OBservations on ERP (by an Open Source convert)

What is a Future Proof ERP?

2011-11-11T12:57:00.000-06:00

This is a question we think a lot about at Openbravo, because deploying a new ERP is a big investment for our customers, and we want Openbravo to be the last ERP they ever implement. Our goal is not just “Agile ERP” but “ERP for Life”, and that means becoming future proof.

As we engage with customers and prospects, we clearly see that as they grow, a lot of small to medium sized businesses end up supplementing their hard-to-change, legacy ERP back office systems with a complex patchwork of:

"best of breed" applications,
point solutions purchased by end users,
external portals,
spreadsheets, etc.,

… in an attempt to reactively respond to the real needs of the business. This is called a "best practice" by the legacy vendors and system integrators who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. :)

But there is clearly a better way.

A "Future Proof ERP" puts a change-ready business application platform at the center of your business, enabling you to get rid of that complex mess, and deploy all or most of your required functionality natively in the web based ERP.

To communicate this clearly, I created a brief video called (1) "What is a Future Proof ERP?", which addresses the topic in a practical way, and demonstrates three ways in which Openbravo 3 is future proof, today.

So take a few minutes and check it out. If this video strikes a cord, you will probably also be interested in our new (2) technology page. Finally, if you need help getting your company ready to face 2012 and beyond, please fill out this (3) registration form for a free consultation with an Openbravo expert.

(1) http://youtu.be/OZutelDNgzE?hd=1
(2) http://www.openbravo.com/product/erp/technology/
(3) http://www.openbravo.com/form/customer/index.php?source=Blog

Openbravo Revs up Retail! (check out the webinars in English and Spanish)

2011-05-20T12:26:00.002-05:00

Openbravo has delivered proven results in the retailsector for several years, and this week we are intensifying our Retail focuswith a new commercial offering called Point of Sale Retail (press release here).

Pointof Sale Retail extends Openbravo 3 Professional Editionwith commercial support for Openbravo POS, providing a unified, highly scalableand cost-effective open source solution platform for Retail.

To learnmore about the Point of Sale Retail Module and the agile Openbravo 3 platform,please register for the webinar

”How to affordablysuper-charge retail performance with an integrated, open source retailsolution”:

· In English on June 9 at 9-10 am PDT

· In Spanish on June 14 at 4-5 pm CEST

This webinar will be informative for Retail companiesrequiring an agile, cost-effective retail solution, as well as IT servicescompanies who cater to the Retail sector—and who want to implement the bestpossible retail solutions for their customers.

Introducing the Openbravo 3 Module Monitor

2011-05-03T17:01:00.002-05:00

I'd like toannounce a new tool to help keep you informed about the extensive moduledevelopment activity happening across Openbravo's global Community--the Openbravo3 Module Monitor Report.

The very firstedition, for April 2011, is now available for direct download here. If you want to receive this report automatically every month, please click here to sign up for our mailing list, and be sure to check the box re: "Technical Product Updates".

Since the Openbravo 3 Monitor Report can be a bit intimidating (thereis always a LOT going on! :), read on to check out some summary highlights.

April 2011 Module Development Highlights

This month Openbravo developers worldwide are heads down publishing their modules for Openbravo 3, and several localizations achieved GA (General Availability) or CR (Controlled Release) status for Openbravo 3, including localization modules from these countries:

Japan (S&S Global Services)
France (Phidias)
Turkey (thanks Kasim!)

Dozens of of Openbravo’s own modules were updated to Release Candidate 6, adding new functionality and correcting over 100 defects as reported by Openbravo CEO Paolo Juvara in this blog post.

I have a special call out for the Initial Data Load Extension for Java module, which is now published in Test status for Openbravo 3. As Adrian Romero discussed in this blog post, the module makes it easy to tailor your initial data load process. If you are piloting Openbravo 3 and want to import your own specific data, give it a try!

Similarly, if you are a developer authoring a module and want to add an import process to it, check out this post from Shankar Balachandran. A lot of people have data in spreadsheets (or can easily put it there), so it is often worth your time to go the extra mile to make it as easy as possible to import customer data into your new module (instead of entering it by hand).

Great Example of Web-based Integration!

