Small Companies can also see the Big Picture

Today if the feeling that you're making decisions without all the necessary information creeps down your gut, you're not alone. Nine out of ten corporate executives admit to the same problem.

But if you're an executive at a small or midsized business, what's the solution?
You don't have the deep pockets of a big corporation to develop an elaborate IT infrastructure, but you still need an up-to-the-minute, 360-degree view of your operation to make the right decisions—and make them quickly.

Fortunately, today it is possible for you to get the information you need to make informed decisions with the help of the Open Source ERPs that have stormed the market and are posing a great competition to the traditional proprietary biggies.
With the huge community support these Open Source ERPs are set to make a big ground for themselves in coming time as midsized businesses start to long for the big picture.

SaaS - Software as a Service

You might have heard of Software as a Service (SaaS) as an exciting new technology and business model that gives you access to software over the Internet with low up front costs and ease of deployment. Like many companies, however, you may be wondering whether SaaS applications will work for you and if you should use SaaS for your mission critical applications like ERP.

You may question here how to choose the right SaaS ERP solution, given all the choices and vendor hype out there.

Benefits from ERP

Benefits form ERP is of two kinds, tangible and intangible.
Tangible benefits are those benefits which can be quantified in monetary terms and intangible benefits cannot be quantified in monetary terms but they do have a very positive and significant business impact.

TANGIBLE BENEFITS:

i. Lowering the cost of products and services purchased ;
ii. Significant paper and postage cost reductions ;
iii. Improves the productivity of process and personnel ;
iv. Inventory reduction ;
v. Lead time reduction ;
vi. Reduced stock obsolescence ;
vii. Faster product / service look-up and ordering saving time and money ;
viii. Automated ordering and payment, lowering payment processing and paper costs.

INTANGIBLE BENEFITS:

i. Can reach more vendors, producing more competitive bids ;
ii. Accurate and faster access to data for timely decisions ;
iii. Saves enormous time and effort in data entry ;
iv. More controls thereby lowering the risk of mis-utilization of resources ;
v. Facilitates strategic planning ;
vi. Uniform reporting according to global standards ;
vii. Improved customer response ;
viii. Increases organizational transparency and responsibility.

Why do one need an ERP???

Would you fly an airplane in bad weather with no gauges or instruments?
Probably not.

So why would you try to run a company in an economic storm without critical business data and feedback?

To pilot your business safely through a recession you need ERP software that provides insight into your business, markets, competitors, and suppliers.

So in today's era of recession all entrepreneurs need an ERP System that would help the management to....

* make better, faster business decisions
* measure efficiencies within the organization so that you can make course corrections immediately
* streamline your supply chain
* cut costs and allocate resources more efficiently

You’ll also see how ERP Systems can help you lay the foundation for future growth.

ERP Systems can help you make to make the right decisions, and adopt the right strategies, for turbulent economic times.

Installing Open ERP on Ubuntu

Just run these commands on the terminal for using OpenERP on Ubuntu

Resolving the dependencies for OpenERP Server n running it:

sudo apt-get install python python-psycopg2 python-reportlab \
python-egenix-mxdatetime python-xml python-tz python-pychart \
python-pydot python-lxml python-libxslt1 python-vobject

cd /workspace/openerp/openerp-server-5.0.1-0

ls

./openerp-server.py


Resolving dependencies and creating superuser for postgresql:

sudo apt-get install postgresql

sudo su - postgres

createuser --createdb --no-createrole --pwprompt openuser
(Here the system will ask for a password, remember it as it will be used to configure the config.py file in tools in extracted server folder. This can be configured using the nano editor)

exit


Resolving the dependencies for OpenERP Client and then running it:

sudo apt-get install python python-gtk2 python-glade2 \
python-matplotlib python-egenix-mxdatetime python-xml python-hippocanvas

cd /workspace/openerp/openerp-client-5.0.1-0

ls

./openerp-client.py

Why do ERP consultants charge a high fee?

ERP consultants operate in the "high risk high reward" area. Contemporary ERP software are complex pieces which need years to master. ERP consultants invest significant amount of time and effort, which need to be rewarded. ERP Consultancy is also given to the highest levels of management often at the level of CEO. CEO level consulting cannot come cheap. A well-implemented ERP can translate to crores of rupees of saving for an organization justifying once again the high cost of ERP consultants. ERP consultants also combine a rare combination of communication skill, domain knowledge and software expertise, once again justifying the high cost. Last, but not the least, ERP sales are growing fast and the demand for ERP consultants is all time high. The gap in supply-demand also explains the unusually high cost of ERP consultants.

This is what is said by an ERP Consultant :
"I am working in South east asia dollars for 2 years and I earn 1.75 lakhs Indian Rupees per month(converted). If I move to Chennai, how much can I quote as a salary? I hear different views from different people. Some say the market is down and companies would pay me not more than 9 lakhs. The others say compaies are ready to pay more than 12 lakhs easily."

Open Source Technologies

Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software's source code. Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet, which provided access to diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.

Software development costs in organizations have been touted as being approximately 15% of total costs. This indicates that the value of one over another development methodology is more of a marketing decision (which customers and pricing models) as much as it is about the design of software.

The open source model of operation and decision making allows concurrent input of different agendas, approaches and priorities, and differs from the more closed, centralized models of development. The principles and practices are commonly applied to the peer production development of source code for software that is made available for public collaboration. The result of this peer-based collaboration is usually released as open-source software, however open source methods are increasingly being applied in other fields of endeavor, such as biotechnology.

For more reference go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source