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Possibly http://freshmeat.net/search?q=erp may give you a place to start.

From what I've heard, http://www.compiere.org/ is a good one.

For Linux to really succeed in business

Why do people so often preface Linux questions with things like that? "For Linux to really succeed in business" "For linux to succeed on the desktop".

Linux is succeeding in many aspects. Success doesn't have to mean 90% of the market share.

Anyway, that pet peeve aside. Take a look at compiere. Only drawback that I see is that it requires a non-free database to run on top of.

There are options out there... even without dropping a bunch of money...

Manufacturers:
http://www.openmfg.com/

ERP/CRM:
http://www.compiere.org/

Open source ERP/VE business engine in PHP/Postgresql/Apache and Mozilla's XULRunner client.
http://www.venture.kdsi.net/

I'm sure most of you recognize that this is nothing new, Compiere has been operating just like this for years.

Now I think that many of you are overlooking the bigger picture that indeed there are much larger Open Source financial packages such as Compiere (paid support available), ERP5 and ofbiz.org (which has a paid support beta program for their financial module which will be open sourced)
http://compiere.org/
http://www.erp5.org/
http://www.ofbiz.org/
http://www.opensourcestrategies.com/ofbiz/index.ph p

Don't say there aren't any such programs until you've checked out:
http://www.freshmeat.net/

Compiere ERP requires Oracle.

http://www.compiere.org/support/install/installDat abase.html

Have a look at Compiere ERP. I haven't used it, but it's a very active project on Sourceforge, and it's free.

If you were thinking in spend $35.000 to get an specific app, you will be happier if you need to spend a lot less ... :)

Take a look at http://tinyerp.com/ if does everything you want and a lot more, maybe you will find it interesting. Yes it is an almost full featured ERP+CRM but the stock modules are pretty complete. They have the multiwarehouse you need, the backtrack and some aditional niceties.

You can use too http://compiere.org/, but from my experience with both packages, Compiere is heavier, harder to configure and uses Oracle, TinyErp uses postgresql is writen in python and is very easy to get a test bed working.

Hope it helps you

Compiere uses Oracle. Does it work with EnterpriseDB?

Compiere

While this is not a full-scale alternative to the likes of SAP or Oracle, Compiere http://www.compiere.org/ does cater to the small and midsize market. This currently only runs on top of the Oracle database, but is in the process of being ported to Postgres.

Open source tools are great, but businesses need application software. I don't have figures, but I would think that ERP software dwarfs infrastructure software in importance, if not dollar value. Especially with businesses moving to more web-based software, it doesn't matter whether you run it on Windows or Linux, but that software is a cornerstone of most businesses. That is why open source efforts to address this sector are so important. In my opinion, even though Compiere (http://compiere.org/) may have more downloads than Open for Business (http://www.ofbiz.org/), OFBiz should be considered the leader because its architecture is structured for SOA and the web, it is database agnostic and is easier to get up and running.

At some point either GNU Enterprise or Compiere are going to be good enough and supported enough to do away with their only product.

Oh and open source and free software have nothing to do with socialism and every thing to do with supply and demand...

This could be a great boost to smaller compiere ERP solutions. This is a cool GPL ERP system, but it runs exclusively on Oracle. Different portings projects is in place, all very interesting, but not production quality yet. The catch is that a lot of the system is in stored procedures etc.
Convincing a business to cough up the high price for an Oracle license to use an unknown, yet brilliant ERP solution, is tough..
This will allow us to set up Compiere for a business for the price of the hardware and consulting (much easier), and then, when they hit the 4 gb data, 1 gb ram or 1 cpu limits, the price of an oracle license is more reasonable.
Yeah, it would be nicer if it ran off of PostgreSQL or Firebrid, but it doesn't.

If your thinking something like QuickBooks, then you're in luck because these programs already exist. Check out these projects:

Quasar:

http://www.linuxcanada.com/
http://freshmeat.net/projects/quasar/

Compiere:

http://www.compiere.org/

and of course there is GNU Cash:

http://www.gnucash.org/

If I were to do it again now, I would avoid Quickbooks too :) It has some stupid problems.. like requiring accessing with single-user mode to do certain regular tasks (something to do with liabilities).. This of course means that the ESC server (QB connector) has to be stopped so QB can go into single-user mode, and then started again afterwards. It's a real pain in the ass. I've talked to QB support about it, they just say 'thats the way it is, theres no plans to change it'.

Unfortunately, there's very little in the mid-sector accounting world.. you basically get the $100-300 range programs, and then the $10k+ programs. There are a couple O/S applications starting to look promising though. Compiere, WebERP, OSSuite , and SugarCRM.

I'm actually looking at deploying SugarCRM along with our current software. It has SOAP connectors, so I should be able to link the customer database with the ESC customer database. That's a couple months off though, there are other priorities first.

Anyway, good luck!

Ever seen http://www.compiere.org/ ?

You can make whatever modules you want with a full fledged ERP api, normal database and very scalable architecture.

No downside as well if youre not an really large operation since this can run on a simple and unexpensive version of oracle + java.

So... next request please.

