Growing up in the southern United States meant Sunday mornings were spent at Sunday School. One of the stories we would study was the Parable of the Prodigal Son. A man has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance in advance and he goes off and squanders it. When he returns, his father throws a big celebration to welcome him back.

I never really got the point of that story, as I always identified with the older, dutiful son, so it is surprising that it took working with OpenNMS for me to understand it.

We have great customers. Since we do little marketing, before we get a customer they have to first discover OpenNMS, then investigate it to see if it meets their needs, and only then do they contact us. It means that they are self-selecting, and without exception they are incredibly smart, physically beautiful and possessing of a wit so sharp they make Ginsu knives look dull. (grin)

The first company to ever buy an OpenNMS support subscription did so in December of 2001, and this year they renewed for the 17th time. It is a wonderful testament to the work of the team that they created something to inspire such a long commitment.

That said, we do lose a few customers each year. The first one I lost was a little heartbreaking. It was a hospital in Virginia, and when I called them to see if they would renew their support subscription they told me “no”. I was a little shocked, as I was unaware of any problems and they hadn’t opened tickets in awhile, and they told me that was the point. They loved OpenNMS but it “just worked” so they saw no value in getting support, they were still using it.

A more common case for us losing a customer is that our “internal champion” leaves. OpenNMS is a complex and powerful tool, and it does take awhile to climb the learning curve to see its full potential. If all of that knowledge is focused on one person, and that person leaves, their replacement can be overwhelmed and seek out something simpler, even if it is more expensive and less powerful.

I am alway saddened when this happens, but lately we’ve been experiencing what I’m calling “Prodigal Customers”. These are customers who leave and come back.

I love them, and always want to slaughter (figuratively) the fattened calf to welcome them back.

It’s hard to explain, but while it is wonderful to have someone use something you’ve created for almost two decades straight, it is almost more rewarding to have someone go and try something else and discover it doesn’t stack up. Heck, I’d love it if all our customers could try out every possible option, because those that then chose OpenNMS for their solution would truly recognize what an awesome platform it can be.

Being 100% open source, OpenNMS does not have any way to “lock in” a particular customer. You can use it with our services or without, but you always have access to the latest code. Thus choosing to use OpenNMS is a validation of the work we’ve put into it, and whether you are a long time customer, a new customer, or a “prodigal” customer, your preference to use OpenNMS makes all the work to create it worthwhile.