When you talk about Enterprise Resource Planning, what immediately comes to mind are the bellwether packages such as SAP or Oracle Applications. You may not hear as much about open source ERP applications, the probable reasons being: 1) it costs money to develop big ERP applications; and 2) it’s risky to entrust your business to a “free” product.

However, applications that hit right into the core of the business processes are a growing need, and open source is struggling to meet that. There are several that actually attempt to meet the demand.

Enterprise resource planning software is a broad category of applications that are typically geared towards the mid-sized enterprises. They manage data that affects several parts of the business and are often used by several users simultaneously. Hence, they require some central server to house both application and database.

Though they may be labelled as ERP, they may encompass other functions as well. Typically software of this class incorporates some degree of customer relationship management, partner management, materials planning, asset management, and internal workflow.

ERP software is inherently complex because of its nature of involvement within a business. As such, although open source products are available, customization is always a requirement and commercial support invariably follows.

Here are some examples:

webERP is an open source ERP system based on PHP and runs on either a PostgreSQL or MySQL database backend. Its modules include account management, inventory management, purchase orders, discounts, reporting, and a double-entry general ledger.

Compiere is an open source ERP and CRM business solution with a J2EE foundation. Compiere modules are: Quote-to-Cash, Requisition-to-Pay, Customer Relationship Management, Partner Relations Management, Supply Chain Management, Performance Analysis, and Web Store. Early versions of Compiere only worked with the commercial Oracle database, though current versions have support for other databases in beta. Compiere is licensed under GNU, but documentation and support are available under commercial contract.

Adempiere is a fork of the Compiere project and carries many of Compiere’s features. Adempiere adds workflow and business process management capabilities. Like Compiere, Adempiere is built on J2EE technology, using JBoss application server. Database support is currently restricted to Oracle and PostgreSQL. Adempiere is also licensed under the GNU but it is also available as a commercial product with paid support.

ERP5 is billed as a full featured high end ERP package. It has several interlocking modules, specifically, ERP, MRP, CRM, Finance, Payroll, and Commerce. ERP5 is built on the Python-based Zope framework and works with both MySQL and PostgreSQL. ERP5 is licensed under GNU.

LedgerSMBis a double-entry web-based general ledger application. It is flexible and customizable for a variety of business environments. LedgerSMB is a fork of another popular general ledger application, SQL Ledger.

Opentaps is a web based ERP and CRM for small to medium sized businesses. Its functions include eCommerce, Point-of-Sales, inventory, warehouse, order, customer management and general ledger. It is built on top of the OFBiz framework, and as such uses J2EE technology. It works with both MySQL and PostgreSQL. Opentaps is released under the Apache license.

We’ll be covering these applications in-depth in future posts.