations identify high-quality, business-ready, open source software that aligns with their individual business practices, specific goals, and unique community whether that is desktop software, internally managed network systems, remotely hosted enterprise applications, or shared cloud services.

• Business Analysis & Procurement: LOCUS PLEXUS engages with you to identify your operations, capacity, processes, and success criteria, or use cases (more on use cases: Usability.gov). Understanding how you and your organization work and your goals are critical in determining the right technology options that deliver the features and functionality you need and provide the support and value you expect. We're not constrained by a product catalog, limiting you to the software we sell; instead, we've cultivated a comprehensive list of enterprise-grade, open source software solutions. Each open source option provides the features and functionality your organization needs to not only meet your business needs but advance your mission.

Community Plan: Community Plan: consulting services to help you identify appropiate open source alternatives to your current proprietary systems,
Price: Free (Details below).

Enabling: Contractng

Contracted support and services reduce costs and increase functionality to extend your operational and organizational capacity.

It's all technobabble, gobbledygook? While your organization may need software, computers, and telecommunications to operate, you didn't start, or even want to run, a technology company: your expertise is not in technology, your interests lie elsewhere, and your time is limited. Let LOCUS PLEXUS identify your organization's technology support requirements and negotiate appropraite services level agreements and contracts on your behalf.

Feeling locked in? One choice is no choice! Too many organizations only have one option for the implementation, hosting, and support of their mission-critical software: the sole provider who sold them the proprietary software—it's called "vendor lock-in." If you can't contract with another service provider to help you maintain and support your business-critical software, you're locked in. If you can't contract with a new hosting provider to run your business-critical software, you're locked in. Let LOCUS PLEXUS find and contract with highly-qualified services providers and support consultants to administer your critical software and technology infrastructure.

Looking for support options? As a business, you should understand your software, support, and service options—yes, you have options, not just those offered to you by your current provider. The right support and services for your organization may differ from the standard contracts offered by your current provider. Your organization is unique; your work is specific; your goals are distinctive. Software and services should complement, not constrict, your business practices, your operations, and your community. Let LOCUS PLEXUS represent you in your individualized technology contracting as an enabler of your organization and a foundation for your success.

Future proof? Many organizations are hostage to the companies that enable their technology infrastructure—and thus, arguably, enable their business. How might your organization be affected if a company or support provider for your critical software went out of business, was acquired, discontinued a product or service, or changed it's business model or services. Let LOCUS PLEXUS mitigate your risk from dependency on any one service provider for your mission-critical infrastructure through our comprehensive due diligence and contracting process.

Committed community contractors. Open source software is developed and maintained by global communities of practice with expertice in today's latest technologies spanning every industry. Now that open source plays such a critical role, just as important as choosing the right software is finding the right support. LOCUS PLEXUS has identified some of the open source software community's most dependable and dedicated service providers to help you and your organization make the most out of the open source software you have deployed. Our extensive evaulation process accesses each service provider's domain of expertise, scope of business, and customer satisfaction, to provide you, our clients, the support, service, and security you expect.

LOCUS PLEXUS works on your behalf to contract and procure highly-qualified, third-party service providers to support your open source software and systems, the business-critical roles they play, and the organization that relies on their availibility.

• Procurement & contracting: LOCUS PLEXUS works with your team to understand how recommended software and realted support services align with current and desired business needs and functions, service levels, organizational standards, centralized or internal controls, or any other procurement prcesses or policies in place. LOCUS PLEXUS serves as your advocate in contracting and negotiations, representing your interests for dedicated service and support providers, ensuring you and your organization not only get up and running but also realizes your IT goals. If you're not satisfied with the provider, we'll find you the right one until you're happy.

Implementation Plan: In addition to consulting services described above, contracting and procurement for support services through thrid-party providers.
Price: One-time fee equal to 10% of current/comparable proprietary licensing fees (Details below).

Enhancing: Management

Dedicated management ensures access, personalization, and innovation to differentiate your organization and your work.

