Open source ERP rivals Compiere, OpenBravo expand partner networks

Two leading open source ERP players are working to expand their solutions and partner ecosystems.

On Wednesday, Compiere, a Redwood Shores, Calif. company whose management is comprised of many ex Oracle execs such as President and CEO Don Klaiss, announced an upgrade of its ERP and CRM solution that offers 50 improvements and new features.  The update builds on the Compiere 3.0 release announced last December and offers enhancements to the web user interface such as advanced text filtering capabilities that refine the results of an ad hoc query. 

Earlier this month, Compiere announced new support for EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus Advanced Server. Previously, the open source software was available for Oracle's database only. Compiere reports that more than 1.3 million copies of its open source software have been downloaded to date.

Compiere launched its global partner program in January of 2007 and currently has about 15 gold partners in North America. The company is hosting an online event for prospective partners on April 23. Open source investor and expert Larry Augustin sits on the board of directors, as does Ram Gupta, who managed Peoplesoft's acquisition of JD Edwards in 2003.

OpenBravo, another big player in the open source ERP realm,  announced on Wednesday the official launch of its new Global Partner Program with specific progams for system integrators, independent software vendors, OEMs, value-added resellers and education partners. The revised partner program was previewed at CeBIT 2008 last month.

The Pamplona, Spain software developer reported last month a major milestone of 500,000 downloads of software from Sourceforge since it was open sourced in January of 2006. OpenBravo will host a training event in Miami in June.