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10 Open source ERP software comparison Here are the ten open source ERP software along with their comparison to allow you to chose what’s relevant for you. In addition, there’s a step by step implementation of one of the ERP tool - Raj Kumar Maurya 1. ERP Business Suite This ERP software provides a complete framework that can be used to customize the software to suit your business needs. It offers different modules including sales, purchas- ing, , manufacturing management, material management and finance, as well as HR, CRM, and payroll.

Features/Modules • Engineering, Bill of Materials, Scheduling, Capacity, Workflow Management, Quality Control, Cost Management, Manufacturing Process, Manufacturing Projects, Manufacturing Flow Features/Modules • Inventory, Order Entry, Purchasing, Product • e-Commerce Configurator, Supply Chain Planning, Supplier • Catalog management Scheduling • Promotion & pricing management • General Ledger, Cash Management, Accounts Payable, • Order management, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets • Customer management • Costing, Billing, Time, and Expense, Activity • Warehouse management Management • Fulfillment (auto stock moves, batched pick, pack & • Human Resources, Payroll, Training, Time & ship) Attendance, Benefits • Accounting (invoice, payment & billing accounts, fixed • Sales and Marketing, Commissions, Service, Customer assets) Contact and CallCenter support and Data Warehouse • Manufacturing management • General work effort management (events, tasks, proj- ects, requests, etc) • Content management (for product content, web sites, general content, blogging, forums, etc) • Point Of Sales (POS) and much more.

3. VIENNA Advantage VIENNA Advantage is a full ERP and CRM covering all functional core areas. It is based on C#.Net with an HTML5 UI. It offers a mobile UI for iOS and Android. The VIENNA

2. Apache OFBiz Apache OFBiz is a product for the automation of enterprise processes that include framework components and busi- ness applications for ERP, CRM, e-Business / e-Commerce, SCM, MRP, MMS/EAM, POS. Apache OFBiz provides a foundation for reliable, secure and scalable enterprise solu- tions. As your business grows, you can extend the function- ality to meet your more sophisticated needs. pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] AUGUST 2015 PCQuest 83 handson

Advantage ERP and CRM system offer multiple currencies, multiple accounting schemas, multiple currencies as well as lots of collaboration tools such as SMS, email, calendar, followups, activities and much more.

Features/Modules • Document Management • Sales Force Automation • Order Management • Materials Management, Financials • Purchase • Budgeting and Controlling • Support, Service Contracts • Marketing • HR any industry. It comprises of modules for accounting, sales • Payroll, Workflow Management and many more. and , inventory tracking and many more. The open source edition includes functionality for 4. ERP accounting, sales, CRM, purchasing, product definition, It is an ERP and CRM business solution for Small and inventory and distribution, light manufacturing and the Medium-sized Enterprises in distribution, retail, service, OpenRPT open source report writer. Relying on a cloud- and manufacturing. Compiere is a Model Driven based architecture, the application can also be used with a Architecture development, deployment, and maintenance local server. It features complete internationalization, so as framework. It’s designed in such a way that customers to bypass geographical locations, currency and tax related can change the information structure and adjust to new limitations. information needs. Features/Modules • Accounting • Sales • CRM • Manufacture • Purchase • Inventory and Products.

6. Opentaps Open Source ERP + CRM is a fully integrated application suite that brings together top-tier open source projects to help you manage your business more effectively. Opentaps supports e-Commerce, Customer Relationship Features/Modules Management, Warehouse and Inventory Management, • Quote to Cash • Requisition-to-Pay • Customer relationship management • Partner Relations Management • Supply Chain Management • Performance Analysis • Warehouse • Double-entry book-keeping, • Workflow Management and Web Store

5. Post book-xTuple Edition integrates a powerful management toolset suitable for businesses of any dimension and from

84 PCQuest AUGUST 2015 pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] Supply Chain Management, and Financial Management • Electronic document and Project Management to Business Intelligence and mobility integration out-of- • PDF an OpenDocument generation the-box. • Reporting • Wizard to help to export/import data Features/Modules • e-Commerce Online Store and CRM 8. ERP5 • Warehouse and Manufacturing It covers accounting, customer relationship management, • Financial Management and Accounting trade, warehouse management, shipping, invoicing, human • Purchasing and Supply Chain management resource management, product design, production and • Business Intelligence and Reporting project management. The ERP is extremely integrated and • Technical Highlights flexible, thanks to a data model which unifies and simplifies • Project Management business management through 5 classes: a. Resource, b. • Human Resources Node, c. Movements, d. Path, e. Item • Fixed • Outlook and mobile phone integration with Funambol • Content management and Point Of Sales

7. The software includes ERP and CRM functionality and is highly modular. It includes sales and purchase management, stock management, bank account management, orders management and shipping management. Designed for small companies and individual traders, Dolibarr is an open source business suite that can be installed on a local machine or accessed from a server, and is also offered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution with a free trial period.