You already have a full-time job! Running and growing an organization requires your full-time attention: there is always something to do …scratch that… dozens of things to do. Let LOCUS PLEXUS take on your software and technology infrastructure management, freeing you to focus on the business areas where you can be most impactful.

Standard or stand out? Proprietary software and systems, by design, provide every customer (like your organization) the same features, functionality, experience, and thus, opportunities. And because your organization is limited in how it can interact with the software, your community is limited in how they can interact with your organization. Changes to the standard version are discouraged by software vendors, and if customizations are needed, they are expensive and limited in scope. Open source software provides users flexibility and encourages adaption and modification, allowing your organization to stand out from others.

Accomplished open source managers. Open source software and the communities that support it are composed of peers working across industries. As a cohort of collaborators, the continued success of open source software projects and the organizations that use it requires unique skills focused on co-creation and cooperation. LOCUS PLEXUS doesn't sell software; we serve our clients by managing their support services while promoting the community by fostering collaboration and co-creation. With such a large community of contributors, LOCUS PLEXUS clients have a wealth of support options, consulting services, custom developers, service providers, and others to support their critical systems.

LOCUS PLEXUS works and advocates for you and your organization only, not a software company or service provider. If something doesn't fit, we'll find you the right options until you're satisfied. LOCUS PLEXUS partners with organizations to identify, implement, and maintain critical business software and related services. LOCUS PLEXUS enhances organizational and operational capacity through contracting and maintenance services.

1. Maintenance & Analysis, LOCUS PLEXUS contract management is the process of overseeing your contracts' deliverables, deadlines, terms, and conditions to ensure compliance and customer satisfaction. LOCUS PLEXUS works for you directly, as your agent, representing your interests—not those of a software vendor or a service provider—to continuously deliver your core software, allowing you to focus on your organization's success, not the demands of IT infrastructure.

Continuity Plan: In addition to consulting and contracting services described above, oversee and manage third-party service providers.
Price: Annual charge equal to 25% of current/comparable proprietary licensing fees (Details below).

Plans and Pricing

LOCUS PLEXUS bases our plans and pricing on the services brokered to third-party support providers on behalf of you, our client. Working with LOCUS PLEXUS, you choose the specific type and level of services required to ensure that your staff, community, and organization are well supported. LOCUS PLEXUS then identifies software-specific experts from our pool of pre-screened, highly-qualified consultants and companies and, as your agent, negotiates service agreements that deliver the type and level of support your organization expects.

We determine our pricing by comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for your current (or proposed) proprietary software to the TCO for comparable open source software alternatives.

LOCUS PLEXUS maintains relationships with open source software developers, communities, foundations, consultants, and companies to ensure access to the broadest collection of experts working in support of open source software. These relationships serve you and your organization, guaranteeing experienced providers are always available, and expertise is always on hand no matter what open source software you choose, the type of organization you are, or the community you serve.

	Community Plan: Consulting Free	Implementation Plan: Contracting 10% your current licensing fees	Continuity Plan: Management 25% your current licensing fees
Identify	Work with you and your team to identify the right open source software solutions to not only enable but enhance your business.
Install	❌	Installation of your selected open source software on local desktop computers, laptops, and internal or remote servers ensuring the software is available to all staff who require access as well as any customers or other parties.	Liaise with contractors on behalf of client to ensure complete and high quality installation.
Configure	❌	Configuration of all software inline with individual, departmental, and organizational requirements	Represent client in the configuration of all software by contractors to meet operational requirements.
Migrate	❌	Identification, batching, and migration of all relevant content from your legacy system(s) to your new open source software.	Oversee content and data migration by contractors between legacy and new systems.
Maintain	❌	Maintenance of your systems and services with regular patching and updates.	Regular review and updating of contract(s) and terms with service and support consultants/contractors.
Support	❌	Training and help desk services to support your software and team.	Ongoing contract management to ensure client's service levels and expectations are met.
Integrate	❌	Integration of your organization's related systems, services, and software.	Coordinate with client the integration of systems, services, and software.
Develop	❌	Customization of your open source software to meet your unique needs.	Monitor and advise the customization of software by contractors on behalf client.