Background

The purpose of this site/blog is to organize and publish information about the best,  and highest quality “open source” business systems currently available. We are not including information about the various commercial and proprietary systems in the business market, because there is already a lot of good information available, and the commercial vendors do a good job of promoting their solutions. However, there is not as much awareness about the new alternatives, based on “open source” technology,  particularly in small and medium sized businesses.

The term “Open source” started out as a development philosophy, and it has grown into other areas of business, government, health care, etc. It means a lot of different things to different  people, and there are many hybrid combinations and approaches that companies have taken, as you will see from the information here. So, when I use the term “open source” I am really referring to what I believe is the next generation of business information systems built on web based, platform independent technology, and by collaborative communities of developers and users. I considered the presence of a commercial backer or sponsors for each solution/project, to be an important criterion for quality, reliable support and inclusion here.

Keep in mind that different companies have different needs, and there is no substitution for a good requirements analysis, and proper testing and evaluation before implementing. But one thing that makes this type of system different from the proprietary ones, is the ability to “try before you buy”. In most cases you can do a full evaluation on the free community version, before committing to an enterprise version with premium features. In many cases, you may never have to upgrade, or it may be several years before you have the need.

You may not agree with my choices about what systems to include, but there were way too many projects available to evaluate all of them. I would like to hear from you, either by leaving a comment, or by joining the new discussion forum

that I created for that purpose. I am particularly interested in hearing from people who have done evaluations, or who have already implemented a system based on open source technology, and what their experiences were.

I hope you find this site useful, and I encourage your involvement for improvements, and keeping this information high quality and up to date.

Commercial Sponsors

Fred Blauer and Associates is a consulting alliance which brings service and expertise with the latest business and technology solutions to management. Fred Blauer CA, CA.IT, CISA is CEO and senior consultant with more than 20 years of experience providing information systems consulting services, including needs analysis, system selection and evaluation, project management; and implementation of various accounting and ERP systems.

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