Ubuntu Linux isn’t just for desktop users anymore. That will be the key message when Canonical and Openbravo demonstrate open source ERP software on Ubuntu servers at Linuxworld in August, The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s the scoop, directly from Openbravo CEO Manel Sarasa (pictured).
First, a little about Openbravo. Based in Spain, Openbravo is an open source company that focuses on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and point-of-sale (POS) software. Yes, open source ERP and POS — a killer combination for a market that needs disrupting, The VAR Guy believes.
Manel Sarasa, CEO of Openbravo, believes Microsoft has about 15 percent market share in the ERP midmarket. The other 85 percent of the industry is highly fragmented between dozens of software companies.
With an assist from partners, Openbravo hopes to disrupt the industry and grab market share fast. The company recently secured $12 million in new financing. And roughly 75 Openbravo partners and integrators recently attended the company’s first U.S. event, held in Miami. And Openbravo now has about 100 partners worldwide, notes Josep Mitjà, Openbravo’s COO.
The Ubuntu Connection
Next up, Openbravo plans to work more closely with Canonical — the company behind Ubuntu Linux.
This has been a year of transition for Canonical. Ubuntu’s popularity on desktops continues to grow by leaps and bounds (shameless plug: Check out our sister site, Works With U, the independent guide to Ubuntu). However, Canonical had also hoped to push Ubuntu onto more servers this year.
So far, those efforts have yielded mixed results. Sun Microsystems supports Ubuntu on its servers but other major vendors — including Dell — have stated that they are taking a “wait and see” approach to Ubuntu servers.
Ultimately, Canonical’s server push will be a multi-year effort, much in the way that it took NT three to four years to take off on servers. Ironically, Canonical needs to steal a page from Microsoft’s playbook. In the 1990s, Windows NT Server took off because of killer applications (Exchange Server, SQL Server, Oracle and Lotus Notes, among others).
Now, Canonical is seeking killer server applications for Ubuntu. MySQL, the open source database now owned by Sun, has backed Ubuntu quite a bit. And now Openbravo is joining the party, and plans to demonstrate ERP software for Ubuntu at Linuxworld Expo in August, according to Mitjà.
Smart move by Canonical and Openbravo. CIOs, midmarket IT managers and solutions providers don’t care much about server operating systems. It’s all about the applications.
Tags: Canonical | Open source ERP | Open Source Point of Sale | Openbravo | Openbravo CEO Manel Sarasa | Openbravo COO Josep Mitjà
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I apologize but I see only marketing here: Openbravo is only a Java webapp (powered by the legacy PL/SQL Compiere unmaintainable sections lurking behind the endless XML files… re-marketed into WAD and MDD buzzwords). So hell, put Openbravo on any Linux distro with a Linux Kernel TM you like and it will just run (but hardly for the money you’ll spend on the man hours to tune it, or get it tuned to your own business, but that’s an other story). Bare in mind that the Java virtual machine only talks to the Linux Kernel, so does PostgreSQL or Oracle, so you really won’t care about the packaging around the Linux distro; this not like if you were running an Apache or something else using native libs and relying on a fine tunned package system. Take instead the minimal Debian, throw it a Tomcat and you are fine.
But the Ubuntu part is probably the less hyped of the too; I like Ubuntu actually.
So now there is also a virtual box offer designed to fool the Openbravo investors with a claimed ROI, but it’s currently not effective with the required customization and dev environment (see here the devs repackaging the their own bloatware vm: http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=2046136&forum_id=549512 ), so vaporware again. Guys, Google is your friend, there are way better oss ERP’s around for the next 5 years at least.
Okay, may be I’m a bit harsh: Openbravo could actually yield some benefit sooner (since self-fulfilling prophecies do happen sometimes and even more with a 11M$ funding and the collateral damages suffered by the first kamikaze partner implemented customers), but that won’t make it the best option either (by far). Also a big money could indeed be made playing on the buzz fluctuation, but that’s a risky stance.
my 2 cts.
V
Elman: Don’t apologize for sharing your two cents. The VAR Guy likes the “theory” of running open source ERP on Ubuntu. But he’s not familiar with the Java plumbing you describe. The bigger story here is that perhaps Ubuntu will finally get some server application momentum going.
There’s a difference between some open-source project sitting on sourceforge and a company behind an open-source product that just secured $12 million.
And it’s just one: marketing.
