The Open Source ERP Community Challenge By OSS ERP Guru
I would like to challenge the open source ERP community today.
A few days ago I got a great email from one of my readers. I really liked what I read as the email covers very well many of the questions and concerns that are raised today by anyone who is looking into open source ERP – either for his own business or for his customers. I will post the email as-is. The mail raises some issues in regards to support but also asks ‘which open source ERP solution best answers these requirements’.
The challenge is to provide the reader with enough information about the projects that will demonstrate the feasibility of open source ERP solutions for small-medium business with the business requirements listed below.
Start Quote:
From my experience the #1 problem with ERP/CRM opensource solutions in general
is the lack of/bad communication via email, their bad/slow forums and poorly
implemented websites. (OpenBravo seems the best so far for communications) If they “shouted out” a little bit about supporting key business features they would have customers lined up around the block. More examples and StepbyStep Tutorials to help the “average” user. Sorry for the rant.
Some points on what I am looking for:
Integrated ERP and CRM (best so far would be OpenBravo meets Vtiger)
* AutoSave – User doesn’t have to keep saving/power outage (so 80s)
* Web based Client (unlimited simultaneous users, security levels)
* Handles barcodes (in & out)
* Accounting – GST
* Reports – BAS activity statement
* Customise – Invoices, Purchase Orders, Reports etc (svg, etc)
* Payroll – using Tax Rates etc.
* TimeCards for Employees – Timetracking
* Issue Tracking (like bug reports, etc)
* Email Integration (email comes in/out gets automatically linked with the Job # in the Subject line, etc)
* Integrates with an eCommerce solution (automagically), Payment Gateways
* Preferred:- PostgreSQL, Lighttpd, 64-bit backend
Optional:
Easy to use and follow Dashboard/Home Page
Integrates with Asterisk (VoIP) (call brings up customers information, etc)
Security Camera Integration (ZoneMinder)
Prints out Shipping Labels
Wiki / Knowledge Base
SyncML
Reminders via – email, sms, voip
Lots of Reports – pretty pictures, charts etc
Automagically import Suppliers PriceLists
Automatic Banking (bank integration)
Boiler Plate Contracts
OCR and Scan in Suppliers Invoices, etc
Text to Speech integration – reads emails, etc
The sole purpose of the ERP & CRM is to eliminate the mundane part of business and let Business’ solve Customers needs (i.e. sell more products).
The main point I want to get across, these “solutions” have to sell themselves and their products have to work and be very easy to use.
:End Quote
I look forward to feedback from the different projects.
[...] Free Sydney Wireless – SydneyFreeNet wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt I would like to challenge the open source ERP community today. A few days ago I got a great email from one of my readers. I really liked what I read as the email covers very well many of the questions and concerns that are raised today by anyone who is looking into open source ERP – either for his own business or for his customers. I will post the email as-is. The mail raises some issues in regards to support but also asks ‘which open source ERP solution best answers these requirements’. The [...]
He really has a point. He stresses the fact that the documentation often sucks, learning an ERP system is huge undertaking and would ned a lot of good documentation to go by the courses that the developers makes their money from toda. Good documentation is not a threat to this income, it’s a way to make customers interested enough to consider going for the ERP solution in the first place.
Also, these autosaves.. I van’t imagine that there isn’t an easy way to make the records autosave when leaving the different fields. No one should need to press the “save” button all the time, to data centric indeed, it makes me think of an old Ms Access form…
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