Office/HR Management Software for Unix?

skuzzlebutt asks: "If you are dragging your office (kicking and screaming, no less) into the dynamic and typically, more affordable world of Linux and Open Source to keep those licensing and external help desk call costs down, have you considered your Office Management Software needs yet? I'm talking about things like HR Management, Scheduling, and the like. Snooping around on Freshmeat and SourceForge, the pickin's were pretty slim (I found one package at SF, but it has been posted for a year with no file releases), and Google wasn't much help either. I work as a developer for B of A and am also an MBA candidate; between these two roles, I run into many small business owners who are complaining about licensing costs, limited support options, can't-upgrade-unless-we-get-that-$75M-grant, and so forth. Has anyone had any success/horror stories for particular pre-fab commercial packages (be they open, closed, gratis, paid, etc)?"

Comments

Way to be a zealot.

[hatless]

Instead of deciding to "go with Linux" and then find software to run on it, how about you decide on what your company needs to function well and then pick the appropriate tools and packages, and then the OS. You might end up with Linux and you might not.

There are some very good web-based HR/payroll ASPs out there that tie into major payroll, insurance and benefits companies' systems. If not having the software in-house is okay with you, you may want to take a peek at Employease for a start.

What else? Accounting? On the low end ($500 or less for the whole thing) there isn't anything really comparable to Peachtree or Quickbooks Pro out there, though you might find some console-mode packages from some of the Unix vendors in the under-$2000 price range. In some cases, SCO apps of this sort will run okay under x86 Linux through iBCS. On the higher end ($10,000-$100,000) of small- to mid-size business accounting, there are probably a few more choices, also from old-line Unix software companies.

But what are you switching out? Just servers, or the desktops, too? Will you really be saving money if your employees can't open 20% of the word processor and spreadsheet files that have been e-mailed to them from outside? (Maybe, depends on the company and whether you're only doing this for a few departments.) How many people are running litle Access/Foxpro/whatever desktop databases vital to their work that will need to be redone from scratch?

Calendaring? Well, it's not free, but Lotus Domino sure runs nicely on Linux, and the web interface certainly cuts desktop support costs. StarOffice also has calendaring and is cheaper (the calendatr server isn't free if I recall correctly). But will it save you money over what you've already invested in?

Re:Way to be a zealot.

[skuzzlebutt]

Of course, every situation is unique...but sometimes "go with Linux" is the right answer. I'm not suggesting everyone invest in some technology because it's the flavor-of-the-month, but is it totally implausable that sometimes, somewhere, for whatever reason, Linux is the right thing to do? Is that to hard to visualize?

What if I have a company with everything else I need on 'nix, except this one thing. Should I invest in new HR software for Windows, another box to run Windows, a Windows license, possibly a license for Access, or SQL Server, or IIS, or whatever the software requires to run?

There was once a time when Windows (or computers, for that matter) wasn't so hot for these tasks, either, but, hey, business adapted. It became the de facto thing to do. Markets shift and adapt according to need, and my experience says that there is a need, albeit small.

We lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt

gnue?

[archie]

Not having a clear idea what HR-management software would do, but GNU Enterprise does enterprise thingies, so maybe it's what you're looking for?

Archie

Re:No answer to your question but

[SuiteSisterMary]

Of course it's not implausable. Linux has it's place, as does everything. But when a person says 'I'm implementing Linux, but suddenly have noticed that there's no way to do X...' it probably means that the move to Linux isn't being driven by need, or by product worthiness. To slightly mangle a phrase, due dilligence hasn't been performed.

Re:No answer to your question but

[SuiteSisterMary]

Got a bit trigger happy on the 'submit' button. What the question should have read like is 'I'd LIKE to move my office over to Linux, for all these good reasons, but haven't been able to find a Linux-based replacement for our HR system. Does anybody know of any?

No answer to your question but

[SuiteSisterMary]

"If you are dragging your office (kicking and screaming, no less) into the dynamic and typically, more affordable world of Linux and Open Source...

...then you are obviously less enthralled with the idea of 'customer service' and 'using the right tool for the right job' than with 'trying to look 1337 by forcing my preferences on everybody else without even checking to see if my idea will work for everything that the office needs to be able to do.'

Check out Rivio.com

[SuperMallen]

Plug for my own company... Rivio offers HR applications over the web through partners like BofA, Fleet Bank and so on. It's completely web based so it doesn't matter if your clients are running Linux, OS/2, BeOS, or any other wacky OS. As long as it's get a vaguely up-to-date web browser, you're set.

How about phpGroupWare

[PerlStalker]

For calendaring and such, take a look at phpGroupWare. They are listed on SourceForge as well. It may not have everything you want, (What does?) but it's a start. Keep in mind that it is still beta (though getting close to release) but most of the obvious bugs have been fixed.

Finding something Open Source that does payroll is going to be harder. It's often said that OSS comes about because someone was scratching their own itch. Most programmers have very little need for HR and Payroll stuff. (phpGroupWare had an HR mod back in the day, but it's not in the more recent versions. If you get the urge one day, write up a mod for phpGroupWare (or whatever) that does what you want.)

As an aside, when we wanted to switch away from our old, manual time clock, we setup an old Win95 laptop with some shareware punch clock SW and then put the numbers from there into Quickbooks to print the checks. The moral is: use what works best for you. Even if it runs on Windows and is Closed Source.

PerlStalker

"I'm here for my sanity..." Train "I Am"

Re:Way to be helpful slashdot.

[duffbeer703]

Ask Slashdot is a forum for whining bitching and trolling. Just accept it.