A few years back, some proprietary hardware companies hit the panic button when Dell and Microsoft Windows moved into point-of-sale (POS) systems. Fast forward to the present, and open source is trying its hand at disrupting the POS market. You already know about Linux running on POS systems. Now, POS applications themselves are going open source. Here’s how.
The trend begins with Openbravo, known within developer circles for its popular open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. Based in Spain, Openbravo is gradually pushing into the US market. Openbravo’s global ambitions include the retail industry — and point of sale software.
To wit, Openbravo has acquired Librepos (previously named Tina POS), the leading POS application in the open source space.
The Openbravo/Librepos combination looks promising. Openbravo has generated more than 350,000 downloads since its launch, while Librepos/Tina has garnered 100,000 downloads since the launch of its first version in January 2005.
Looking ahead, Liberos will be re-branded as Openbravo POS.Integrators will play a key role as Openbravo seeks to serve customers ranging from $5 million to $500 million in revenue, according to Josep Mita, Openbravo’s chief operating officer.
The VAR Guy doesn’t expect Openbravo to push aside Intuit Quickbooks or Microsoft Dynamics anytime soon. But open source trends across ERP and POS are undeniable.
I’d consider switching if it has the features and support I need. We’re currently using Activant Eclipse (formally from Intuit) and it pretty much sucks. It’s buggy, poorly documented, slow, and quite expensive.
I’d like to hear some feedback from anyone using Openbravo. I have it on my Ubuntu box…but haven’t had the time to look at it yet.
I’m considering using it in conjunction with Quickbooks (QB) in my retail business, but would like to know where it might excel over QB and be worthwhile investing time to get up and running.
[...] despliegues propios o despligues alojados? ahà es donde entra en acción Openbravo. Lo bueno: La reciente adquisición de OpenbravoPos impulsa a Openbravo en el mercado de los terminales de punt…. La cual es una extensión natural para un ERP. Desafios: Establecido en España, Openbravo [...]
Nice ERP System for companies that have IT staff with a fair knowledge of Java, Tomcat and Oracle or PostgreSQL.
[...] on-site deployments or hosted deployments? That’s where OpenBravo enters the picture. Upside: Recent acquisition pushes OpenBravo into the point-of-sale market. That’s a natural extension to ERP. Challenges: Headquartered in Spain, OpenBravo needs to [...]
Open Bravo is built on the Compiere model. ADempiere is a fork of Compiere as well and it has a simple POS system available.
We have also had great success implementing OFBiz POS as well. OFBiz is well worth looking at too.
Feel free to contact me for a features and benefits white paper or to ask any questions about the various open source solutions.
We work with a number of options.
We are looking at going to Activant’s Eclipse System —saw where MikeFM says that it sucks. Why does it suck? Anyone else have an opinion on Eclipse?
Thanks!
OpenBravo is pretty darn good. It may be a bit strange for some Windows users, but they will get used to it, if they work with it for a few hours. The biggest void is the lack of a good manual. Many of the commands and features are hit and miss to figure out what to do. Your screen has to be at least 1024 x 768 or the screen will loose all kinds of needed stuff. A little slow at times so if you want to ring up stuff very fast it may be frustrating. I’ve seen worse at a much higher price.
When did you start using OpenBravo? Are you a retailer or a consultant who sells into the retail vertical? Would love to hear more about your experiences.
I would love to use Openbravo POS but — You still can’t have multiple tickets per table! What the hell?
Skerit: Multiple tickets per table will be in the 2.10 version of Openbravo POS. The new feature is called “Split receipts”
Wow. Some old blog entries never seem to die. Nice to see continued interest in this topic. I wasn’t sure whether VARs would care about point of sale open source. But in recent months, this post has generated some of our top traffic…
It appears that Point Of Sale(POS)software is beginning to receive more attention from software developers. After surfing through the many listings of POS products it seems to me that developers do not have a clear understanding of the small business market place. Most of the products are far to sophisticated. Let me explain.
The bottom tier of POS needs is just one step removed from a carbonless receipt pad or a single cash register. The customer wants a hardcopy receipt detailing what was purchased, any taxes, and the total for goods. The retailer must have a record of what was sold and the taxes collected for the state. And of course the same information applies to customer refunds. End of day totals are needed to balance the cash box and prepare a bank deposit. At the end of the month, the retailer needs totals for all goods sold (taxable and non-taxable) and taxes collected. The monthly totals are then used for excise tax reporting and for general ledger accounting. In all likelihood, the retailer runs a one or two person shop. Credit/debit cards are usually handled through a credit card terminal.
The second tier of POS needs gets a bit more sophisticated. If we have records for what we have sold for a given period of time, we can use the information to help place orders for goods. We may also wish to record information about our special customers. This is the point in time where a computerized POS begins to assist the retailer.
The third tier of POS needs is characterized by business growth. It is when a second clerk is hired and a second cash register is needed. Record keeping begins to get a little more tedious and information from two sources needs to be combined to produce reporting totals. At this point if we were using two PC’s for cash registers, we would probable need a backroom server. Barcoding, display pole, credit/ debit card integration and other features would not provide any benefit at this point since the stock keeping Unit(SKU) count is not particularly high.
The fourth tier represents retailer needs for a business that has survived for more that two years. Success means inventory and capital growth. It is time to introduce the levels of sophistication currently offered POS developers.
During the first three tiers of retail needs, most small businesses have a limited amount of capital and credit. Most businesses fail during this period. There is a market for inexpensive, simple, POS software to help these folks along the road to success, and to provide an upgrade path for more sophisticated systems.
Randy: Why are you so interested in POS? Are you a solutions provider? Software developer? Seems like you’ve got considerable experience in the POS market.
My uncle is about to buy a bar, and I’m assuming that the bar is probably pretty low down the technology side of things.
I’ve been looking at Openbravo as a possible POS system. – it seems to be the only open source piece of software that is functional.
Yet I’m very unimpressed by the usability of the damn thing. Just try add a new category – how confusing! and you don’t know what the buttons do, as there are no tooltips for mouseover(I know it’s supposed to be touch screen – but I’ll assume you will be using mouse and keyboard for product setup!)
Yes, it seems much too complicated than what it has to be, and I’ve managed to find at one bug so far from my limited playing.
The plus side is that it’s open source, and I’m a programmer.
The lack of documentation for open bravo is a bit of a worry – I’m always bought over by good documentation, and OpenBravo isn’t winning me over. I might consider donating some time to the project.
Louis: Have you been in direct contact with Openbravo? Let The VAR Guy know if you’d like some introductions to the company.