ERP Software

ERP Software Open Source

As a rule, businesses shopping for ERP software solutions have had two options. A business could either purchase an existing ERP Software package from a vendor, or work with vendors to custom develop a unique ERP software system to meet its specific requirements. The common result of these two choices  was that a business ended  up with a complete yet cumbersome, inflexible, and expensive ERP Software System or with an ERP solution adapted to meet current needs yet unable to expand with a growing business. Since both of these options required the heavy expense of customization, for many businesses -and frankly more for the smaller, less wealthy enterprises- neither was a viable choice.

The most feasible choice came along with the advent of Open Source ERP Software. With its free business model, ERP Software Open Source is able to bring together the advantages of a complete ERP system with the advantages of an in-house, specific ERP solution. Open Source ERP surpasses the benefits of packaged applications that can run as is. Sooner or later, businesses have to customize ERP to fit their specific business needs. The open source code along with the accompanying hundreds of modules provides them with the ability to design a unique solution that can then be freely updated as the particular business’ needs advance.

Open source ERP software lets businesses view and audit the source code and customize the software. If no modifications are required, open source software can then quickly be implemented. When some customization is required, the business still has a head start with an existing code base.

In the long run, open source ERP offers another advantage by allowing a business to maintain control of the custom software and the external resources.  Once the IT department has the source codes, a business can make independent decisions on future support and upgrades.  The ERP Software cannot go out of business or be discontinued; the software shares the common roots of open source, so support and upgrades will always be available from the open source community.  This means the danger of abandonment due to loss of vendor support or key employees is no longer real.

It’s a fact that ERP systems will require customization because every business does something outside of what the software has in its business process. More and more companies are discovering that they will get a less costly, better fit for their distinctive processes if they control the customization using Open Source ERP.

Written by :

Amy Cruz