Fred Blauer and Associates

Collaborating with Business

I T Consulting

SAASBOB FOSS Business SystemSystem ImplementationsIT Governance/Audit

www.fblauer.com 2

Agenda

Industry/MarketBest of Breed (small and medium sized

systems)Integrated systems - everything from one

vendor (Larger vendors)Integration through frameworks, API's,

source code, web services, tools etc. Wed based client, platform independent

servers, data bases

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SAAS (the cloud)Examples:

Google mail and Apps Zoho, and lots of others Salesforce CRM and Netsuite ERP

Most are still proprietary commercial offerings with advertising or fee based revenue model

Convenience and ease of use

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FOSS for BusinessCA Magazine Article (May-Technology)

FOSS vs. SAAS (Cloud)

Financial advantages for the customer (ROI) E.g. French Police save 50M Euros

Different approach, Try before you buy, Community developed and Supported

Base system is usually free

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Some Types of FOSSProductivity Apps (eg. OpenOffice)Accounting and ERP (eg. Xtuple)

Xtuple grew by 250% in 2008 Navision coFounder joins Openbravo

Vertical apps - specific industriesHorizontal apps - all industries

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FOSS PlatformsXAMPP

OS - Windows or Linux or Mac Web server - Apache or IIS Data base - MySQL or Postgresql Progr. lang. - PHP or Python or Perl

Other technologies/architectures in use such as Java, QT4 etc

Forking of source code is possible

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FOSS VerticalsManufacturing - Xtuple Open MfgDistribution - Xtuple Standard, Weberp/Front

Acct Non-profit - CiviCRM add on for Joomla/Drupal Service (time/project)- AllocPSA, New Vtiger

5.1, dotProject, ProjectPier (Became ActiveCollab)

HRM - OrangeHRM

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FOSS Verticals POS (Retail)

Posterita (Postgres + Adempiere acct) Openbravo POS (Openbravo Acct) Xtuple POS (Postgres + Postbooks) Nolapro POS (Nolaproacct) Turbocash/OsFinancials Many others

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FOSS Horizontal CRM

SugarCRM (Xamp) vTiger (Fork of Sugar)

• New service tracking module, customer portal

Centric CRM (high end)

eCommerce –Magento, OSCommerce, Zencart

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FOSS Horizontal Cont'dBI and report writers

(Pentaho, Jasper, Openrpt)

Conferencing (DimDim, Yugma) Utilities (Ex. Virtual Box etc) Integration API's, Web Services, Jitterbit,

Talend Business Suites (Different systems that work

together)

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FOSS Accounting/ERPLow End

Turbocash/OsFinancials (Windows/Delphi, Firebird)

Nolapro (xamp), compiled PHP SQLledger/ledgersmb (Perl+Postgres) GNUCash - personal finance

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FOSS Accounting/ERP Mid Level

Xtuple (Postgres, QT4) Weberp/FrontAcct/EdgeERP (XAMP) Openerp (Python + Postgres)

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FOSS Accounting/ERP High End - More comprehensive

(includes many verticals) Compiere/Adempiere/Openbravo

(Java/Jboss + Postgres/Oracle architecture) Apache OFBiz (Java/Jboss + Postgres)

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FOSS Revenue Models Advertising Fee for useage (hosting) Premium modules (Commercial Open

source)Customization, IntegrationServices

Training, implementation assistance Documentation, Project management

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Proposed Approach Needs analysis or diagnostic (CSF) Review alternatives and ROI

Consider industry solutions that are proven, and meet CSF needs.

Consider proprietary alternatives. Integrated solutions are preferable.

If no integrated accounting, find a good solid solution (Preferably on same platform). Compare to proprietary alternatives.

Consider support alternatives

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Proposed Approach Cont'dConsider hardware & servers or hosted Some types of custom are more risky

than others. Consider future upgrades. Document, if necessary.

Proof of concept Download base system and test extensively

with company data.

Training, documentation is important

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Proposed Approach Cont'dPlanning, project managementImplement in phases if possible (1

division, 1 company, or 1 system trial)Post implementation lessons learned

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FOSS BenefitsWeb based – secure access to

information from anywhereNo vendor lock in, less restrictive

licensingPlatform independant, multi-language,

currency etc.Cost/ROI (lower licensing fees)

Cash flow in case of hosting

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FOSS Service A New breed of Service company

Wider range of products and services

Delivery models On demand In-house behind firewalls Server appliance (VM's)

Example - See Moxx Consulting

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IT Governance/AuditSox, PCI, HIPAA, FDA compliance

Dia for process maps, Alfresco or Knowledgetree for documentation repository, and control testing evidence

Control Audit FOSS Security tools like Nessus for pentest,

audit tools for security setup etc. FOSS tools for backups, Incident tracking

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ConclusionMagento site video Demos for BOB FOSSQuestions, DiscussionContact information - www.fblauer.com

09/05/09

Questions?

09/05/09