Openbravo to push open source ERP more aggressively in US
One open source project is giving thanks for reaching the one million download milestone and believes the worldwide financial crisis will only accelerate its growth.
Openbravo, a purveyor of a popular open source ERP application and newly acquired open source POS solution for the small to medium-sized enterprises, predicts it will fare better against proprietary offerings such as Microsoft Dynamics and SAP OneConnect in this climate because of the costs to implement complex applications.
"People who want to buy ERP and say they can't in this crisis can get more value [from Openbravo] for the same amount of money [as rivals' offerings][," said Josep Mitja, COO of Openbravo. "What you save in licenses, you can spend in customization. You get more for less."
Different language and accounting rules in each nation makes ERP a strong play for the channel, he said.
The open source company has about 100 partners and 100 paying subscribers worldwide. To expand its footprint in the U.S., the company is trying to recruit more systems integrators and offers an appliance that bundles its namesake ERP, middleware and JEOS. Currently, the company has about 10 partners in the US. Openbravo also recently released an upgrade of its platform, version 2.5, that is more modular in its approach.
Customers can buy a support subscription for roughly $5000 (Euro) per five users or $10,000 per server for an unlimited number of users.
The company was founded in 2001. The ERP market is ripe for a leading open source player because it is "very fragmented," said Mitja