Number 7 is a subtle but huge problem. I ran into this way back when I was trying to sell a small, education-focused GIS system I wrote as an alternative to the

Number 7 is a subtle but huge problem. I ran into this way back when I was trying to sell a small, education-focused GIS system I wrote as an alternative to the monstrosity that is ArcGIS. Students loved it since it was easy to use (only had maybe 5% of the functionality of ArcGIS, but it was the functionality that covered 90% of basic analysis.) The department heads I spoke to loved the idea since it was drastically cheaper than Arc, they could push the cost to the student (less than a textbook) rather than maintain ESRI contracts. The problem was that the decision maker, ie the real customer, was the professor, who did not experience either the ease of use benefits or care about the expense. As such I got nowhere with the product.