Implementation of open source software - how to do it right?

Question

open source

We put people on the Openmeetings program for money. Then we invest this money in product development.

Classic story

1. We come, we make a presentation for the authorities. Everyone likes.
2. We come to IT specialists - they say, we'll see.
3. Next. We do not need your installation, and they begin to install themselves according to the instructions on our website, instead of us installing it for money or even using outdated instructions.
4. They fail to make it work well, since the installation needs to be modified a lot with a file (this applies to channels, data centers, routers - you can’t write everything in the instructions).
5. They report to their superiors that the system is bad, and they have a cool system in mind from a friendly company.

How do we break the circle and sell the system successfully?

Answer 1

Become a friendly company, remove the instructions, or even not remove them, but make a demo version on the site and at the first paragraph give a login to the authorities for tests.

Answer 2

The transition to free software generally needs to be planned very strongly.
And this is strongly decided at the business level. I can save money by implementing, let's say sendmail, but I'll lose my shared calendars, appointments, messenger, and miss the fact that I've bought a lot of licenses.
Yes, I can transfer a certain part of the employees to Linux + a browser to work in Google Apps, but retraining employees and bringing workstations to a template suitable for production can take me more time than it takes to apply updates in wsus.
And if all admins know Windows and don't know Linux, I need expenses for one more Linux admin... I
can continue for a long time.

Answer 3

You can try to further explain that this product has implementation nuances. Explain to the authorities that you are taking money not for a product that is Open Source, but for work and advice on its support and implementation.
Those. come not to sell a software product, but to sell services.