Vadim: So is marketing a good thing or a bad thing? The VAR Guy would say “good thing.” Do you agree?
Hi VAR Guy and All,
I have been covering open source ERP for some time now in my blog. I even posted an Openbravo on Ubuntu installation walkthrough several months ago. The installation is working great for me.
As for Elman Rasasa’s comments - you are missing the point here, my friend. Since Openbravo and other OS ERP are going after SME’s, simplicity is vital to their success. The worst thing you could do is try to develop business software that has special customization for each architecture. That would make implementation a nightmare. The beauty of open source ERP is that it takes half a day to get their software up and running. For commercial ERP, the customer would pay 10-20 men days just for the installation itself. And obviously, as you said, customization is still needed for both open source and commercial ERP’s, there’s no difference here.
You have to think what is right for the business and then try to come up with the best technology to support that, not the other way around.
As for the second remark (the funds raised by Openbravo), this is an issue I keep bringing up in my posts. When does an open source project stop being open source and is just a commercial product that released some of its code to the public?
Hardcore open source guys would disagree on this, but for open source business software vendors, raising money in early stages is a must. Although OSS ERP is offered for free, customers still need to know that behind the software they are using lies a company that will be around at least for the next 2-3 years, that will fix all their bugs, provide online, 24/7 support and will continue to develop the product based on a very clear roadmap. To do all these things, you need money. The tricky part is to maintain the balance between your investors and your open source community. If you drift too much apart from your core community, you will find your self very soon as just another commercial business software.
I believe Openbravo is doing a good job in keeping things balanced and staying connected to their community.
You can read about this issues and other OSS ERP stuff at:
http://opensourceerpguru.com/
Yossi
Yossi: Thank you for those thoughts. The VAR Guy likes highly targeted blogs, and yours certainly fits that description.
@The VAR Guy: I definitely agree.
Also, having a company backing an open-source project a) gives more security to businesses looking to use it, b) usually presents a different attitude in the way the project is run, and c) helps is thrive and expand faster via the revenues.
Yeah actually I responded before reading comment #5, and I pretty much agree with him too.
If you want a good open source ERP that isn’t a behemoth Java app, and editing and customising code is actually practical, AND it’s GPL licensed, you’d want to check out OpenERP formally TinyERP. It’s written in Python, uses PostgreSQL for the backend database, has both a Web and GUI frontend, and has, as any open source project needs to succeed, a real developer community. I have no ties to the company providing commercial support for Open ERP, I’m just very impressed with Open ERP.
P.S. It runs on Windows and a bunch of different linux distros.
Well for my Money (since I deal with ERP systems) the best one out right now is xTuple OpenMFG. You would be hard pressed to find one that is as capable and flexible for either discreet or process manufacturing. The support is outstanding as is the training and it will not break the bottom line. It runs on Linux, MAC and Windows server and client side so for a company that has a mixed environment it just excels. I’m dropping data into it from our current (super expensive proprietary ERP sys) its simply amazing. you can see the demos from their site. It is really refreshing to use.
@OSS ERP Guru, you said “half a day to get their software up and running”.
Half day is only how you startup the native Openbravo and not even with the PostgreSQL free option (which is crippled by bugs). But this is very far from what an SME would actually expect for a ‘full featured ERP’. For instance, unlike commercial options, the native Openbravo will do really bad with your localized accounting rules (except may be for Spain, and I even doubt about it).
If Openbravo offered more out of the box I would agree with you. But I think Openbravo is currently hardly competitive against say M$ Navision or Sage X3 who tend to have much less bugs and offer much more features out of the box (like a valid certified accounting out of the box).
So oss ERP’s are only competitive when you need specific features commercial options don’t offer out of the box in the standard affordable products.
But because of the very bad old code Openbravo uses under the Java cover (as soon as you click an button that’s daddy’s PL/SQL running, no more Java, they don’t even use a Java templating system like JSP or JSF but static HTML files instead; you wouldn’t do worse putting Openbravo on PERL), you would spend an incredible amount of money if you want to have extras features like: HR management, Project with task delegation management, reporting, e-business integration, correct MRP configuration… Take a look at the Openbravo sourceforge forums and you’ll see that lots of inexperienced ‘Java developpers’ are being abused by the ‘Java’ marketing hype and then find themselves in deep troubles for the most basic customizations.
