Posts Tagged ‘selection’
How to identify Open Source ERP Systems for your enterprise
Open Source (OS) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have at least one “advantage” compared to commercial solutions: only few exist so a comparison is less complex. But where should you start looking for this kind of software? The Enterprise Open Source Directory is a good starting point but you should also search on Sourceforge.
Let’s do the latter as an exercise: when using “erp” as a search term more than 300 results come up. It is necessary to restrict our search. I suggest using the following criteria:
- The software project should at least be in “beta”. States like “planning” or “alpha” should be ignored.
- I assume you are a (native?) English speaker. So all projects with a non-English language could be dropped.
- Active development is a must. Let’s also drop all projects which have not published any download in the last year.
- Projects which do not have an own homepage can be considered immature. Keep away from them.
- Exclude all projects which are not ERP systems at all. This includes, for example, translation projects, add-ons and projects with another meaning of ERP than we have in mind.
At the end your result list has been reduced dramatically. Nevertheless there are still too many projects left:
- ADempiere
- CK-ERP
- Compiere
- Dolibarr
- EdgeERP
- ERP5
- ERPel
- JFire
- Neogia
- OpenBravo
- Opentaps
- PhreeBooks Accounting
- Plazma ERP+CRM
- PostBooks
- SQL-Ledger
- thERP
- TinyERP (now called OpenERP)
- webERP
This list is not exhaustive but should provide a good starting point for your own research.
For use in the enterprise you should also consider the following:
- What are your licensing needs? You should carefully look at the kind of license under which the software is distributed. There exist about ten well known and many more not so well known OS licenses – each with different restrictions on modification and redistribution of the software.
- Is the project backed by a company? This should be favoured over community-only projects.
- Is there an active network of support partners? Is a support partner available in your country?
- Do they offer dual licensing? This is most important if you would like to modify and sell the software.
- Which functionality do you need and how does the software match your requirements?
During my research time on OS ERP systems I have asked myself the same questions. All in all I can recommend six OS ERP systems for a closer look (starting from the top):
They all have proven to be usable for the enterprise. You can read their success stories at their websites. All of them should be of use for a (wholesale) distribution company, some of them also for production companies. But this depends on your requirements in view of functionality.
Take a look and let me know your opinion about them!
Tags: adempiere, compiere, erp5, openbravo, opentaps, postbooks, selection
