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Linux HR Management Systems? 79

Posted by Zonk from the social-penguins dept.
dgcrawford writes "A growing, 100-person company I work for is looking to integrate a Human Resources Management System into their Linux computer base. Does anyone have experience with any products that fit this need? Does it interface well with payroll, applicant tracking, maybe even finance and stock or other non-monetary compensation? I realize most of you would look at this from an IT point of view, but how did the system work across fields? And how important/useful did you find this interoperability?"
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Linux HR Management Systems? More

Linux HR Management Systems?

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  • Try this (Score:5, Informative)

    by Martz ( 861209 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @06:35AM (#19858115)
    I haven't tested it, but I was looking into something similar. Open Source at least.

    http://www.orangehrm.com/home/ [orangehrm.com]

    VMWare Appliance for quick testing: http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/72 1 [vmware.com]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by GNUDeep ( 821691 )
      I have installed Orangehrm. Installation is very simple and it has a nice GUI. Currently I am evaluating the product. Orangehrm is a PHP Mysql application. Deep

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Linker3000 ( 626634 )
      We've looked at OrangeHRM and may start a pilot in house shortly (approx 250 employees). It has promise but it's not there yet - good basic functionality, a slightly quirky interface but not a lot of internationalistion yet.

      Sure worth a peek and keeping an eye on.

  • Does anybody on /. have experience with ofbiz / opentaps to do HR management and linking to payroll?

    I have been looking briefly at opentaps recently. I did not find much documentation so far and I am looking forward to hear success stories with the product.

    Any hints or evaluation of the product is welcome !

    Thanks,

  • Suggestion (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    For payroll my company uses something called a "ledger", which is a sheet of paper where you keep track of what you're paying people. For applicant tracking and stock/other compensation, I'd suggest a "file cabinet".

  • Applicant Tracking (Score:4, Informative)

    by j3tt ( 859525 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @06:55AM (#19858225)
    Installed and currently trying this Applicant Tracking System ... http://www.catsone.com/index.php [catsone.com] May not directly answer your question but it's an interesting HR-related app.
    • Interesting license clause for an 'open source' project: "You MAY NOT use the Licensed Software to operate in or as a time-sharing, outsourcing, service bureau, application service provider or managed service provider environment."

      It's more open than most (i.e. other than that clause and a somewhat obnoxious advertising clause), it's MPL. It's a lot better than the typical EULA attached to this type of software. But, it'd be nice to reclaim the phrase "open source", per Michael Tiemann's essay on the subj [opensource.org]

  • Lots of HR systems run on Linux (Score:5, Informative)

    by MartijnL ( 785261 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @07:03AM (#19858269)
    The question wouldn't be that you're looking for a Linux HR system but something that runs on Linux. There are lot's of business apps that run on Linux such as Peoplesoft. They officially support running it on Linux since april '04. SAP HR also does Linux. Lot's of smaller web-based HR systems also run on Apache/WebSphere etc. so integrating those into a Linux oriented infrastructure will not be a problem. Interfacing with the apps mentioned in the question is what every HR application should to correctly (payrolling being no.1) just make a first selection based on rough features and invite the companies over for a chat.
    • Add SAP to the list of vendors that provides an HR module that runs on Linux. In fact, their enterprise systems work by adding a standard virtual layer to whatever operating system you choose. So, should you want to migrate to another OS in the future, it would be no problem. They provide pretty much everything you could possibly want. They only question is about cost -- in your case you should check our their small business products to see if something suits you. (Business One comes to mind) http://w [sap.com]
    • Unless you really need some of the features of PeopleSoft, like multi-language support, I would advise against it for such a small company. It's cost can be enormous, even if it is on Linux. It was designed for much larger institutions and even though I'm sure it would work fine for your HR needs, it is probably overkill. I spent 2 years as PeopleSoft developer and I would never use it for my own company.

  • scalc (Score:4, Funny)

    by MichaelSmith ( 789609 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @07:05AM (#19858277) Homepage Journal

    Since our HR department does everything in Excel, this tool [openoffice.org] would probably do the entire job.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bazman ( 4849 )
      Does your HR department keep these Excel spreadsheets on a shared network drive too?

      I've been trying to get our department to sort out some kind of department information system to keep track of which offices staff are in, phone numbers, emails, statuses, who supervises who and all that, but no, we will continue to use a DASS[1] system because that's what the admin people are used to. Every so often they print out the staff list spreadsheet and stick it in every pigeonhole. In three days time its out of dat

      • Does your HR department keep these Excel spreadsheets on a shared network drive too?

        Of course. The really silly bit is that they are always referred to as databases.

    • Re:scalc (Score:5, Funny)

      by jacksonj04 ( 800021 ) <nick@nickjackson.me> on Saturday July 14, 2007 @10:51AM (#19859397) Homepage
      Ah, you obviously need to inform your HR department about the new EINA-FDB recommendations. The industry has been trying to get them generally accepted for years now.

      (Excel Is Not A Fucking DataBase)

      • (Excel Is Not A Fucking DataBase)

        The neither were DBase or Paradox. Excel does everything they did and more.