Finally, I want to refer you to Asier Zabaleta’s excellent blog post describing how easy it is to integrate Openbravo 3 with Zoho reports, and expose a Zoho graph as an Openbravo 3 workspace widget. Asier sums it up very well at the end,

“And this is just an example of why web solutions are so powerful these days. Their ease of integration with other tools makes them a must”!!

Indeed, open source is at the forefront of modular web technology, and Openbravo is leading the way in the ERP space, with Openbravo 3, the agile erp.

Until Next Month...

I hope you have found this monthly update on Openbravo 3 module development informative and useful. Openbravo 3 modules are the key to achieving a best fit, maintainable ERP implementation at a low cost. So stay informed informed about what modules are available, and don’t be shy about trying out a new module--it’s easy, just follow these simple instructions.

Note that if you ever miss a month, I will keep a complete list of themonthly reports in the wiki, just click here.

QuickStart 2 for Spain now available

2010-09-20T02:04:00.000-05:00

As noted in this recent press release (in Spanish),QuickStart 2 is now available for Spain.

This next generation of the proven QuickStart rapidimplementation solution incorporates all of the latest Openbravo ERP advances,featuring deep professional localization for Spain out of the box, andinclusion of the new Advanced Payables & Receivables module and theEasy Extensible Attributes module.

Advanced Payables and Receivables is a complete paymentmanagement system that provides an enhanced user experience, and fullyautomates and audits all payment and reconciliation processes--bringingground-breaking simplicity and efficiency to finance.

Easy Extensible Attributes enables non-technical businessanalysts or consultants to easily add new tabs and fields to Openbravoapplication windows.

Companies in Spain are looking to save time and moneynow, while also increasing their business agility for the future. OpenbravoProfessional Edition, combined with QuickStart 2 for Spain, meets thischallenge head on, providing an adaptable, web-based business managementsolution that can be implemented in weeks instead of months.

Openbravo ERP Professional Edition updated for U.S. Market

2010-08-27T02:38:00.003-05:00

The Openbravo development team has had a very productivesummer, and the fruits of their labors have come together for U.S. companies inthe form of 3 complementary initiatives, all of which are available at no costto Openbravo ERP Professional Edition subscribers in the U.S.:

QuickStart 2
U.S. Professional Localization Pack
Advanced Payables & Receivables Module

QuickStart 2 is the next generation of our rapidimplementation solution that allows SMBs to go live with a standardized,pre-configured web-based ERP implementation in weeks instead of months--withfull adaptability and scalability going forward. See the recent press release fordetails.

The first version of the U.S. Professional Localization Pack is now available in Openbravo Exchange. Companies with U.S. operations will seefaster deployments, more efficient operations, and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) with thisfunctionality. Openbravo partners maysign onto the partner portal and follow this link to a recorded webinarwith detailed information, in the "Must Know" section.

Finally, the new Advanced Payables and Receivablesmodule (which is pre-bundled with QuickStart 2, but also availableindependently) has reached GA (Generally Available) status, after being inControlled Release during the summer. This "module" is actually a complete payment management systemthat provides an enhanced user experience, and fully automates and audits allpayment and reconciliation processes. The Openbravo Exchange listing is here.

The bottom line is that U.S. companies are increasinglylooking for adaptable, web-based solutions that are cloud-ready and easy todeploy and operate. Openbravo ERPProfessional Edition, combined with QuickStart 2 and the U.S. ProfessionalLocalization Pack, is well-positioned to meet this demand!

Openbravo wins Infoworld Best of Open Source Bossie Award 2010

2010-08-25T17:51:00.001-05:00

Infoworld just announced their 2010 Bossie Awards, and have again honored Openbravo with the Best of Open Source Awards 2010 (Bossie Award), inthe Best Open Source Applications category. This is the third time we have beenhonored (2007, 2009, 2010).

Other application winners include Pentaho, Talend, SugarCRM, and Alfresco--congratulations to this elite open source crew.

This year we're the only winner in the ERP category. Per Infoworld, Openbravo is the leading Open Source ERP company!

Spain's World Cup Lessons for Business

2010-07-15T01:54:00.000-05:00

Openbravo would like to congratulate Spain on a great World Cup victory. It was well-deserved and a testament to the team's patience, stamina and skill. They stayed true to their philosophy, and did not waver from a proven strategy--even after an upset loss in the first match.