Features/Modules • Product Design Management • Supply Chain Management • Movement Resource Planning • Client Relation Management • Human Resources • General Account Management • e-Commerce • Content Management System

9. ERPNext It is a solution similar to and , aimed at Features/Modules • • Purchase Management • Customer Relationship Management • Products-and-services catalog • Stock Management • Bank account management • Foundation-members management • Payments management and Donations management • Commercial actions and proposals management • Contracts and Orders management • Point of sale pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] AUGUST 2015 PCQuest 85 handson small and medium sized businesses. ERPNext is a web handson based application that helps businesses to manage their accounting, inventory, sales, purchase, administration, How to install ERPnext ERP solution project, customer support and website. You can ERPnext is a web based ERP solution for mid to large customize it, build upon it, and add your own apps built size companies. Here are two ways to set it up. with their Frappé Framework. First method: This method is little bit tricky and you Features/Modules should have knowledge of Linux. It is supported for • Accounting CentOS 6, CentOS 7, Debian 7 and Ubuntu 12.04+ • Asset management • Customer relationship management CRM Open your Terminal and enter: • Human resource management HRM. wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/frappe/ • Manufacturing bench/master/install_scripts/setup_frappe.sh • Point of sale POS sudo bash setup_frappe.sh --setup-production • Project management • Purchasing This script should install the pre-requisites, install • Sales management bench and setup an ERPNext site. You can then login • Warehouse management system as Administrator with the Administrator password printed. 10. SQL-Ledger Second method: This method is easy and straight It is an ERP and double entry accounting system. forward with Virtualization. Accounting data is stored in an SQL Database Server and a standard web browser can be used as its user Step 1: Download ERPNext-020415.ova and import interface. The system uses the Perl language with this file into VirtualBox. Though the default settings a database interface module for processing and of the appliance should be good enough for most PostgreSQL for data storage. users, you may need to change them if you face performance issues.

Step 2: The virtual appliance uses Debian GNU/Linux 7. The credentials of the virtual image are: • username: • password: erpnext • root password: erpnext • root password: erpnext • erpnext database name: erpnext • erpnext database password: erpnext

Step 3: Once the Virtual Machine boots, use your HOST ’s browser and go to: http:// localhost:8080 Then login using - user: Administrator, password: Features/Modules admin • General Ledger and Journal Entry • Sales Step 4: Now configure your ERPnext by filling up the • Purchasing different information, like region, system manager • Contact Management information, Brand logo, Add taxes, customer information etc. • Cash Management • Fixed Assets Step 5: Finally after setting up all the configuration, • Inventory Management and Light Manufacturing you get a nice colorful app screen of your ERP in your • Point of Sale browser. • Reporting.

86 PCQuest AUGUST 2015 pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] 8 8 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 N/A G pl Stable Average 6-May-13 “Company 3-Tier Web 3-Tier +Partners” Via Bom 4 PHP, MySQL PHP, SQ L - edger 8 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 G pl Stable Not Yet Not MySQL Python, Python, Average ERPNext 20-Apr-15 3-Tier Web 3-Tier JavaScript, JavaScript, Company+ Via Bom 4 Community 8 8 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 N/A G pl ERP5 Stable MySQL Python, Python, Average Object Db 16-Apr-13 “Company 3-Tier Web 3-Tier +Partners” MariaDB or JavaScript, Zope, Zope, JavaScript, 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 N/A N/A G pl PHP 3-Tier Stable Average Dolibarr 1-Jun-15 “Company +Partners” 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 N/A Java , G pl -P l , Good 3-Tier Stable 1-Nov-13 Opentaps M it “Companies +Community” 8 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 N/A Add Good C++, C++, C pal 3-Tier Stable xTuple +Partners 19-Jun-15 JavaScript, JavaScript, Community Planning To To Planning PostgreSQL Paid Verson Paid PostBooks- 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ERP M pl Good Stable Java EE 2-May-13 Compiere “Company +Partners” Yes, partially Yes, 2 And 3- Tier And 3- 2 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 E pl 3-Tier with a Stable C#.Net V IENN A Average HTML5 U +Partners 16-Jun-15 Community Advantage 8 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 2.0 Good 3-Tier 3-Tier Stable Apache 1-Jun-15 Companies HTTP server Java, Apache Java, + Community By Third Party By Apache OFBiz Apache License 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 G pl Java Good 3-Tier Stable 2-Mar-15 Community AD empiere Yes, partially Yes, Functionality Technology Platform Used Technology e-commerce support Accounting MRP POS Inventory & Warehouse Inventory & MMS/EAM CRM Architecture OS independence Project structure DB independence Mobile Phone support or Documentation Tutorials availability Customer management Development status License Online demo Sourceforge hosted Last updated (as of date of publishing this table) A quick comparison of 10 Open Source ERP Software pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] AUGUST 2015 PCQuest 87