Open Source ERP Guru

ERP localization is an important indicator of the maturity of any business application, and of ERP applications specifically.Most efforts going into ERP developments focus on supporting generic functionality, required by as many potential customers as possible. The reality is that if you plan to offer your ERP solution globally, functionality alone is not enough. Support for localization is a necessary (yet not sufficient) condition to widespread adoption of an ERP system.

I got a chance to talk with Richard Morley, open source ERP vendor  Openbravo accounting and localization manager. We had an interesting conversation and I learned quite a lot on the subject. Richard has been working in ERP development and consulting for about 11 years. He joined Openbravo late last year.

What is localization

Defining the term localization is not as simple as it might seem. In general, any aspect of an ERP application, whether functionality, data or user interface, that has a different meaning and different usage patterns in diffident countries, is a candidate to be part of a localization. Richard uses a broad definition: “..it is a multitude of factors, it’s not just functionality, it also has  to do with language, culture, support, the many factors that  drive to claim to have an effective localization. We drive to provide assurance to Openbravo users that this is what they are getting”.

Localization in Openbravo

Openbravo localization is a decentralized project according to Richard, where each local community develops their own localizations, as oppose to most proprietary ERP vendors, where localization is a centralized projects, developed by the vendor itself. Openbravo “focuses on language support and the functional core of Openbravo ,and the capability of the core to go to any particular country”. Richard emphasizes a key guideline in Openrbavo’s localization efforts: Openbravo itself should provide the underlying functionality and tools to make the adjustments required for any particular locale as simple as possible: “view Openbravo as a platform, we believe it is viable in most countries with varying degree of intervention.. we try to simplify the process of fine tuning the application for any particular market of even vertical”.

Openbravo localization covers  :”.. the ability to capture the transactional data with sufficient granularity for reporting needs, number handling, rounding rules, tax logic and tax rule including tax on tax and withholding tax, currency management, chart of accounts, and multi cultural aspects – not only language, but also the ability of the UI to present data in away that is culturally excepted: display of number, address format, RTL , date etc.”

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I often get visitors to my blog searching for ‘hosted ERP systems’, ‘Openbravo hosting’ or ‘hosted Compiere’. One of the hottest current trends in IT is hosted, or SaaS( software as a service), business software. There are many advantages to using a hosted ERP system, especially for small-medium businesses. We cover the subject of on-demand (hosted) ERP systems in our free ERP training.

Hosting an ERP system is an idea that has been around for years. In the late 90’s, it was called ASP – Application Service Providers. These providers installed business software (CRM,ERP etc.) in their own hosting facility, and offered its customers access to the systems over the Internet, usually for a monthly subscription.

The problem back then was that the Internet infrastructure, in terms of speed, reliability and security, was not mature enough. A few years later, Salesforce.com, a CRM providers, was the first commercially successful business software vendor to deliver their application over the Internet. By that time, the trend was renamed to SaaS – software as a service, and is now part of the Cloud Computing trend.

CRM systems are much more simple than ERP systems, and are easier to offer off the cloud. Additionally, they require much less customization, and uptime requirements are leaner than those of ERP systems. These factors make hosting an ERP system a more challenging issue.
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This is the official free online ERP training agenda and schedules page. If you plan to attend our live ERP sessions,  make sure you visit this page to get the latest updates.

Course Name:

ERP 101

Next Sessions:

Thursday, March 19th, 2009, at 16:00 GMT
Sunday, March 8th, 2009, at 15:00 GMT (Completed)
March 3rd, 2009, at 17:00 GMT (Completed)

Next Session Item:

ERP Modules: Manufacturing, Inventory, Sales, Purchasing, Accounting. Includes live ERP demos.
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ERP, The Beginning

It all began with 5 IBM engineers from Manheim, Germany , working nights and weekends on the next big thing in software: ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning. The year was 1972, and the business software world was a spaghetti of systems, vendors and technologies. Departments could not communicate with each other because their software systems spoke different languages. Babel tower of custom applications. SAP was about to change everything.
They called the company Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung (“System Analysis and Program Development”) and incorporated in April of 1972. They had their first customer that year (probably the shortest sales cycle for SAP ever!!), ICI, which is still an SAP customer, 35 years later.
At that time ,MRP software was becoming widely regarded as a key to success in efficient manufacturing operations. Accounting software was around for more than a decade, dominated by solutions from IBM. Integrating the two was (and still is) a nightmare.
In 1973, SAP was ahead of everyone else in the integrated business applications industry, releasing R/1. In 1979 it will release the R/2 ERP application.

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