As a global company with origins in Spain, Openbravo is proud of this landmark achievement, and also the way it was achieved. I think there is a lot that companies can learn from the hard work, perseverance and interdependence of the Spanish players. I also see many of the same underlying attributes in Openbravo’s team and extended ecosystem, and I know that similar perseverance, execution, and faithfulness to our open source strategy will ultimately yield great results for Team Openbravo.

¡Felicidades España!

Openbravo Forge achieves growth milestone: 10k Developers

2010-04-22T08:06:00.027-05:00

I just noticed that Openbravo Forge, the collaborative development environment from Openbravo, has reached the 10 thousand developer mark! When I last blogged about it in August 2009, Openbravo Forge had 6997 developers and 139 projects. Now we are at 10000 developers, working together on over 300 ERP-related projects!

This steady growth demonstrates what an open source community can do when a best-in-class project like Openbravo ERP is paired with a robust collaboration tool like Openbravo Forge.

Note that I am using the term "developer" in a general sense. Developing world class web-based ERP solutions for SMB requires a wide range of talent. So in addition to ERP application developers, Openbravo Forge users include ERP functional experts, System Architects, QA analysts, User Experience experts, and people involved in documentation, language translation, localization, and more. If you have an interest in ERP, check out Openbravo Forge to see what all of the excitement is about! Hint: it may have a little bit to do with collaboration and innovation... :)

Continued growth of Openbravo Exchange

2010-04-14T12:44:00.001-05:00

We are pleased to announce that our friends from Datafashion have just published a new developer-oriented module called the Interceptor Filter. This module, which appears in Openbravo Exchange's growing Tools section, provides an easy way to intercept a user command, and attach custom logic to it without changing the core source code.

In related Openbravo Exchange news, the philosophy at Openbravo is to grow the Exchange organically and at high quality from the very beginning. We want Openbravo Exchange to be a place that people can go to with confidence to find high quality, valuable extensions modules that they can easily install and combine to meet their unique needs. To ensure that all Exchange modules install and uninstall correctly as we deliver monthly maintenance packs, we are testing all of them on a continuous integration basis per this defined process, which uses the Selenium toolset described in this recent recorded webinar.

So, if you don't find what you are looking for in Openbravo ERP, please remember to check out Openbravo Exchange. New native Openbravo modules are being added all the time, and we are working hard to apply the latest technology and best-in-class processes to help assure high quality.

Openbravo expands Cloud support with native Ubuntu 9.10 package

2010-04-06T11:21:00.004-05:00

As announced in this recent blog post, Openbravo has released a native Openbravo ERP package for Ubuntu 9.10, which brings an important new capability to Openbravo users: full support on the Amazon Cloud. Here are the official AMI (Amazon Machine Image) IDs for Ubuntu 9.10. If you are new to Amazon Web Services, Ubuntu's EC2 Starter's Guide will get you started with instructions on how to create an account and start and manage a new instance.

With the native Ubuntu 9.10 package, Openbravo is now providing another fully-supported, standard way to deploy to the cloud (in addition to our cloud appliance)--just start with the 9.10 AMI and install the Openbravo Ubuntu package, as usual. This is an ideal option for customers of all sizes who appreciate the flexibility, security, and wide range of applications available for easy installation on Ubuntu Server, combined with the benefits of deploying Openbravo ERP on the public Amazon Cloud, which include:

freedom from the cost and hassle of acquiring and managing your own physical hardware
low monthly billing, with the ability to incrementally increase the computer resources you pay for, as you need them
secure, browser access to Openbravo ERP from anywhere in the world
ability to achieve efficient, off-site backup

WIth Openbravo' Ubuntu 9.10 package, larger organizations and SaaS providers seeking to deploy Openbravo ERP on a private cloud behind their own firewall can do so with the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud--which is compatible with the Amazon public cloud, enabling easy migration and the ability to "burst" to the public cloud during peak periods as needed.