      • Sure, it might not be a relational database, or an object oriented database, but a large workbook with many related sheets is no less a database than say, a General Ledger or a filing cabinet.

        On the other hand, I will agree that it is overused and abused and is not the best choices of technologies for complex informaton storage.
        • Access is a databasing program. The OOo version being Base
          • The difference between a well designed spreadsheet and a flat-file database being?
            • Queries, ability to make a more-user-friendly form for input...
            • Oh yeah, sorting, forgot that one. I don't use databases much. I don't do much that can't be done in vim, and if I need more a word processor is enough.
              • The problem with saying that "Excel is not a database" is that the term "database" refers to a large number of very different technologies, some of which aren't that different from Excel and all of which have different ideas on how data should be stored. If a database is simply a "data storage and retrieval system" then wouldn't excel qualify?

                Wouldn't echo, awk, and some convention for storing a text file qualify as a database? Couldn't you refer to /etc/passwd as a "password database?" What about Berkel
            • You can't program your own interface would be my best guess.

              Spreadsheets you're limited to raw data and charts to display the information. No way for you to plug into it with some kind of external application. You can import the data into another member of Office, but even then the only way to program your results by any means other than an equation is through Access, their databasing software.
              • Object databases rarely if ever have multi-application support (outside of access libraries that handle this sort of thing-- not unlike the MS Office COM components). I don't think that can be a criteria.
              • Spreadsheets you're limited to raw data and charts to display the information. No way for you to plug into it with some kind of external application.

                Actually, that turns out not to be the case. You can back Excel with a database, just use ODBC or suchlike. And connecting to files is dirt simple.

                Here's a little exercise for you -- find a comp with Excel on it. Open an new Excel spreadsheet. Create a macro, and within it open a file -- a CSV file would be best. Close the macro. Next, enter ALT-F11. Voi

                • You can back Excel with a database, just use ODBC or suchlike. And connecting to files is dirt simple.
                  Excel isn't being the database though, it's just the frontend. ODBC is providing you with the database (isn't that SQL?).

                  I've never done that trick, I'll have to check it out before I comment on that functionality. But I'm still skeptical, it kind of sounds like an expanded version of opening a cell with the equal sign. Again, that's not programming access to a database, that's just applying more complex ma
                  • There is still an on-shore niche for Excel/VBA programmers, definitely in the financial industry (I know one top-tier bank that has serious financial reporting done that way, and it's NOT niche). And they do fit nicely in between the macro expert and the full-on multi-tiered .NET or J2EE etc. programmer. Pay isn't great, but it isn't bad, and can keep a programmer from selling his shoes if the rest of the work goes to Mangalore.

                    Yes, Excel is the front end of the database (and certainly not the best, but t

  • SAP (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    you could try SAP - its got an HR module - plus integration into others...
    it runs on linux
    it comes with source code for all the appliactions (not open source though)
    it runs on an open source db (maxdb) ...
    its not cheap though!
  • .. in our company and we're considering creating a custom solution (Ruby on Rails makes it possible at sensible cost!). Plus, it's easier to later adjust your own code rather than something written in PHP. And of course then we can map proccesses occuring in our company onto the application, not the other way round. This way is good for some companies (not for everyone tho).

    • Re:We have a simillar issue.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 14, 2007 @07:30AM (#19858385)
      We're an ISP that's created a lot of management software in house, including our time clock system. We track hours in a MySQL database. We have a few legacy PCs with a touch screen LCD and a barcode scanner at the entrance to each of our offices. Everyone scans their bar code and enters a 4 digit PIN on the touchscreen when entering (clocking in), and scans their bar code when exiting (no PIN needed when leaving / clocking out). Add a PS/2 keyboard wedge to the barcode scanner, a standard HTML form with an input box, a little JavaScript (specifically, we set our focus to the input box when the "swipe" screen is up, and monitor the number of characters in the barcode input box, waiting for a whole barcode to be scanned).

      So, with all of our employee hours in a database already, it would not be hard for us to write an application to manage our payroll and export data to any application (or even a PDF) to be printed onto a real check automatically. Granted, I would probably wait 20 or 30 checks working on the alignment when creating the PDF, but the up front cost savings would be large. But, there are some things that are better left to outside companies. Payroll is one of these things, as there is a bit more to it then (hours*wage-(wage*tax rate)).. Payroll can be a time consuming and involved process.Let a company handle it for you. They will take out taxes, allow you to offer direct deposit, and will be your agent for dealing with the state in regards to taxes, unemployment, and workman's compensation insurance. Also, when an employee files for unemployment (or, better yet, gets fired, moves away, and files in a different state where you haven't even established an account before), they will be your liaison with the state in regards to all unemployment proceedings. The service we use (Paychex) will even go to court for you for matters of unemployment and workman's comp.

      • There's more to HRM than payroll, but fully agree that payroll is something best left to the specialists, unless you're a 500+ enterprise with a dedicated payroll dept. Two reasons; 1. Confidentiality & security. 2. Keeping track of relevant legislation & incorporating it into the app. Also, do you wanna be the tech that has to explain to x angry people why their salary did not arrive? I've been there - was not nice.