Compiere also says you're wrong.
It is both an ERP and CRM and open source.
Only drawback is that it currently requires an oracle database, but work is being done on a Postgresql port.

Use "CRM" as your search term. Compiere might fit your needs.

Disclaimer: I've never used it, just ran across it when I was researching something similar to you. For our purposes, a request tracker did what we needed better than a fullblown CRM package.

The daenish government/banks can give them startup funding to interface/merge their software and offer services with Compiere. Consolidation usually ends with an open-source project anyway.

Yep. http://www.compiere.org/

However, it is still questionable whether systems like ERP could be developed successfully as OSS projects.

I could be mistaken, but isn't Compiere an established OSS ERP implementation?

I think the questin shouldn't be: 'Can software like ERP be developed as OSS?' But rather: 'Are there enough people in the OSS community interested enough to develop this kind of software without any form of financial support?' I think the answer has turned out to be 'no'. The same goes for things like (good) financial software, and anything that would require heaps of work, high precision and coordination, but no spectaculair result for the common man to brag about.

The open source community needs to find a way to move into the business application sector in an effective manner. I don't believe that it will be by using low-level tools like .Net or Struts. It needs to come through leveraged frameworks like Compiere, Spring or Open for Business.

The enterprise version of Oracle is expensive so we use other DB's for less important data. I don't make the purchasing choices. I personally don't know why we only use the Enterprise version Oracle. Oracle offers a standard version that, last time I checked, was a little less then MS' standard version of SQL Server.

For a smaller company like where you work, I think the Open Source Compiere would be perfect. Compiere is ERP & CRM for the small-medium Enterprise and works with Oracle. Since it is Open Source, there are no costs involved with Compiere itself. So you can try it out and see if it will meet your needs. Take a few weeks to play with it. ERP/CRM can be very complex software and can take a long time to set up/learn. Our PeopleSoft HR/Portal system was a good years worth of work.

The Compiere have a page all about how they'll port the product if paid to do so.

http://www.compiere.org/

Might need some tweaking.

Don't forget about the FireBird database which is under a renamed MPL v1.1.

Fyracle is a side project that allows FireBird to work directly with Oracle SQL extensions and I believe also their Stored Procedures. It also allows Compiere to work with an open source DB instead of Oracle. Most of the cost was in licensing Oracle in a Compiere solution so this looks very promising.

Check out Compiere. It is a *very* full featured ERP / CRM with a POS module.

However, the OSS End User Apps like AbiWord (that are not corporate backed) are perpetually trying to catch up with the proprietary vendors.

Yes, I could probably make a pretty good living patching and enhancing open source projects for indivdual companies... Compiere (as one example) has a lot of room for such improvements, but that's not the point. It's not about making a living, it's about launching a successful project. I am certainly not saying that the proliferation of OSS developers alone will stop me. It's that the threat of OSS developers reworking my idea into a free application is equally as high as the threat of Microsoft reworking the idea, and making it a core part of the next Windows.

The two; "big proprietary" vs. "small but numerous OSS" balance eachother out. Between these two major market forces, there's little room left for the "small but still propietary".

Again, I don't see this as a complaint as much as a simple statement of fact.

Goals for a future release: Database Independence.

Oh, BTW - forgot to mention it - Compiere is a really great Open Source package that will probably do what you need, but as it requires an Oracle backend, your customer probably can't afford it.....

You could also check out Compiere.

It's an opensource ERP, but on a proprietary DB (Oracle).

There is also some work done in porting it to Postgres.

There is the PERL based SQL-Ledger
http://www.sql-ledger.org
(Presently using, will be moving to)
The java based Compiere.
http://www.compiere.org
Downside to Compiere - Oracle based. They are taking $$$ to move to PostgreSQL (then MySQL seems to be the next target)

Finally, there is a package called NOLA
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nola/
A double entry system using PHP.

Do a search on sourceforge and see if any of the 'new' ones excite ya.

You might want to take a look at www.compiere.org

Us business owners need BUSINESS applications. We don't need servers. We don't needs cutesy tools. We need some business apps. If someone wanted to sell me an OSS package, all ready to go, I'd look at it. As is, I'd have to cobble it together myself, and I just don't have the time.

I consider myself the other side of the coin. I'm a Java programmer slash computer science student, and I'm pretty good. I believe OSS has the future. I would like to make some software for (small?) businesses and maybe make some money on supporting it, or writing extra features.

But I have no idea what a "business application" needs. I don't know business. I have a general idea of what accounting is, but I just don't know all the myriad details of what such software has to be able to do.

If this were something I was making for myself, I'd just make what I need for myself. Then perhaps other people use it and there's feedback, etc. That way I produce, well, server and coding stuff.

I can't just start making something and hope it will be useful. There's probably a lot of things that you need that the software won't do, so the software won't be used and it won't improve. And I won't even be using it myself.

If you can sit down and write *detailed* specifications of everything you'd want your business application to do, and then put a reward on one that's open source, standards compliant et cetera, then it sounds interesting. But I would certainly need specs to build to.

OTOH, there is also Compiere. Which looks good, but still relies on an Oracle database. But it looks professional enough. Is that the sort of thing you need?