Cloud computing is growing steadily, and recent surveys suggest that further acceleration in cloud adoption is on the horizon. Cloud computing, Ubuntu, and Openbravo ERP are all now past the "early adopter" stage, and together provide an ideal combination for many SMBs. Openbravo customers are increasingly deploying on the cloud, and we at Openbravo use the Amazon EC2 Cloud extensively in our own IT infrastructure. We have extensive real world experience with it, and can attest to the benefits. Now is a great time to get started with Openbravo ERP, Ubuntu, and the Amazon Cloud!

Launch of Openbravo Exchange: the ERP Marketplace

2010-01-26T11:18:00.007-06:00

I have written in the past about Openbravo Forge, Openbravo's collaborative development environment, and now I'm pleased to announce the launch of Openbravo Exchange--the place to go for information about extension modules that are "ready for prime time". If the Forge is the sausage factory, then the Exchange is the delicatessen, featuring a series of "ready-to-use" software packages that are catalogued and described with the end user in mind. :)

Here are the top things to know about Openbravo Exchange:

Openbravo business partners now have an official, high-profile web site they can leverage to promote and monetize their Openbravo commercial extension modules and templates
All business partners are allowed evaluation-only access to all Exchange modules (so they can sell them on the author's behalf, and get a sales commission of course)
As an author, you don't have to worry about invoicing and collecting money--we do that, and you collect periodic author royalty payments!
Good zero-cost open source modules from anyone are also welcome, of course (nice way to get your name out there)
We are starting with a self-certification model, here are the certification criteria
You ain't seen nothin' yet! (this is just version 1.0, stay tuned for a more dynamic Exchange with reviews, ratings, etc.)

If you are a business partner with Openbravo-based commercial software to sell through our channel, here are the steps to package and sell it. If you are a business partner implementing solutions for your clients, check Openbravo Exchange before proposing to close functional gaps with a custom project--what your customer needs may already be available off-the-shelf, as a fully-tested package! If you are new to Openbravo and interested in leveraging your development skills, the Openbravo ERP Developer's Guide is the place to start.

Here is the official press release, which features the Hotel Management System from Bonsai Consulting--best of luck to you with this module, Ravi. And happy developing and selling to all in the Openbravo community in 2010, as we unleash the business of modularity!

Openbravo announces commercial relationship with Canonical + native Ubuntu package

2009-08-11T11:50:00.002-05:00

In case you haven’t seen the press release (Openbravo broadens support for Ubuntu with commercial open source ERP package), Openbravo now provides a fully-supported, subscription-based ERP offering on Ubuntu’s technology stack, with an easy-to-install native Ubuntu package. The pre-integrated and supported technology stack features Ubuntu 9.04, PostgreSQL 8.3, and Tomcat 6. If you want to skip the press release and head straight to the goodies, this link will tell you how.

So now what’s your excuse for not implementing Openbravo ERP? ☺

Openbravo Forge: Real-world Collaborative Development Examples

2009-08-03T04:35:00.006-05:00

Since joining Openbravo in April, I have spent time speaking with members of our ecosystem and personally experiencing the Openbravo Forge. As expected, members of the ecosystem can now complete projects in collaboration with or independently from Openbravo staff. However, I am surprised by the results we have been able to achieve so quickly, and am really please to see how some business practices have dramatically improved.

Re: the quantitative numbers, as of this writing the Openbravo Forge statistics (publicly shown in the upper right corner of the screen) read “139 projects and 6997 developers”!

Read on for some qualitative examples of what is happening at the Openbravo Forge.

Partner and Ecosystem Contributions and the Resulting Exposure

The old way: Openbravo Partners and the ecosystem completed extensions and had difficulty sharing them worldwide.

The new way: Openbravo Partners and the ecosystem are collectively sharing extensions, gaining wide exposure in the process.

Success Stories: Since the Forge went live, companies like Opensistemas have started publishing some of their extensions there. During an implementation for well-recognized European Fast Food Chain Bocatta, Opensistemas implemented POS features such as a kitchen monitor, an expanded menu, and an ingredients menu. For those in the ecosystem, these features are available here.

Community Translation and Localization Projects

The old way: Openbravo staff created an SVN branch so translators and the community could support these efforts. Openbravo staff was required to personally create localization packages and release them on our specific release schedule.

The new way: The Openbravo Forge lets anyone create their own translation project and release it as desired. They do not require any daily support from Openbravo.