        Stick to recording and pre-processing time & expenses...

      • Or you could just use TimeTrex [timetrex.com], the open source payroll and time management suite and save yourself all the effort and money.

        My company has been using it for over a year now and its like night and day compared to maintaining our old in-house system, plus it handles ALL our time and payroll needs.

        Oh yeah, being able to view my pay check online from home is great too!
  • Oracle HRMS + iRecruitment would do the job.

  • ABS (Score:3, Informative)

    by ClaraBow ( 212734 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @08:39AM (#19858709)
    At our company we use ABS [abs-software.com] software packages which run on Linux servers and are accessed on the desktop via ANSI terminal. Very reliable, but it does it isn't free.

  • Debian has it all ;-) (Score:4, Funny)

    by Skinny Rav ( 181822 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @08:44AM (#19858739)
    A quick 'apt-cache search human resources' revealed The Truth:

    craft - Warcraft 2-like multi-player real-time strategy game
    dstat - versatile resource statistics tool
    t1utils - A collection of simple Type 1 font manipulation programs

    Bugger, it might not be what you were looking for after all ;-)

    Cheers

    Raf

  • Tiny ERP (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.tinyerp.org/ [tinyerp.org] has a nice HR module. Should be worth give it a try.

  • Brightmove ATS (Score:3, Informative)

    by q-the-impaler ( 708563 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @09:20AM (#19858941)
    This is a software-as-a-service system that I heard will be open sourced soon.

    http://www.brightmove.com [brightmove.com]

  • Tiny ERP (Score:4, Informative)

    by Marc D.M. ( 630235 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @09:57AM (#19859135) Homepage

    I've been following this project for a couple of years now. Tiny ERP [tinyerp.com] is an open-source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite written in Python and uses PostgreSQL.

    It's a client server application, with the client available on Windows, Linux and Mac. The server will run on Linux.

    It has HR and many other modules that you can use. And you can use one module or many modules for your installation. It will also allow you to integrate with your existing data sources. Check it out [tinyerp.com].

    Oh, and I don't work for them, just like the software.

  • Hi,

    ]project-open[ is a project management system with several HR components. Links: http://www.project-open.com/ [project-open.com] and http://www.project-open.org/ [project-open.org]

    There is:
    - An integrated employee file with all available information
    - Basic employee information and hiring workflow
    - Portrait component & "Employee of the day" option
    - (Very) basic payroll information, specially protected.
    - A skill database (non-FOSS extension module)
    - A forum associated with each employee for comments etc.
    - A file storage associated with eac

  • All the big ones (Score:4, Insightful)

    by afabbro ( 33948 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @10:11AM (#19859209) Homepage
    Oracle, Peoplesoft, SAP, etc. all run on Linux...

    ...unless you're using the word "Linux" to mean "no cost".

  • suggestion (Score:3, Funny)

    by TheSHAD0W ( 258774 ) on Saturday July 14, 2007 @11:46AM (#19859735) Homepage
    I recommend you send an email to Catbert [wikipedia.org], he has some uber-delicious tools. I've only seen a [dilbert.com] few [dilbert.com], but they're quite useful!
  • For the odd thing that won't run on Linux, VirtualBox, Qemu or VMware and WinXP seems to be quite usable.

    An alternative is Apple Mac with Parallels and WinXP.

    That works like a charm and when Windoze screws up, you can restore the virtual machine from a backup tar ball.
  • Compiere and it's fork Adempiere are 2 open source options. They are fairly extensive and there is an active consulting base that can help you to get things running. The primary DB for these applications is Oracle, but Postgres is beginning to become an option.
  • Possibly http://freshmeat.net/search?q=erp [freshmeat.net] may give you a place to start.

    From what I've heard, http://www.compiere.org/ [compiere.org] is a good one.
  • Our company is has ~120 employees so a similar size to the poster.

    We use software by Ceridian [ceridian.ca] to handle our payroll and HR

    Their payroll application called prism is browser based and runs on *their* server which keeps critical payroll information from accidentally falling into the hands of Information Systems Managers like myself.
  • Take a look at TimeTrex [timetrex.com]. It handles employee scheduling, attendance, job costing, and does payroll for you if you want (ie: no exporting to another app). Its open source, and free too!
  • This system is web-based and can be integrated with other HRIS software applications. http://www.businessdecisions.com/Human_Resources_S oftware.asp [businessdecisions.com]
  • There are a lot of them available that will integrate with your existing systems.

    Authoria (http://www.authoria.com) is one such company which offers a full suite of HCM based products.
  • We use SAP HR in our company and are about to migrate to Linux (Server). If you just need something that "runs on Linux", I would suggest you use a standard application like SAP (which is quite ok for the size of your company). If you look for something open-source, you have to keep looking.

    Although, SAP's source-code is "open" as far as you can download, read and modify the source (ABAP?). You would have to pay for your users (onetime fee and maintanance fee) depending on how much data the user sees...

    Your

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