[ILUG] ERP software

[Colin Rooney]

Hi Paul,

I am one of the founders of Adempiere ERP project, a popular community
fork of Compiere. OpenBravo is another fork., so I know quite a bit
about all these projects.  A big plus to all these is the ability to
customize and still maintain upgrade-ability.

Also I did a lot of research into Apache's OfBiz for a project that
was canceled at the last so I've not had to actually implement it yet,
but for e-commerce and, importantly, for integration this I think is
by far the better bet!

OfBiz is a very impressive piece of software and is particularly
suited to online selling, including all the associated back office
work.  Its services orientated design make it very good at interfacing
and there are existing modules integrating with Ebay & Google
checkout.

Many do find OfBiz very complex internally when they look at it first,
much of the business logic and all of the configuration is done via
XML files so it takes a little getting used to.  And it is by no means
an "Out of the Box" solution however.

I think you are wise to look for a strong community, but I've not met
any others in Ireland (not yet anyway) that support Adempiere/Compiere
or OfBiz, so at least locally I am not sure how successful that will
be but OfBiz has a strong on-line community as does Adempiere which is
consistently a top 5 project of SourceForge.

I think the two projects (Adempiere & OfBiz) have things to offer,
both are adaptable but the OfBiz design is, IMO, stronger.  At a very
high level, a key difference is though... while Adempiere offers
immediately all the basics and makes it easy to extend, OfBiz includes
a lot more depth & complexity out of the box (especially in say
picking) but makes it easy to remove that not needed.  And while
Adempiere immediately looks like a finished product OfBiz seems like a
great starting point, but as I said OfBiz is a stronger design and
built for the web from beginning.  It would be my preference given the
few (but I assume key) requirements you set out.

If you need any further information just ask.

Colin

2009/10/20  <paul at clubi.ie>:
> Hi,
>
> Don't think this comes up very often on ILUG...
>
> I'm wondering if anyone has used any of the open-source ERP thingies out
> there (either locally, or hosted with someone), and if so whether they can
> recommend them.
>
> Particularly interested in anything that can integrate with existing
> online-retailer "shop fronts" (e.g. Amazon, Ebay shops, Google checkout).
> Integration with or support for well-known shipping companie would be good
> too (e.g. ability to print shipping labels directly). There should be a good
> community of developers and consultants around them.
>
> E.g. experience with things like Compiere, OpenERP, Apache OFBiz, etc..
>
> Tips (private or otherwise) for good app-hosters for same would be useful
> too.
>
> regards,
> --
> Paul Jakma      paul at jakma.org  Key ID: 64A2FF6A
> Fortune:
> A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
>                -- Samuel Goldwyn
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