Success Stories: Since the Forge went live, Openbravo staff has been able to invest more time supporting ecosystem efforts and less time on basic administration. As a result, country location projects are growing daily:

Independently Learning about and Creating Openbravo Modules

The old way: The ecosystem learned how to develop on top of Openbravo via wiki documentation.

The new way: The forge makes it more attractive to learn how to develop modules via interactive collaboration with Openbravo.

Success Stories: Right now in Pakistan, a Computer Science Professor is using the Forge to mentor development projects for his students. With the forge, his students have all the tools they need to learn about a development process in open source. The result for the ecosystem is a set of new and exciting features. The result of Openbravo is the opportunity to mentor the teacher and the students on how to develop for Openbravo. You can check their progress here and here.

Partners and the Ecosystem Create and Manage Projects in Private on the Forge…for Free

The old way: Some partners and ecosystem members were required to pay for a private Forge space, manage their projects on a public Forge, or potentially use a rudimentary sharing tool in order to control project management.

The new way: Partners can manage their projects privately on the Openbravo Forge. Neither Openbravo nor the community will have any access to private project content. Free hosted project services include forums, news, downloads, bug tracking, versioning control system for code, and Wiki / Central Repository modules integration.

Success Stories: As of today, Openbravo is only aware of the 115 public projects on the Forge. Unless a staff member is provided access by a project administrator, we are unable to view any work being completed in a private Forge project.

The Forge is actively helping the ecosystem quickly bring Openbravo ERP to new markets and industries. This is because members of the ecosystem can independently connect with one another. They can also have the flexibility to choose what projects to work on, or even to start a project publicly or privately. As for Openbravo, we spend much less time on administration and basic coordination, and much more time on guidance and support.

Virtual and Face-to-Face Collaboration

One final thought on Openbravo’s growing ecosystem and our efforts to support it. While the Openbravo Forge is a great tool to support asynchronous collaboration, we at Openbravo also strongly believe in the traditional face-to-face method, and our biggest event is the Openbravo World Conference (OBWC). For a glimpse of what the 2009 edition offered, please see this video. Happy collaborating via the forge, and I hope to see you at OBWC 2010!

Openbravo 3rd Party Integrations and the Modularity Concept: Empowering End Customers

2009-07-18T14:46:00.005-05:00

Attracting 3rd party ISVs is a critical element of Openbravo ERP's value proposition to it's end customers. As of version 2.50, released this spring, ISVs (and VARs, System Integrators, etc.) can now efficiently add features, functionality, and integrations to extend Openbravo's core capabilities, via the modularity subsystem.

I am amazed at how quickly Openbravo's ecosystem has responded to this new capability, with dozens of Openbravo-related Integration and Modularity projects already underway on the Openbravo Forge. I'd like to take a minute to highlight a few of them:
Elondra Mobile Sales Order Management: Openbravo ERP is now integrated with Elondra's bmSales. Customers are able to log sales orders in their mobile device using bmSales, and later transfer those sales to Openbravo ERP. They can also load information required to create orders directly into the mobile device.
ProcessMaker Workflow Management: Via web services, Openbravo ERP is now integrated with ProcessMaker BPM, adding additional workflow capabilities to the solution. Any information added to ProcessMaker is automatically shared with Openbravo to generate Expense Sheets, Purchase Invoices, and Sales Orders in Openbravo ERP. Forms and reports can be routed to the correct business partner for approval. The entire process may be tracked by a supervisor.
Funambol Data Synchronization: This recently-launched project will synchronize Openbravo ERP data using Funambol synchronization server. Once completed, users will be able to take commonly used data from laptops, iphones, Mozilla Thunderbird / Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Google calendar, etc, and synchronize everything to the ERP for easy access and use.
Access to a growing list of 3rd party modules is a huge benefit for Openbravo customers, extending the range of available functionality and introducing them to valuable complementary products and companies . Openbravo ERP is quickly growing up--from a fully-functional, standalone business management system to a robust platform, wide-open for business!

The Business Side of Modularity: Food for Thought

2009-06-22T18:15:00.005-05:00

Since I joined Openbravo in April, I’ve been hearing a lot about “modularity” and what a significant enabler it is for the ecosystem. Paolo Juvara wrote an incredible blog post on this topic, detailing the technology and explaining the theoretical ecosystem dynamics that it supports. There is a lot of information in that post, and it raised a number of “food for thought” business questions for me that I’d like to get feedback on.

