ERP OPEN SOURCE

Carlos J. CostaAdetti/ISCTE, ISCTE

Manuela AparícioLusocrédito / ITML

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

IADIS International Conference

WWW/Internet 2006  

Adetti/ISCTE

Content Research Questions Question 1:

what are the main needs of software systems in organizations?

Survey Question 2:

open source ERP: a competitive solution? SWOT analysis

Question 3: current ERP Open Source solutions fulfils client’s

needs? Market analysis

ConclusionOctober 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Adetti/ISCTE

ContextIncreasing number of Open Source

SolutionsERP as strategic solutions in

organizationsMsC Thesis

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Adetti/ISCTE

Research Questions what are the main organization’s needs

in terms of information technologies?

open source ERP are competitive solution (IT Consultant, Software Distributor, software

producer or information systems clients‘) ?

current ERP Open Source solutions presented by the market fulfils client’s needs?October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Adetti/ISCTE

What are the main needs of software systems in organizations? (1/3)

1. In which areas entreprises started to use IT?2. Which areas are currently supported by IT?

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

60 SME

Starting Today

Selling/Invoice 43 72% 56 93%

Marketing 2 3% 37 62%

Stock management 32 53% 41 68%

Finance 27 45% 42 70%

Production 12 20% 20 33%

Human resource 15 25% 34 57%

Client management 29 48% 47 78%

global management 4 7% 24 40% operational management 5 8% 14 23%

others 14 23% 20 33%

Adetti/ISCTE

What are the main needs of software systems in organizations? (2/3)

Tools and functionalities (related to IT) used when IT starded to be used in the entreprise

Tools and functionalities (related to IT) are being used today in the enterprise

Result of content analysis:

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Starting Today

ERP 13 28

Web 2 31

Word 6 1

Adetti/ISCTE

What are the main needs of software systems in organizations? (3/3)

ERP functionalities Commercial area (e.g. Invoice) All functional areas and specially

clients managementWeb environment

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Adetti/ISCTE

Open source ERP: a competitive solution? (1/2)

SWOT analysis

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

IS Client SW Producer SW Distributor IT Consultant Opportunities – Continuous

development by the client

– Free – Public Source Code – Possibility of

depending not from just one (or small number) of technology suppliers.

- Possibility of using open source versions in marketing strategy - Possibility of using open source versions in development strategies

- More complex technology, corresponding to entry barrier

-

Threats – Many disperse solutions

– Less expensive commercial ERP software

– No guaranties supplied by SW producers

– Dependency from technical workers

- Possibility of loosing control over the software

Distributors whose business is supported in commissions based in licences had to change their business.

Widely used technology

Adetti/ISCTE

Open source ERP: a competitive solution? (2/2)

SWOT analysisClients – Open source is not freeSW producer

new strategy may loose control over SW

Consultant – competition may increase

SW distributor – better to change of business

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Adetti/ISCTE

Current ERP Open Source solutions fulfils client’s needs? (1/2)

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Name Origin Licence Technology Functionalities

Compiere http://www.compiere.org Public Mozilla Licence

J2EE, JBoss

Sales Management, Catalogues Management, the tariffs, management of the purchases, stock, logistics, countable and financial management

ERP5 http://www.erp5.org GPL Python, Zope

Management of production, financial management, CRM, logistic chain, E-business, groupware

Fisterra http://www.finisterra.org GPL

GNOME2 development platform, PostgreSQL

Management of warehouses, stocks, treasury, invoicing.

OFBiz (Open For Business)

http://www.ofbiz.org MIT XML, J2EE

Customers Management, suppliers, employees, management of the articles, stocks, the orders, project management, E-trade

Opentaps http://www.opentaps.org/ MIT XML, J2EE

Customers Management, suppliers, employees, management of the articles, stocks, the orders, project management, E-trade

PGI Suite http://www.taika.fr GPL Apache, MySQL, PHP

Financial management, commercial management of the sales and stocks.

webERP Http:/www.weberp.org GPL Apache, MySQL, PHP

Financial Management, Accounting

Tiny ERP http://www.tinyerp.com GPL Python, PostreSQL

Based in a Client Server Platform; ERP and CRM

Adetti/ISCTE

Current ERP Open Source solutions fulfils client’s needs? (2/2)

A great majority of those solutions are in early phase of development

According to the advertising material those systems are adequate to SME

Some ERP open source (e.g. Compiere) are used by several companies

We used WebERPOctober 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Adetti/ISCTE

Conclusions and Future Work (1/2)

Actual systems seam to be adequate to the needs of the organizations, specially SME

Those ERP have Web interface and some use technologies like web-services having interfaces with other systems

Some ERP are in an early development phase

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain

Adetti/ISCTE

Conclusions and Future Work (2/2)

Additional work must be performed:Case study to analyse use of some

tools Use of stakeholders analyse to have

detailed information about impact of systems implementation

Survey study to analysis its use in actual organizations

October 2006 Múrcia, Spain