Universities have played a very significant role in the development of the Internet and open source. Some of the basic technologies in the open source space, such as the BSD based operating systems, the X-Window graphical system and many others, have been developed and improved in universities. Openbravo ERP is an open community which strives to maximize collaboration and welcomes contributions from the academia world.

At Openbravo, we have crafted a program aimed to help academia institutions to embrace the teaching and contribution to Openbravo ERP. We think that this program can help students to develop their domain of knowledge in the ERP space, gain experience in contributing within open source communities, experience in distributed software development, and in the use of tools used in business environments. In the other side, we expect them to to produce deliverables that are usable in the Openbravo ERP project.

If you are responsible for a program in an academic institution and you have interest in participating in this program, please contact us at collaborate_AT_openbravo.com. Openbravo offers a framework agreement for academia institutions willing to participate.

More information at Openbravo Wiki.

A few days back Carlos Romero was talking about how contributing to Openbravo projects is a win - win proposition. A clear example of this is how the 21 localizations projects that have produced deliverables are benefiting the whole community. In our Contributor's guides for Openbravo ERP and for POS there are more examples of areas where people are actually contributing.

We regularly receive requests asking how people can help Openbravo projects, how they can coordinate with the quality assurance or development teams, how they add a new feature, etc. To easy these conversations we have opened two new forums: Contributing to Openbravo ERP and Contributing to Openbravo POS. The objective of these forums is to provide a place were people can discuss these ideas publically and have more visibility on how they can contribute to Openbravo projects.

Do not hesitate to visit the forums if you have any question or suggestion regarding how to contribute.

Yes or no: When deciding to adopt open source software, intellectual property issues and security is a concern for my company. Now does answering yes mean that you are more likely to be American than European? According to Forrester, the answer is "Maybe Yes."

In their recent study Open Source Adoption: Notes From The Field, Forrester Research highlights a number of potentially fascinating insights in to the minds of those considering open source adoption. The study set out to interview European professionals who were considering or who had previously adopted an open source solution. In some instances, like the one above, they found cultural differences. Most importantly, the study succeeds in giving open source companies many ideas for improving their message and lead qualification. Here are 5 hypotheses open source companies can start testing tomorrow morning:

Hypothesis 1: When selling products like Openbravo Network (Professional Edition of our 3rd Generation ERP), messaging is more effective when prioritizing advantages for American and European audiences like this:
- USA: Legal Support for IP issues and Security > Included Software Support > Total Cost of Ownership
- Europe: Included Software Support > Legal Support for IP issues and Security > Total Cost of Ownership
Forrester said it: The amount of people in the United States concerned with Security is 71%, compared to just 45% for Europeans.

Hypothesis 2: It is more effective to play up open source as a huge product benefit in Europe than in America.
Forrester said it: Europeans are much less negative about open source than Americans, and more open to adoption.

Hypothesis 3: Add the question "Have you implemented an open source product in your company before?" to your End Client Lead Qualification Survey. At the end of 6 months, there will be a positive correlation between "yes" responses and qualified leads.
Forrester said it: Companies with initial success in open source are more likely to go after bigger investments.

Hypothesis 4: When visiting a potential end client you know has implemented an open source technology, ask the CEO "So has your company adopted any open source technologies?" If non-technical, greater than 50% of CEO's will say no.
Forrester said it: IT Decision makers are the ones adopting open source technologies, not CEO's. As such, CEOs may still fear open source without any idea of the cost savings and innovation occurring in their office. (Side note, they didn't say it, but I think they meant it: aiming marketing material to technical audiences rather than business audiences still seems to work).

Hypothesis 5: Improve the quality of your marketing information to clearly state the open source cost advantage in a PDF. The actual success measure is time elapsed before sales department starts asking for printed versions.
Forrester said it: After getting over the fear of open source, cost becomes a main driver.

The article gained notice from Matt Asay, who rightfully noted the shortcomings. While keeping this in mind, the article highlight some open source sales lessons that can be tested across borders or at home.... something that Larry Augustin is focusing on today.

I have been working on the past weeks on the library auditing project. Yesterday all changes were merged into trunk.

As part of the project, I have removed some duplicated libraries that we had in the project, reducing the final size of openbravo.war from 96MB to 46MB. I also also updated the rest of the libraries, as result now we are using JasperReports 3.0, something requested for a long time, and also the latest versions of the database access drivers. David Baz is also working on updating the Dojo Javascript library to the latest version too.

All of these enhancements are going to be part for Openbravo ERP 2.50. If you find any issue with the updated libraries, just let me know (jmas at openbravo.com).

This is one of the most frequent questions I get from (prospective) customers. Fortunately for everyone, the answer is a clear "YES".