The Openbravo company is now officially favoring third party so called ‘partners’ to integrate their ERP. But, hey were are those successful partners? Google for the listed partners there, almost no one is claiming any Openbravo success stories and mentioning their customers! You’ll see lot’s of almost fake companies lead by inexperienced technical guys who bet all their little money on the Openbravo hype. Actually I think lots of them are now finding themselves in deep financial troubles…
Largest partners, on their side, tend no to mention Openbravo anymore on their site and don’t claim success stories either! Isn’t that strange for such an outstanding ‘full featured web based ERP’? And the partner map is a joke! Were is the open source transparency?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling Openbravo evil, but the Openbravo hype is totally misleading. BTW, successful oss tends to be lead by the tech guys, this is not true with Openbravo: the guys spending their whole days in building the hype and owing the stuff are not the poor trainees or cheap beginners maintaining the product you can track the commits.
@Gary Nutbeam, I agree: OpenERP is where I would rather put my money: on their forums you’ll rather see people integrating it for real, people doing real complex functional customizations instead of just failing to compile the ERP. You’ll see, with deep functional explanation (at least in a book) and flash advanced demos, real e-business bridges, e-mail integration, great HR management, shared calendar, advanced project management, outstanding CRM… About that last one: Openbravo claims it has CRM but Openbravo doesn’t even have e-mail integration neither even pre-sale or SRM capabilities… I call that dishonest marketing and I think this is quite new to abuse customers and investors on the open source market (while it’s has always be very common in the proprietary market).
@The VAR Guy, yeah, Ubuntu is great and doesn’t need Openbravo for sure (IMHO Openbravo is the only winner of the deal). I don’t have any doubt Ubuntu will get a great server application momentum. I think it’s already largely started. No problem you don’t know Java: most people looking at Openbravo are actually in the same situation. Still I believe the benefit yield by oss products is essentially driven by their technology. And also don’t get me wrong, yes Java can be great too, but it needs to be really Java and should be done right.
Hello Elman,
We appreciate the feedback on our product and company. Let me clarify some of your comments that are misleading:
1) It is not true Openbravo’s PostgresSQL support is “crippled by bugs”. In Openbravo R2.3x we introduced DBSourceManager[1] that enhanced a lot our database support. As June 2008, 81.54%[2] of the people that participated in our community survey answered that they were working with PostgreSQL. Our own on-line demo[3] uses PostgreSQL as database back-end so our virtual machines. Additionally, we have customers in production with PostgreSQL. If there any bug that you are of you can fill up a bug report[4] an we will work on fix it.
2) Our list of authorized partners[5] are real companies. People that is developing a business around Openbravo ERP. If you are familiar with ERP implementations, you know that many customers do not want to be documented as success histories or their names used. We are working with our community and partners[6] to document our success histories.
3) It is not true that “Openbravo will do really bad with your localized accounting rules”. We currently have 23 completed localizations[7], all of them in production in customers, and may other projects on-going[8]. We work regularly with our community to enhance all these, the Openbravo localization features and customisation. There is obviously space for enhancement, but many people is using them successfully.
We are also working hard on the product (see the status for Openbravo R2.40[9] or R2.50[10]) in an open and collaborative manner. Enhancements are done weekly at functional and architectural level.
Elman, when you say things like “vaporware”, “PostgresSQL support is crippled by bugs”, “cheap beginners maintaining the product” or “almost fake companies lead by inexperienced technical guys” you are basically spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) about an open source product, in this case Openbravo ERP, and attacking the work of all the people working and contributing to this project.
Regards,
Jordi Mas
http://planet.openbravo.com
[1] http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/DBSourceManager_Architecture
[2] http://jordimash.blogspot.com/2008/06/openbravo-community-survey-results.html
[3] http://demo.openbravo.com
[4] http://issues.openbravo.com
[5] http://www.openbravo.com/partners/find-partners-support/
[6] http://www.openbravo.com/customers/success-stories/
[7] http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/Localization_Downloads
[8] http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/Localization_Projects
[9] http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/2.40_Release_Status
[10] http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/2.50_Release_Status
Hello VAR Guy,
Congratulations for great idea. We in Africa want to see your initiative bear fruit. We believe the bundle will be a great deal of a product for Africa market. Please squeeze it into both Ubuntu server and desktop as quickly so that we can testdrive it. We are a community promoting open source solutions in Nairobi, East Africa.
This wasn’t The VAR Guy’s idea. He merely reports the news (or gossip) he hears from trusted sources.