Attention all open source software (OSS) ERP organizations: I am researching the next in a series of OSS-related application research articles for ebizQ.
Previous OSS application research has covered enterprise content management and business intelligence software.
My next application article, scheduled for February 2008 release, will focus on OSS ERP software and services, including ERP software as a service (SaaS) offerings based on OSS. The growth of OSS applications to the overall OSS movement is important because applications traditionally account for 60%-70% of software spend but just the opposite seems to be happening with OSS. According to IDC data released in May and discussed here, infratructure rather than applications seems to be dominating when it comes to OSS. But I think that is simply a matter of timing and tooling; the infrastructure has to be in place before the applications can follow. On the other hand, there is no one to one relationship between having OSS infrastructure and OSS applications so perhaps OSS will play out different than software markets have in the past. We are trying to determine that in this research series.
Or you might not even care and simply want to make sure you are investigating good solid OSS ERP packages for your company. In that case, the trends of ERP going back to the 1960s seem to be holding: it matters what industry you're in and how large or small your company is. Depending on answers to those questions, users are finding out that not all ERP software offers much RP.
And particular to OSS, can the enterprise truly "afford" to join the OSS ERP movement, giving back as much as it gets?
If your company or OSS community develops ERP software and would like to formally participate in my data collection, please download and complete the 1-page survey form (see "Download File" below) and return to dennis@ebizq.net by Friday January 18, 2008
Note that as the survey indicates, ERP software products will be covered in the report if they use OSS (e.g., bundle in an OSS application server product such as Geronimo) even if they are not "sold" as OSS themselves and no matter how they are monetized.
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