In the early days after opening a small or medium-sized business, most owners are able to manage their company’s transactions, finances, and data using a few spreadsheets and conscientious email management. As the new business grows, these daily tasks will increase exponentially and many entrepreneurs will find themselves in need of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. ERP solutions allow a business owner to store information, including product planing, manufacturing, inventory, sales, marketing and accounting functions in a single database. Unfortunately, finding the right ERP for a small business can be a difficult because many solutions are expensive, are scaled for use in larger businesses and aren’t suited for the more selective needs of SMBs. OpenERP may be the solution most SMBS are looking for.
OpenERP is a fully featured open source ERP that can be customized to fit any business model or budget. Smaller businesses may want to start wit the free Community version, choosing just a module or two to get their feet wet and then add modules later on as needed. Because OpenERP is open-source, users can easily customize or modify modules as needed or take advantage of the development community’s add-on module contributions. Businesses can create notifications and triggers for specific company functions, and the software offers seemless integration with popularly used email and calendar applications as well as website integrations.
Available modules include customer relationship management (CRM), project management, warehouse management, invoicing, purchase management, sales management, knowledge management, manufacturing, accounting & finance and human resources. You can also choose to install industry-specific applications for associations, food industry or auction houses.
As a company grows,they may want to invest in Enterprise (on-premises) or Online (hosted) versions of the software. At only only $39.00 per user, OpenERP still clearly rivals the cost and functionality of many other proprietary CRM solutions.
For more information on solutions for running your businesses’ technology more efficiently, visit our website or contact Megan Meisner at mmeisner@launchpadonline.com or 813 448-7100 x210.