Con Zymeris gave a talk after lunch on "Corporate Linux Evangelism". The first stage in any Linux deployment is evangelism. That is, raising awareness of Linux and its strengths (and weaknesses). There are three main groups that you'll need to pitch to, Technical staff, managers, and the financial people.

Technical people need to know what the product does, how it does it, and articles, etc that will get them up to speed on a product quickly. The managers will want case studies, articles showing strong interest in Linux, and what type of productivity gains they could expect. They need to be reassured that Linux is a "safe" choice. Financial people will be more interested in TCO and ROI. i.e. how much will this system cost me, and how long will it take to pay for itself in savings. Accountants are typically looking for about a 1.5 year ROI on IT investments these days.

Keep an eye on news sources looking for quotes which might be helpful, but studies quoting TCO and ROI figures can be a but misleading. These analysises are pretty simple, so do your own for each job you're bidding on.

With the recent SCO vs IBM stuff, open source is now seen as a risk. But in reality its no more risky than closed source (Microsoft's entire liability for XP is the replace a faulty CD, not to fix the software). However companies should inventory their software (both closed and open source) and sure licence compliance. If you will be modifying any open source software, you need to track that and ensure compliance with licences. To introduce Linux to an organisation start with low key infrastructure services. DNS, Web proxies or similar where a well established open source system exists can be good starting points. Make a business case for replacing it and quantify the benefits in dollar terms. Audit the existing system to ensure you're completely familiar with the existing setup, and carefully plan a roll over and roll back strategy in case things go wrong.

After the trial roll out, prepare a report to management. Draw attention to your success. If you want to use more Linux, call attention to the successes that you have had. Solicit feedback from IT staff and users, the n picks a new system or server and repeat the process.

There are a few key areas in which you can sell desktop Linux. Linux desktops can be locked down, they have a lower TCO, and are less prone to viruses. Use these strengths to advocate desktop linux where it makes sense. Desktop deployments are trickier because they'll mean that you'll need to get buy in from each of the individual users who's machines you're migrating.