SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY SMES: CASE STUDY REGARDING ROMANIAN SMES

During the last decades, the ICT industry imposed new tendencies concerning the communization of software platforms and solutions; thus a continuously growing phenomenon has been developed, namely that of open source software. In the present context, when companies have to manage large databases and exploit them to develop a business intelligence allowing them to create important competitive advantages within the global economy, open source software solutions become viable alternatives to be adopted by any company. Taking into account the global trends in open source software development, and also the increase in the level of utilization of this type of software in companies, the present study assesses the types of software solutions used by Romanian SMEs, identifying comparative aspects of use and perception of SMEs regarding the two important categories of software: open source and commercial. An SME profile is also identified from point of view of SMEs as final consumers of software products used to support their business processes. The results of the study can be considered as an important source of information for the business environment, starting with the companies’ decision makers responsible for the elaboration of the development strategy for their company, continuing with the commercial software providers and open source software communities and developers