What is ERP?
ERP stands for Enterprise Resources Planning. The goal of ERP applications is to fulfill the operational requirements of businesses of all sizes. Before ERP was invented, companies used to run several dedicated software packages to manage their daily operations. The first business applications were used to handle accounting tasks. Later, software was developed to manage manufacturing, purchasing, inventory and sales. The problem was integration - getting all these different systems to work together was a nightmare. It still is.
Then came ERP. The big promise of ERP was to solve the integration nightmare by providing a software suite that covered all business requirements within a single software piece. ERP applications were initially adopted by large manufacturing companies. The software helped them improve manufacturing quality and efficiency, streamline their supply chain, reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction.
ERP's Challenges
There was one problem, though - ERP was very expansive and took too long to implement. Expensive means that an ERP implementation can cost tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars for a multi-year contract on a global scale.2-3 years implementation projects are a great success, 5 years is average,10 years is close to disaster. Despite the challenges, many ERP projects are extremely successful. It is sometimes argued that without these applications the wave of global growth between the years 2003-2007 could not have happened.
ERP solutions were traditionally used by very large enterprises. But for the past 5 years, a new breed of ERP solutions has emerged-open source ERP. If you look for ERP on sourceforge.com , you'll find more than 400 related projects. Most of these projects are dead. But others are becoming a true alternative to proprietary, closed-source ERP solutions.
Why should you try open source ERP?
There are good reasons why IT experts should take a look at these solutions:
What now?
There are about 5-6 open source ERP solutions worth trying out, most of them written in Java (Openbravo, Compiere, Apache OFBiz,Adempiere), and Python (TinyERP,PostBooks). Download, install and try them out.
To summarize, open source ERP is becoming increasingly popular amongst small and medium business world-wide, opening up new opportunities for IT experts to expand their knowledge base and consulting experience.
Open source ERP software reviews,comparison,flash tutorials,industry analysis and news
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More Articles by Yossi BH © 2012-07-07 Yossi BH
Two years from now, spam will be solved. (Bill Gates, 2004)
Tue Jul 22 17:37:06 2008: 4439 anonymous
Idalica.com configures, customizes and supports 4 that were mentioned in this article.
Adempiere, Compiere, Open Bravo and Apache OFBiz. Each of these products have their strengths. It is amazing to see the sharp increase this past calendar year in corporations pursuing these open source products. Open source is gaining huge momentum.
One cool thing is that their are now several courses where companies that support these open source products share their knowledge with the I.T. staff of corporations looking to implement it. (link)
Tue Jul 29 00:51:57 2008: 4447 BigDumbDinosaur
This article looks more like advertising than information, but since the software itself is Open Source, I guess I'm splitting hairs or perhaps being overly-critical (slap me, Tony, if I am).
Be that as it may, the software may be "free" but the implementation sure won't be! Most of the cost of ERP is in getting to run to the client's satisfaction, not in paying for the software itself. The Open Source world isn't going to finance your IT budget when you decide to take the ERP plunge. And, speaking as someone who has been there and done that (get ERP up and running), I see ERP as a classic example of "design by committee," a text book case of bloatware pushed by developers who mostly don't know squat about running a company. In many cases, ERP is too much like dispatching a battleship to sink a rowboat. ERP in one form or another has been around for some 30 years, and like stale pizza, hasn't improved with age.
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5 Reasons IT Experts Should Try Open Source ERP Copyright © July 2008 Yossi BH
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