Build Your Business With Open Source

PCM2 writes "InfoWorld this week is running a ten-page guide to building your business entirely with OSS. The guide highlights OSS alternatives for many enterprise applications categories such as CRM, ERP, content management, and so on. It's not exhaustive, but where it skips the obvious categories like databases and Web servers it includes some others that you might not expect."

Re:CRM

[Anonymous Coward]

www.sugarcrm.com [sugarcrm.com] says you're wrong.

Re:Who is listening?

[TripMaster Monkey]

Actually, I've recommended a few open-source alternatives to my management, and so far we've saved a few grand. My boss will do just about anything to save on the bottom line, and when I tell him that I can fill a particular need with OSS and get out cheaper, he's beside himself wth joy.

Re:Bookkeeping software

[tzanger]

I'm stuck with my current crippled version of QuickBooks. Any open source equivalents out there that you'd recommend?

Appgen MyBooks Professional [appgen.com]. Not affiliated with them, just a customer who's also looking at their AccPAC killer for his day job, Appgen Custom Suite.

Re:Bookkeeping software

[ch-chuck]

there's this [gnucash.org] - I don't know if they're equivalent tho.

Re:Bookkeeping software

[UnderScan]

The only quickbooks that I have used was a version for DOS back in 1995, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I haven't used this product myself, but Linux Canada [linuxcanada.com] makes Quasar [linuxcanada.com] a GPL'd accounting program. If you need it, you can buy tech support [linuxcanada.com] from them & if necessary you can buy the close source edition too.

missing from the list

[lkcl]

http://erp5.org/ [erp5.org] is missing from the list of ERP solutions in the article.

TurboCash

[Anonymous Coward]

free and open source

http://www.turbocash-usa.com/ [turbocash-usa.com]
http://www.turbocashuk.com/ [turbocashuk.com]

enjoy

Exchange Replacement?

[cca93014]

Until someone comes up with an all-in-one replacement for Exchange Server, there will be no rest.

I run a small (5 person) business, and we try to use FOSS as much as possible. I could not find anything out there to replace our Exchange Server. It works, it's stable (2003 is, anyway), it syncs with our PDAs etc. etc. etc...

Re:Bookkeeping software

[sribe]

I think you're confusing accounting software with tax preparation software. FYI, my use of QuickBooks has almost zero connection to the tax code. There's the matter of how I relate my categories to tax items, which I control completely, and that's it. (Obviously, I'm not using it for payroll.) I haven't updated this software in 5 years, and haven't gotten a paid upgrade in 9 years. The fundamentals of accounting don't change often, especially for simple small businesses.

Re:Huh?

[TheRaven64]

That's a myth. It depends on the vendor. Microsoft is simply not going to close it's doors in our lifetime. I'd bet my life on it.

Vendor lock-in is not about the company going bust. How long will the product you are using be maintained? When it is not, what are your migration options? How much will it cost?

With a Free package, you can pay someone indefinitely to back-port security fixes from the latest branch (which need only be a day or so a month, and can be cheap).

Plus, with databases, vendor-lock in is a moot point. Why? A. No competent business will change it's main database willy-nilly.

Exactly. Which is why you do not want to have to depend on a single source for support. If MS decides to EOL your DB five years after you deploy it, then this is a problem - it means you need to test the latest version, buy copies of it, and migrate. If it still works then all you want is to keep receiving security updates. Sounds like you want a Free DB...

If your company is doing anything with the database more complicated than a recipie list, any competent database developer is going to use stored procedures heavily, which are ALL database-specific.

So there is database lock-in, but not vendor lock-in. These are different things. I can easily use a different consultant to maintain my ultra-stable (only bug fixes allowed) branch of PostgreSQL - I can't do the same with MS SQL.

Re:Human Resources Management

[Anonymous Coward]

A shameless plug for my OSS HR software.
http://paymaster.treshna.com/ [treshna.com]

Still needs work but its getting there.