We recently added PreviousNext's name to "A Manifesto for an Open Future," joining 15 other Drupal agency founders and leaders in a public declaration that open source, not closed platforms, is the foundation for the future. Since founding PreviousNext in 2009, we've built our business on that premise, so signing felt less like adopting a new position and more like putting our name to something we've already been doing for 17 years.
I recently gave a talk at DrupalSouth Wellington 2026 covering something a lot of us in the Drupal community have been wrestling with: has the past couple of years been a market correction or something more fundamental? And more importantly - how can Drupal remain competitive in a CMS market that's changing quickly?
Drupal contribution is often considered a direct cost by agency leaders, but PreviousNext has proven that contribution is a key investment in business sustainability and profitability.
For PreviousNext, the decisions to make contribution part of how we work and to become a Drupal Certified Partner (DCP) have paid off many times over, both in terms of business growth and team development.
With Drupal now heavily used in the enterprise market by very large organisations, much of its direct competition is from well-funded proprietary products. From the perspective of my role on the Drupal Association board, I gave a talk at FOSDEM in February 2024 on the strategies and initiatives the Drupal community is starting to put in place to remain competitive in the enterprise market and how these approaches can be shared by other open source projects.
Contributing makes good business sense, especially when open-source technology, such as Drupal, is at the core of everything you do (pun intended!).
As we enter our 14th year of operations in 2022, PreviousNext is taking a bold step into employee ownership, utilising a groundbreaking approach that’s only recently become possible in Australia.
Take a peek inside to see what it's like to work at PreviousNext! We're opening up our handbook so you can see how we work together and the benefits we all enjoy.
Like many companies, PreviousNext didn't expect the Coronavirus crisis to hit so hard or quick, nor did we anticipate the rapid effects on the global economy. However, we have always run our company based on sustainable principles, so feel well prepared to deal with what's coming over the next few months. We hope sharing our approach might help others weather the coming storm too!