Selecting the right ERP software for your company can boost productivity, lower costs, improve operational excellence and take customer satisfactions to new levels. There are many ERP applications to choose from, but in general, you should choose an ERP offering that best fits your company's requirements, rather than the one which is perceived to to be the best. There are many factors that go into the decision making process of an ERP offering, available functionality and price are amongst the highest weighted, but when it comes open source ERP, several unique factors must be considered.

5 factors to weigh-in when choosing an open source (SaaS) ERP solution:

1. Project's overall activity - one of the main benefits of open source ERP is the high level of transparency this vendors offer. Not only is the application available to download and test for free, but a host of parameters can be easily accessed, helping you estimate the activity level of the project. Most projects are hosted on Sourceforge, where you can easily find statistics such as number of downloads, dates of latest releases, forum posts, number of active developers etc. Examine these parameters carefully, making sure activity levels remain steady or increase over a period of at least one year, preferably more.

2. Pricing structure - Open source software is free to download, install and use. But when it comes to ERP, a certain level of professional support is a must. You should not try to run your business on an ERP software with no access to support. The largest advantage of open source ERP is that you do not pay any license fees, but ERP vendors offer support packages through a monthly or yearly subscription plan. Make sure you understand what you pay for and what to you get in return

3. Partners ecosystem - Just like in proprietary ERP implementations, a partner is in charge of taking those powerful ERP systems and making it work for you, not the ERP vendor himself. Open source ERP vendors are putting a lot of energy and funds into expanding their global partners network. Make sure your vendor has at least one partner located close to you - you will need to become good friends with them in order to achieve maximum ROI on your ERP investment.

4. Customer Success stories - we all love ERP success stories, as they provide a level of confidence which is hard to achieve otherwise. Since open source ERP solutions have been around only for a few years, companies want to hear about successful implementation before making any major decision. Ask your open source ERP vendor or partner to talk with one of their customers. When you talk to that customer, conduct an open conversation and understand not only the strengths of the ERP offering, but also about the challenges the customer faced during implementation.

5. Clear roadmap - any ERP decision will influence your business for many years. In that sense, a clear roadmap by the open source ERP vendor is a guarantee note that functionality that is not currently available but is essential to your success, will be made available within a reasonable time frame. Make sure the roadmap is publicly available on the vendor's website, is open to discussion by the community, and that the project's progress is measured against to the official roadmap.

Written by :

OSSERPGuru