One of the strengths of Openbravo ERP is the freedom to adapt it to every company's specific needs without limitation. This involves configuring the system's metadata, and very frequently, developing new functionalities to meet those specific requirements that make every company unique. On some occasions, the customizations done on top of the "standard" version are very significant.

However, this does not mean that you cannot benefit from Openbravo Network, the professional subscription service that has been designed to keep your system up-to-date and bug-free for a predictable cost.

Firstly, the service is built around the concept of system stability. The updates are designed to intricately target only the lines that require a fix, minimizing the likelihood of collision with custom developments. Therefore, in most of the cases, updates are silently applied without any conflict.

Secondly, the service is based on a ground-breaking application of source code management tools which are now part of Openbravo ERP. This approach provides a very granular and structured way to manage code conflicts during the update process, which help consultants apply fixes even when they are for the very same files that have been customized.

Attempting to undertake manual maintenance of a production system is simply not realistic, and too risky. Very often, only a handful of customer-reported bugs get fixed and the system is not properly patched. The situation gets much worse when several systems are maintained in parallel for several clients, and inevitably the quality of the manual maintenance process starts begins to deteriorate.

Openbravo Network has been designed to ensure Openbravo systems can be properly maintained so that they are fully up to date, with the quality required for a mission critical application, and in the most cost efficient way.

Go Professional! Buy Openbravo Network.

Next Wednesday 24th September, I will be in Paris to attend the Paris Capital du Libre event.

I will participate in a panel to discuss the future of Open Source in Europe.

You can find the agenda for the event here.

During the launch of Openbravo Network, many mistakenly interpreted Openbravo adopting a closed source development model. This is not our strategy because we believe there is a better way.

My previous post is a very illustrative example of how customers benefit from having an open community, and how the community benefits from having customers funding it.

All bugs fixed for Openbravo ERP are available in the development trunk and incorporated in the newest release of Openbravo ERP, which typically occur twice a year.

Openbravo Network clients benefit from having regular and timely access to bug fixes, both for bugs reported by them or reported by the community. They get the benefits from using a product which is subject to public scrutiny and at the same time enjoy production grade SLAs (Service Level Agreements).

Community benefits from the effort funded by Openbravo Network customers to fix bugs, which are readily available in the development trunk and periodically packaged whenever a new release is published (or even before, if –occasionally- a community maintenance patch is published).

If you use Openbravo ERP and want to see it improve, engage in the community.

If you use Openbravo ERP and want production grade support, subscribe to Openbravo Network.

You are helping yourself in both cases.

Since May I’ve been collaborating with members of the Intel Business Development and Open Source Tech Center Teams regarding their new service: The Intel Business Exchange. Simply put, team members attract, collaborate with, and list software products and services on this site. Then, customers and interested parties can learn about these solutions and contact for more information and a potential implementation.

The Exchange was created to help Intel target small and mid size companies looking for high quality enterprise solutions at a reasonable price. Users can “Read articles and access interactive demos that can help you focus on the right solutions for your business. Get real-world perspectives as well as scan blog posts and ratings to learn how these solutions might work for you. Need a deeper dive into the technology? You’ll find those details, too.”

It’s obvious that Intel is actively investing in the heavily under served mid size market to further their growth. And Openbravo is excited to have the first open source product listed on the Intel Business Exchange.

During the past months, since the official launch of Openbravo Network –the subscription support service for Openbravo ERP–, our clients have received patches containing:

• 214 Openbravo ERP fixes
• 35 Linux component updates*
• 5 Operating Environment updates (in Oracle Database, Apache Server, Tomcat, Ant and Java)*

In total, these account for more than 300 fixes, including a few security and critical ones.

Bugs fixed include those reported by Openbravo Network clients and bugs reported by the Openbravo ERP community. Bugs reported by our clients are treated according to production grade SLAs (Service Level Agreements) to ensure fixes are available on time.

For Openbravo SMB Network clients, fixes also include patches for the operating environment, which in many amateur implementations is not well kept up to date, eventually exposing the system to security threats.

Before fixes are released, a rigorous quality assurance process certifies there are no compatibility conflicts and they are production ready.

For Openbravo SMB Network clients, patches can be easily applied from Openbravo Network’s administration console. Also, because the Openbravo SMB Network One environment is a highly standardized configuration, we can test the patches in exactly the same environment our customers have. This dramatically improves the effectiveness of our quality assurance process, optimizing it for production usage.

Overall, this service, recommended for any professional Openbravo ERP implementation, is designed to ensure the system stays updated, bug free and secure.

* Only available for Openbravo SMB Network One customers
* Note that component updates typically contain several fixes each one