Open-Source ERP has arrived

Open-Source ERP has seen a strong surge in downloads in the last one year. It is difficult to gauge whether a big chunk of those were just for evaluation purposes but, the interest in these products doesn’t seem to be waning. SMBs or Small and Medium Businesses as they are known, are the biggest force behind this increased interest in Open-Source ERP. There has been a shift from the use of small accounting packages like Quickbooks to products like xTuple PostBooks. The download of the product is free but support costs fairly reasonable money. The biggest reason behind the lack of confidence in Open Source applications is compatibility with hardware and software; as well as decent product support. The open source vendors have been increasingly aggressive on this front and will continue to see more gains. This is definitely not very good news for Microsoft that likes to see users continuing to depend on its products and file formats.

Let’s keep our eyes peeled on more developments in this arena. I’ am going to try implementing PostBooks to see what they have to offer.

• Posted in: Internet