Before raising those questions, here is my shorthand on modularity’s “Big Idea”:

Reusability + Autonomy + Exposure = Scalability (of the Ecosystem)

Let me explain. As a participant in a software development ecosystem (or you can use the word “community” if you like), I have 3 major business-oriented goals:

Reusability: Let me leverage the work of others
Autonomy: Let me create what I want and contribute it (so others can leverage)
Exposure: Provide me a means of public recognition (so I can monetize my contributions in some ways)

When a software ecosystem is structured to effectively and efficiently meet these 3 business goals, then it is designed to be scalable, with no internal factors gating growth. Openbravo Modularity certainly provides for reusability, allowing formal packaging at 3 levels of granularity (module, pack, template). And its formal dependency support enables reuse across versions and different authors. Autonomy is also provided, as well as exposure (through publishing modules via the online Central Repository).

So all of the basic requirements are met. What’s not to like? J But of course the key business challenge with all new platforms and ecosystems is that their growth is governed by the “Network Effect”, in which large benefits to the participants don’t accrue until a “critical mass” is reached (in this case, a critical mass of software authors and users). So, until there are large numbers of consumers, it is difficult to attract large numbers of producers. Conversely, small numbers of producers discourage new consumers from joining.

The platform must deliver enough tangible value to attract increasing numbers of both producers and consumers over time. We at Openbravo are adding that tangible, practical value to our ERP platform on a continuous basis, and Modularity is a part of that. We are very excited to see where the ecosystem takes this!

With that backdrop, it’s time for my “food for thought” questions related to Openbravo Modularity.

Both commercial modules (pay first, then download) and community modules (free as in both beer and speech) will be supported in Openbravo's integrated Central Repository. Which will dominate? Stated another way, will most module authors act as ISVs (creating software that they enhance and maintain over time), or will most freely contribute their work to gain recognition for the purpose of selling custom services (effectively using their software as an advertisement)? Will the pattern change over time (as the number of consumers grows)? Will authors who started as custom services developers gain domain expertise in an area and evolve into an ISV focused on that vertical? Will authors start out charging for their modules, and then turn them over to the community after a certain period of time (when they have recouped their development cost via the sales)?

What about module size and granularity—will we see large numbers of small “drive-by contributions” (single reports, small integration to a 3^rd-party system, purpose-built inquiry screen, etc.), or a smaller number of complete industry templates? How will that pattern change as the ecosystem grows? Will end customers contribute modules, or only partners?

What will the partner channel look like over time? Will most partners continue to Develop, Sell, and Implement, or will we see increasing specialization over time (perhaps with most custom Development clustering in countries with favorable labor rates and quality developers?). Will some organizations focus on selling, subcontracting the implementation work to others? Will partners collaborate extensively, with partners on one side of the globe localizing modules created by others on the other side? (the Openbravo Forge will certainly enable that!)

Will “first move advantage” dominate, i.e. will being the first module for a certain area generally mean you will be number 1 two years from now? Will the presence of an existing module discourage other authors from competing, or will we see a lot of competition in high-volume niches?

What are the biggest challenges to Openbravo's 3rd-party ecosystem reaching critical mass? What can we do better?

Please feel free to provide public feedback / speculation here.

Hidden Architecture Syndrome: Definition & Longterm Effects

2009-03-29T11:38:00.018-05:00

Software architecture as archeological dig (when engineers have no voice)

A common criticism of Open Source software vendors (most often made by our proprietary brethren) is that Open Source vendors are founded by engineers and technologists who do not understand commercial business, and the importance of the sales and marketing functions. I will let that generalization stand for now (of course, commercial success requires a proper balance across the disciplines!), and focus my first series of posts on the "flip side", namely:

what generally happens over time in "sales-driven" software companies?

Note: My comments are focused on the mid-market ERP space, with which I am very familiar.

Context

First, some context. As a relative newbie to the world of Open Source ERP, I was immediately struck by how transparent and "out in the open" everything is, at least here at Openbravo--not just the source code, but complete documentation, release status, virtually everything! My iGoogle now has a graphical widget that shows me the number of open bugs in the new Openbravo 2.50 release, by severity. Take a look at Openbravo's public wiki: as a new employee, I can be told "just read the wiki, and you will be pretty much up to speed re: what we are up to". Wow, all there on the web, linked together, searchable, easy to consume (even from an iPhone!) .

