Running a Business on Open Source Software?

Graabein asks: "I'm part of an effort to startup a VoIP provider. We've decided to use Open Source Software wherever possible. Production is not a problem, we can handle the VoIP network itself, POTS termination, web sites, email systems, all the usual stuff. The business side of things is another matter entirely. We need to be able to handle Customer Relationship data, manage subscriptions, handle invoicing and accounts, have a web shop of sorts, online billing, credit card transactions, and more. Whatever system we use has to be able to handle national standards for accounting, or at least be possible to modify to do so. We've looked at Compiere, but our business types are not impressed. Neither am I, for that matter. Requiring an Oracle license is one thing (database independence is 'in development', but it has been for a long time, with no discernable progress), not working properly with Mozilla is another (you need IE to use it fully in HTML mode). What other options are there?"

"Our business types are full of suggestions for supposedly excellent and well suited systems, however they all have in common that they require Windows on the client. If we choose one of those systems our OSS policy is pretty much moot and OSS has been relegated to (some) servers in the computer room and that's about it. I don't mind running these business functions on a Windows server if that is the best system for the job, but having to run Windows on every client in order to access the data is simply not acceptable.

We want Linux and OpenOffice on every desktop. We want to be able to access customer data from a variety of clients, even including Windows. The same goes for Accounting data, HR data, QA data, you name it. Do we have to write our own system from scratch? I'm not sure that is very realistic."

Comments

Running a Business on Open Source Software?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, for now SCO seems to be doing just fine.

Outsourcing

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you considered outsourcing the whole damned thing to ...."India" ? :-P

Re:Outsourcing

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, I have a small group of Inia coders hired to write my ocde for my employer. I consider it my own promotion to a project manager. My manager has no clue that I do this. It is awesome! They think that I am really doing the work of 12 people. Man, i am glad I thought of this..... and the Indians and the company have no clue what is going down.. it is fucking awesome....

Open Source is not CHEAPER

[RicJohnson]

I am sorry.
Maybe I am asking for a flamewar, but why not try a professional package, i.e. not done by some open source developers who do not know BUSINESS.
Open Source Development IS GREAT!
You can find some card processing, but not for FREE!
Also - what will your customers feel that you have their PRIVATE info on open source processing software???

Re:Because Windows... what?

[SIG TR0LL]

It costs you a couple of bucks to buy Starbucks coffee for all your employees. In the grand scheme of your business, it is an insignificant cost.

It is also a business expense which makes it tax-deductible, so the actual cost is even lower than the price you pay up front for coffee.

Suck it up and join the rest of the business world.

Have you considered apt-get?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apt-get sounds like a perfect fit for your requirements. It is open source, so it can be modified to suit local accounting rules and regulations. There are several Fortune 100 companies already using apt-get for CRM, but they generally don't like to talk about it because the big vendors get pissed off. Just do a man apt-get, and read the 'CRM and Accounting' section, just below 'How to configure a local mirror'. You won't be sorry.

Proprietary Business Software

[Anonymous Coward]

If Compiere was released under a suitable free software license, you could hire Eric Raymond to add whichever features you require, like database independence, for example.

Of course, after the 12 months or so it would take him, you'd be tied to MySQL and none of the enterprise RDBMS features would work anymore, it'd be slow as hell, would work reliably only on commodity x86 hardware, and the only way to do a backup would be 'tar'. There's beauty in simplicity, though, right?

On the bright side, you'd have three competing natural language config syntaxes to use, all written in python with an optional elisp plugin and a totally rad TeX output mode for your invoices. Too bad the binary printer drivers no longer work. "Impact printing" is all the rage, though, I hear, and is "# cat invoice.txt > /dev/lpt1" really all that hard?

Re:When will some OSS developers get a clue...

[Leebert]

When will some OSS developers get a clue... ... and get together with an MBA, and write the killer app for OS.

Yes... Now where would we find an experienced devloper with an MBA? Hmmmm. :)

Re:Because Windows... what?

[klosskorban]

You Really should look at the TOC of your Starbucks coffee, using an opensource coffee solution like Bunn, or Cuisinart will both drastically reduce your TOC as well as give you a lot more control over your coffee allowing you to better meet the needs of your employees.
Follow the lead of companies like Telstra, and IBM who are rolling out ten's of thousands of Linux Desktops in their companies.