Sounds quite interesting, I have been hoping for a OSS ERP project... Awhile back IBM was started the Java based San Francisco Framework project.
--- Tracy R Reed <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have been following a project called ERP5 > (www.erp5.org) for a couple > of years now. It sounds pretty slick. It is a > framework for building an > ERP system. ERP systems are BIG money and tend to be > a nightmare to > implement and take forever. I think an open source > ERP system such as > ERP5 has a lot of potential to make ERP simpler and > cheaper. It is > installed at a number of sites in Europe but hardly > any in the US. The > company who originally made it is French. Most of > what little > dumentation exists is in French. There really isn't > much documentation > or even much community surrounding this project. > Nexedi GPL'd it but > because no docs are available on it and because ERP > is so complicated > virtually nobody has picked it up. They claim that > there are many users > of it and many implementations underway but because > of trade secret > issues nobody wants to talk about their > implementations so the erp5 > mailing list gets only one or two messages a week. > However, the > developers are on the list and do respond promptly > to questions but you > have to be specific and can't just show up and say > "I know nothing about > erp, teach me!" > > Nexedi is happy to have me fly out to France and pay > a truckload of > money (I haven't even bothered to ask specifics) for > instruction in how > to set it up. Unfortunately that isn't an option for > me. > > ERP5 is based on the Zope web application server and > makes use of both > ZODB and MySQL (mainly just for object indexing) and > seems to have a > cool system of producing business templates to > implement the custom > functionality every company will need. I have been > developing my own > Zope products lately for several web application > projects I am working > on and I am getting fairly familiar with it. The > learning curve is huge > but once you reach the top (I'm not at the top yet, > maybe halfway > though) I can see how it is a very attractive > platform for web development. > > There is big money to be made here...if I could > figure out the software. > Anyone with more ERP/business experience than I have > interested in going > in on figuring this out together and perhaps doing > some projects > together in the future? Hopefully with my knowledge > of zope/python and > someone elses knowledge of ERP we can reverse > engineer the system and > put it to work for us. There are technical papers on > the net as to its > theory of operation although they didn't help me too > much. > > If anyone knows of an company needing an ERP > implementation Nexedi (the > company who made ERP5) told me they would be willing > to do the > implementation with me such that the project could > fund my training > on-the-job. So drop me a line if you know someone > needing ERP. > > If interested in ERP5 you can download the livecd > from erp5.org and play > with it. It is pretty cool in that you can actually > see the software but > it is somewhat useless in that an ERP system always > requires lots of > custom configuration so even though you can get it > running in seconds > you cannot actually *do* much useful with it. > > Since it is always easier to learn something when > you actually have an > intended use I have a perfect first project: > > The whole reason I am looking into erp5 right now > after having been > aware of the project for so long is that my father > is starting a company > for the manufacture of a certain a kind of airplane > parts (a so-called > "firewall forward kit" which contains the engine > mount, cowling, wiring > harness, etc. to interface a new kind of engine to a > new kind of > airframe). It will not be a big company as it is for > a small niche > industry. But he asked me about software to use to > run his business the > other day. I did not have any suggestion other than > Quickbooks for his > accounting but that does not do all of what he > needs. He needs something > much more custom. He needs AR, AP, ability to keep > track of stock, > finished assemblies, parts lists, suppliers, > generate PO's and invoices, > etc. ERP5 is able to do all of this. > > -- > Tracy R Reed > http://copilotconsulting.com > 1-877-MY-COPILOT > > > -- > [email protected] > http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list > -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