You've probably already come across it, but Compiere is a great ERP/POS. It's open source (MPL), but currently requires Oracle, which ups the minimum investment to $1,500 -- probably not in your budget. The PostgreSQL port is reportedly in progress.

There are other small systems around that you've likely already seen, such as SQL Ledger (with a web UI, yuck).

This site seems to have some suggestions as well:
Christopher Browne's compilation of free software for accounting.

It would not be outside the realm of possibility to utilize wine to run your accounting software. FYI, I wasn't able to get QuickBooks 2002 running with Wine 5/08/03 snapshot -- but I didn't try very hard.

Good luck.

http://www.compiere.org/

http://www.gnue.org/

Also check the Kernel Cousin for information:
http://kt.zork.net/GNUe/index.html

Every business has special needs. See the recent discussion right here just a few days ago.

Compiere and SQL Ledger sound promising, though.

http://www.compiere.org/

"the most popular Open Source business application - usually among the top 10 of the 60,000+ projects in SourceForge"

I looked at it a couple years ago for a grad school project, and the documentation was limited. However, now the technical docs look solid, and there's classroom and on-line user training.

Also, according to their web page it is in java so you can run it on your Macs or PCs or whatever. Oh, and you can download it from Sourceforge too. It's status there is 5/stable.

Here is an open source ERP/CRM system. They do all this:
* Optimize your Inventory
* Enter Sales Orders
* Receive Orders from the Web
* Create Invoices and record Shipments
* Collect Receipts (cash, credit cards) & match with Bank Statements
* Generate or enter Purchase Orders
* Record Supplier Receipts and Invoices
* Pay your Suppliers
* Enter manual Journals
* Print reports and statements

Compiere needs an Oracle database for now.

What you really need to be asking is, how can participating in Open Source help my business? As an example, it's been said many times, but bear repeating: most of the lines of code written in the world are written for internal projects within a company and never see the light of day. Many companies don't release such code because it's a one-way operation. You release it, your competition uses it and you get nothing in return.

There are really two questions embedded in your comment:

1. How do open source projects get started?
2. Why would a company using an open source product participate in its development?

My take on the first question is that, so far, viable open source projects have come from three sources:

• Grassroots efforts among developers to "scratch an itch". Examples: Linux, the GNU utilities, Apache
• Software companies trying to boost market share for products with significant external competition. Examples: Mozilla, Darwin
• Software companies trying to create a platform for selling services/support (the loss leader approach). Examples: Compiere

Other avenues might be possible. For example, a company might open internally-developed code if it felt that the benefit of externally-developed improvements would outweigh the harm of giving the code to its competitors.

The second question is more straightforward. As a company, I want to participate in OSS projects so that I can steer them. And if I don't release my developments back into the main development tree, my cost of maintaining a proprietary version will grow over time. Cost control in SW development is all about achieving and maintaining scale; splintering off is counter-productive unless there's a very good reason.

And as for the ERP side, well it's fairly complex but at least if we had an option for something that could run on Linux with say, Oracle or whatever (at least be flexible) database backend...

Hehe, well, I'm certainly not in you position, I'm an astrophysicist who just got the job of selling 100 000 solar eclipse glasses by the end of May...

A completely new thing to me of course, but it started me searching for simple CRM/ERP solutions.

I bumped into Compiere. Not an option for us, but have you looked at it?

Although I don't use it, I think it would be fantastic to see it using an OS database, and so am considering making a donation. If you want this port to come, maybe you would like to hand over a few dollars.

Looking at the current donations, I think it's been a pretty piss poor effort: I don't know how much they've advertised this, but I think it's a real shame that people that are using it at least haven't shown some cash. I'm not sure of the costs associated with Oracle, but I'm sure there'd have to be at least an annual support fee. Surely it would be worth it for most of those users to take a year's worth of support fees and put it towards developing an OS port? Anyway, if you're interested in making a donation, go to http://www.compiere.org/technology/independence.ht ml

http://www.compiere.org/

I'm very interested in this subject, also. Here are some links:

SQL Ledger Accounting

Hansa Business Solutions

Compiere

Cheap & easy business accounting with Linux

Nola

STFB

Open source Java projects for business and accounting. But... Is Java slow and with non-standard GUIs? A prisoner of Sun politics?

Open Systems Accounting Software

GNU Cash. Impressive.

Slashdot discussed personal finance packages. Thoughts: Where does "personal finance" end and business finance begin? Wouldn't it be better just to have one package for all accounting, so that you didn't have to learn more than one? But business accounting software has been difficult to use. Accounting software requires much more learning than word processing software. Learning more than one may reduce the quality of your life, not raise it.

An "accounting" package is not enough these days. Lets face it, developing relationships with customers is what it's all about. Which means that getting information in and out of your systems in the quickest possible manner is what will win in the face of competition. Enterprise Resource Planning systems from the likes of SAP and Oracle are what give big business the edge. Sure you don't have $250K to spend on solutions from these guys but Appgen, Compiere, and GNU Enterprise are bringing these kind of systems to the masses. The most promising at the moment seems to be Compiere but it does require some up-front costs - (nothing a small business could'nt handle if they were planning on a Windows deployment anyway). Check them out!