Posts by Ivo Oltmans:

How does Openbravo make money?

May 6th, 2008 Being a channel manager (as you might know in channel management we are responsible for the growth of our partner network), this is a question I get many times. It is quite logical that this question frequently comes up, since we are not charging any license fees for our award winning ERP solution. Moreover, we are not distributing the solution as a “black box” of which you have no idea how it is working (if we would do this and in addition charge license fees it could also be called a proprietary model ;-) ), yet in our case anyone can see how the product has been built because the source code is visible and readily available through a download from Sourceforge. In addition, all documentation about the product we have is published and freely available through our Wiki. Therefore, I can understand where the question comes from.

Many know that Open Source (OS) is a business model under which applications are developed and commercialized on a way that is revolutionizing the software industry. All OS companies tend to have different strategies of monetizing on the dissemination of their product, but most have one thing in common: the delivery of services.

Openbravo is no different in this way; the sale and delivery of services is our primary source of revenues. Services that we offer cover anything a partner might need to be successful in selling and implementing Openbravo solutions (ERP and POS). Some service types are fee-based, like training - support - custom development - consultancy, and thus provide an important source of revenues for our firm.

To grow our business we count with our network of partners who implement Openbravo for their clients. Our recently launched Openbravo Network has been offered in addition to the existing free community edition. We are convinced that Openbravo Network is an innovative solution offering the first real subscription-based “ERP-in-a-box” solution at a competitive price that enables partners to increase their economic returns with a “peace-of-mind” offering for users, while also generating further revenues for Openbravo.

So if I would have to answer the question in the title of this post in one sentence it would be: “Our success depends on our partner’s success”. If our partners do well in building a successful business around Openbravo, we will also do well as a company. That is why we put so much effort in delivering high quality and specifically designed services.

Do we make money? Yes we do! Our partners are quite successful in building an ERP practice with our product. One of our Dutch partners told me that they on average receive one call per day from a potential client. This is a great example of the market opportunity in the ERP space and the dissemination power of Open Source.

So if you work at, or for that matter own, an IT company and are interested in growing with us do not hesitate to apply for our partner program. We will contact you shortly after registration to evaluate if there is a fit between our companies.

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