Openbravo ERP : Moving into Open Source ERP

Openbravo ERP instead of SAP? The past six years I worked with much pleasure in the SAP arena. I had the opportunity to work together with some of the larger corporations to help them achieve their ambitions. Part of my experiences is written down in this blog. Many people visit this blog on a daily basis and some of them leave me some wonderful messages. My contributions in last few months diminished, and will come to a total stop as of today.

The last two years my interest in the open source movement increased when I learned of the existing ERP alternatives at that time. As an ERP professional I was interested in to what extent these “free” software alternatives could actually fulfill commercial cutomers’ needs. Out of the ERP alternatives available I quickly focused on Openbravo ERP. Barcelona based Openbravo is the commercial organisation behind Openbravo ERP and Openbravo POS. In comparison with their open source ERP competitors Openbravo’s partner driven business model, heavy financing and marketing efforts instinctively won me over as the most professional alternative available. But what about the functionality of the software? According to some sites open source ERP is weak and I was admittedly a bit sceptical. As the English say: “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.  Hence I needed to give it a try.

Through documentation and experimenting I learned that installation of the Openbravo ERP stack is child’s play (i.e. if you take at least some pleasure from tweaking and fiddling your system). The application supports all fundamental processes in a business: Procurement, Sales, Production, Warehouse, Project/Service Management and off course Finance is integrated into the main processes. I was impressed by the basic functionality. Coming from SAP you do have to adjust expectations. In my opinion SAP is the Porsche when it comes to all integrated functionality and its price. Openbravo ERP is more like a Honda: tuned into a specific market need and way more affordable. That is why Openbravo aims at Small and Midsize Enterprises.

Openbravo ERP Sales Order entry

I was considering making a change and move into this new business opportunity. At that time I just moved my career to being a free-lance SAP Logistics consultant. Moving towards open source ERP, I had to have a good feel about the people behind the organisation. Early 2008 I visited an Openbravo partner event in Barcelona. There I learned a lot about Openbravo’s capabilities as a professional organisation and its management. These people definitely take the opportunity serious, and at the same time they are very approachable. I left Barcelona with an excited feeling of “opportunity”. I couldn’t do this by myself: I needed to find a suitable business partner.

Openbravo Team

While exploring Dutch networks for potential partners, in the meantime I kept on doing my SAP tricks with great pleasure: ERP and process improvement, the combination of social interaction and technical configuration, is just what I do best.  Only this summer I ran into the suitable partner I felt I needed to start this business. GlobalOrange in Amsterdam is offering application development and outsourcing service to SME. An extension of these services to ERP business is a perfect match. So did my partners think. Hence from now on I will be focused on making Openbravo ERP a success in the Netherlands and Belgium.

My break-up with SAP is not a dirty one. We had a great time together and who knows where we meet again. But as it is the times they are a-changing.

…this blog will be up for as long people will end up here and find the content useful…

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