"Software development company Akiva has been around since 1999,
creating proprietary collaboration software for companies that rely
on instant messaging, video conferencing, and email to create an
idea-sharing atmosphere for employees. But after prompting from
some of its largest customers, such as Cisco, Qualcomm, and Blue
Cross/Blue Shield, Akiva began to discover the value of open
source. Now, the company is so sure that open source software is
the future of IT, it is 100% committed to developing and using open
collaboration software and nurturing a community around it.
"'We're customer-driven,' says Eric Olinger, CEO of Akiva, 'and
a growing number of our clients started coming to us, asking us to
integrate at least pieces of open source into what we were doing
with them...'"