ERP Software

Open Source ERP

ERP, or enterprise resource planning, is unique software designed to organize, manage, and run business organizations in a way that will increase both productivity and earnings. Companies are all searching for ways to upgrade the way their companies manage their IT and run their operations. Essentially, every business wants an ERP system that best applies to it, but finding it presents quite a challenge.  Even though ERP systems represent the core of modern businesses, they are intrinsically saddled with problems due to the fact ERP requires long and expensive customizations before it will adequately fit the business processes of a specific company.

Successful examples abound, it’s true; but so do failures. In the 1990’s Nestle USA embarked on an ERP project that cost more than double what the company had budgeted, not to mention that it was a full six years before the implementation was finished. During the same time period, ERP implementation at Waste Management failed completely and to cover the costs incurred the company subsequently filed a lawsuit against SAP, the vendor, for $100 million. Even the businesses who consider their purchase a success complain they often find themselves locked into expensive licensing and maintenance agreements.

Enter open-source ERP software. Open source is a way to develop software by allowing developers to share their code thereby saving time by keeping them from constantly re-writing code. Popularized by the growth of the Linux operating system, open-source software allows anyone to view and audit the source code of a systems package and customize the software. Due to the fact that ERP systems require a great deal of customization, open source appears to stand for a seemingly ideal approach.

Basically, open source ERP is an outgrowth of the Free Software Movement, first started by Richard Stallman in the early 1980’s in order to promote the free distribution of software. He called for unrestrained software that would be available without restrictions.  The Free Software Movement then resulted in almost a hundred Open Source Initiative certified licenses.  Each of these is accessible by businesses hoping to make use of open-source software. Although there are rules attached to this utilization which are codified by the General Public License, the regulations are not normally considered to be stringent. There is some risk attached, however, to attempts to redistribute the software; it is necessary to read the fine print –carefully- in order to steer clear of potential license violation issues.