SMB And ERP: No Longer Mutually Exclusive Terms

It has been a very good week for open-source ERP developers -- and for small businesses that can benefit in a big way from the solutions they offer.First, OpenBravo this week announced a new product that proves it is serious about delivering affordable EPR solutions to small businesses.

According to a company news release, its new Openbravo QuickStart Edition "provides a pre-configured, entry-level packaged ERP implementation" that companies can deploy very quickly. The company claims that its installation and customization process, relying on a fixed-price professional services model, will take just 40 to 80 hours.

QuickStart Edition comes in two variants. One is pre-tuned for a standard ERP deployment that is also capable of providing cloud-based functionality, either on-site or as a hosted service. The other, based on an Ubuntu Server software stack, is being positioned as a better solution for companies that want more control over server configuration, including the use of complementary third-party components. Both are suitable for deployment as single-server solutions.

Finally, this week Inforworld.com named another open-source ERP provider, Compiere, as a recipient of its annual "Bossie" award in the Best Open Source Enterprise Software category. Compiere is another strong contender in the small-business ERP market; among other features, it offers a very well-regarded, cloud-based implementation of its ERP solution.

In both cases, these announcements offer more evidence that thanks to the open-source community, the terms "ERP" and "small business" don't have to be mutually exclusive.