FOSS ERPs - A US$36 Billion Market
Enterprise Resource Planning software integrates departments and functions across a company into one computer system, conceptually running off a single database, enabling various departments to share information and communicate with each other. ERP systems comprise of function-specific modules designed to interact with the other modules, eg Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, HRMS, Sales and Marketing, Distribution etc. Business Intelligence software is used to mine data from large information system repositories such as Data Warehouses and the web.
The LinuxInsider reports [here] that IDC estimates that overall market for non-proprietary ERP applications will hit about US$36 billion by 2008 with FOSS ERP systems like Compiere ERP, ERP5, OpenMFG and Fisterra taking it there. Organizations worldwide are now looking towards as the possibility of mission-critical Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions as FOSS is making its way into a number of “niche” markets. Another interesting fact is that Oracle and SAP are also making a major shift towards the Linux platform proving that FOSS is receiving adequate support by the global business and industry.
The reality of the FOSS ERP and BI applications market is still relatively new and have to undergo extensive change to suit the commercial business and industry environments and compete with globally deployed SAP and Oracle ERP and Data warehouse applications. I still believe that if the business and industry continues to use FOSS ERPs and contributes modifications and best practices back to the FOSS community, it won’t be long before FOSS ERPs may enter Defacto recognition.
In my belief, the next generation of software technology platforms after ERP is the Virtual Enterprise that itself is a combination of FOSS technologies including online collaboration and ERP platforms.
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