And once you start reading, you see topics like "Concepts for Openbravo ERP Redesign". Yowza, "Redesign"?, why do we need a redesign? That makes it sound like what we have now is no good. Did I take the right job? And then you step back and realize that in the proprietary world, you were used to spending a lot of cycles on perception (so time is spent by high-priced marketing staff "sanitizing" such politically incorrect verbiage). Here in opensource land, we are doing real Collaborative User Experience Design (complete with UI mockups) out in the open with partners and clients!

And as I am reading and learning more, it occurs to me that this transparency is not just a "difference", it is a hugely valuable differentiator. The first area I want to talk about related to transparency is Software Architecture, which in my experience is a mission-critical Software Engineering discipline that requires ongoing investment to deliver sustainable, adaptable business systems that will last over the course of decades. Open Source vendors tend to be very strong in this area, simply because the Darwinian nature of the overall open source ecosystem demands it--architectural weaknesses are quickly exposed publicly, and, if not addressed, your open source project will die due to lack of interest on the part of developers. So, the transparency assures that only the best architectures will actually be built upon, and that they will be updated with worthy new technologies that inevitably arise in the future (recent past examples include RESTful Web Services and AJAX).

So what happens over time when a system's architecture is allowed to evolve in a non-transparent, "hidden" manner, as is often the case with sales-driven, proprietary mid-market ERP vendors?

Hidden Architecture Syndrome

Well, the short answer is that "Hidden Architecture Syndrome" (HAS) sets in. And, depending on where the proprietary product is in its lifecycle, the symptoms of this syndrome do not bode well for its users, longterm.

I have identified 5 phases of HAS, based on my experiences working in the mid-market ERP space:

Life is Good: We have a product that fits a niche!
Bulk Up: Our success has attracted competition
Attrition & Contraction: Initial effects of technological obsolescence
Pump up the Marketing: This stuff is still good, just need more focused marketing for new deals
Keep Milking the Base / Get Acquired: (aka, "Decision time for customers")

One final thought at this point: Why is the "common wisdom", as espoused by the analyst firms (Gartner, AMR, etc.), that the shelf life (or customer buying cycle) for an ERP system is 7-10 years? I think that much of the answer is that Hidden Architecture Syndrome is prevalent industry-wide, and a decade is about how long a vendor can profitably "ride" any given architecture (before dramatically reducing the R&D investment on that "legacy" system).

But it doesn't have to be that way, does it? What if your ERP vendor actually invested in a rock solid, modern architecture, and then invested incrementally to refine and improve it at every release? From an economic perspective, nobody actually wants to "rip and replace" every decade (conceptually, that's like planning to get a divorce once per decade). Doesn't it make a lot more sense to find that perfect partner, one who shares your goals and openly commits to making the necessary investments? Think that perfect partner doesn't exist? Think you can't have "ERP for Life"? Perhaps you haven't been looking in the right places! :)

Introduction

2009-03-21T20:57:00.000-05:00

I'm John Fandl and I have a confession to make: my 20+ year career has centered around working with proprietary software companies (Supply Chain, ERP, and ERP-centric BI/Analytics). That is, until recently, when I moved over to open source ERP supplier Openbravo.

Actually I'm still in process with this move, which will take me and my family from Naperville, IL (U.S.) to Barcelona, Spain this spring. So, I likely won't find much time for many posts until I'm settled in the job, and the family is settled in Spain. Not to mention going thru that "Proprietary Anonymous 12-Step Program"! :)

When I do post to this blog, it will be about ERP-related topics, with my own slant on the differences between proprietary vs. open source ERP. I'm already seeing major differences related to "developing in a fishbowl", and I will post on how the lack of transparency in proprietary software companies results in "Hidden Architecture Syndrome", and how that impacts customers.

I call things as I see them, so don't expect me to beat up on proprietary competition as a general rule. Hey, that's where I came from, and all of the real professionals I have had the privilege of working with care deeply about their customers, co-workers, and the software they produce. And that's one thing that won't change for me!