Comparison of softwares used in retail, export & manufaturing industry

Submitted by--Akanksha -David Phillipowsky-Rahul Kumar -Samoneh-Shweta Iyer

1. SQL LEDGER

Accounting, commercial & production suite for micro and small enterprises or medium enterprises with basic requirements

It also offers basic functionality for purchasing, sales and inventory management

Functionality and user interface can be tested online

Migration scripts for upgrading from Quickbooks and gnuCash also available

Accounting data is stored in a SQL database server, for the display any text or GUI browser can be used.

SQL-Ledger is platform independent and runs on any *NIX, Mac or Windows computer.

It can be accessed remotely so people can be in different parts of a city, country or across the world.

The assembly feature can be used to build manufactured goods from parts, services, labor units and assemblies.

When the assembly is sold all the accounts linked to the individual items are updated and stock levels adjusted accordingly.

Flexibility1. Customization

Can be customized with external Perl modules and used like a framework

Code has to meet defined calling conventions and main core needs not to be modified

External module customizations apply on global or on user level

Sophisticated meta data customization without special programming skills is not provided

Layout for GUI and reports can be changed with templates

2. Flexible upgrades Depends on degree of customization When using external script approach, updates

are not a problem

3. Internationalization Language preference, comma and date formats

can be configured on user level

4. User friendliness Intuitive GUI

5. Architecture

3 – tier web architecture

Web-based Perl program that interfaces with PostgreSQL using the relevant Perl modules

The code is well partitioned, and the main operation modules are written in an object oriented way.

Software stack -

6. Scalability Very scalable Two concurrent users can constantly (and

rapidly) add financial transactions and run into one query that needs to be rewritten to accommodate their performance needs over a space of more than a year.

With the right expertise, SQL-Ledger could be scaled up indefinitely.

7. Security Access is controlled on user level Administration can grant several functionality

groups per module to a user8. Interfaces CGI, SOAP, La Tex

9. OS independence Independent and runs on any *NIX, Mac or

Windows computer

10. DB independence Mature open source database system, for data

storage, although already using Oracle or DB2, these databases can also be used with SQL-Ledger if preferred

11. Programming language Perl

Support1. Support infrastructure

FAQ and installation instructions on the download page for various platforms available for free

user and several active regional mailing lists on which the developer pops in occasionally with his inputs.

Uses mailing list where there are questions & comments of other users, that is active and helpful.

Online demo

2. Documentation

289 page manual

Commercial development support contract

The developer appears negative towards community-based documentation, to buy theirs

Community based documentation does exist to some extent however it should not be relied on as it may be incorrect.

Continuity

1. Project structure

Run by DWS Systems Inc. , Canada & backed by partners that provide customization & integration services

Partners located in Australia, Belgim, Italy, Swizerland, Netherlands, U.K & U.S.A

2. Community activity 150 – 300 mails a month

3. Transparency

Planned features and their progress are documented Bug tracking and versioning systems are not public Developer support is offered on a commercial basis

4. Update frequency

Regular

Maturity

1. Development status Stable

2. Reference site Many reference site available Its Web site has only very superficial information There are a couple of helpful third-party Web

sites, but none with a great deal of detail

2. COMPIERE

Most popular ERP system nowadays

Active community ( more than 900000 downloads)

Targeted to small and medium companies operating in distribution/ retail and service areas

Most system released under GPL, professional Edition available(purely proprietary)

Functions: purchasing, material management & order management ( few manufacturing functions)

Functionality is organized along business processes:- Quote-to-cash covers whole process from 1st customer

contact, pre-sales, sales and order actvities to cash receive (strong CRM funtionality)

- Requisition- to-pay covers whole supplier process from request, purchase order, request to payment

• CRM is integrated into other modules(not separate)

• Performance analysis covers accounting & controlling

• Production currently in beta state and reference customers are missing

• Web store delivers basic shop system (integrated into other ERP system)

• Service management and basic project management functionality available

Flexibility 1. Customization

Allows meta based customizations on the fly without shutting down system

Metabase is stores on the database in 114 tables called Application Dictionary

Can be modified with Compiere client having administrator rights

To create a new window database structure must be defined first

GUI consists of a window with several tabs and fields & corresponding database elements

Windows GUI structure input handling and validation, print formats, default accounts, process buttons, menu structure and callouts are defined in Application Dictionary

Modifications generate model code

For lower level customizations this can be extended with callouts, document process workflows and SQL stored procedures

Callout can change values of all fields in a window and access all tables

Further customizations are done following patterns followed by Compiere

2. Flexible Upgrades

Commercial migration tool supports high-level customizations done via application dictionary and callout functions

For changes in core code flexibility depends on patterns used

3. Internationalization GUI & reports are translated into English, Chinese,

German, Spanish, French, Italian & Dutch

Translation efforts in 26 languages

Accounting schemes available for US, Spain, Italy, & Germany

Supports multiple sites by providing 3 entity levels› System level (accessible by all organizations)› Client level(multiple accounting schemes for

single client)› Organization level(lowest level where transactions

are performed, virtual organizations supported)

4. User friendliness

Tabbed layout Supports a subset of rich GUI Ex. Master views are not possible on one screen Users complain of bad look and feel

5. Architecture Mixture of fat client 2-tier & 3-tier architecture Uses fat Java Client Accounting engine is on application server Thin web clients are used for web store and some

CRM functionality Beta thin client serving all forms

6. Scalability

On DB side Application is mostly 2-tier based and thus

depends on DB scalability Used application server supports clustering No cluster installation is documented Scalability is not proofed, but the used components

are known to scale well

7. Security

Compiere provides a complete application-level security infrastructure, supporting role-based security, data security, data encryption and auditing.

fully equipped with an application to implement security policies that protect valuable corporate data from inappropriate or unlawful access.

Role-based Security - Each User account is associated with one or more roles. - Roles are used to secure access to both data and functionality. An

inheritance-based model is used to grant or revoke privileges according to role.

Data Security - Robust data-level security is applied using Roles to restrict read and write

level access at the record or field level. - With data security you have the ability to automate internal controls using precise access rules, ensuring appropriate governance checks and appropriate segregation of duties for transactions.

security policies are in your control.

Auditing - Compiere provides the ability to audit any transaction in the system, including changes to the

Active Data Dictionary (metadata). - New transactions, changes to existing data and even queries of specific records and fields can be

tracked in the audit log. - The choice of how restrictive or open your

8. Interfaces Emails can be sent and files can be attached to

documents Built- in reporting engine CSV export-import of data is provided by the

commercially available migration tool Other interfaces can be developed in Java using

APIs

9. OS independence Independent and runs on any Linux/Unix, Mac or

Windows computer

10. DB independence DB abstraction layer is very SQL-centric Some open source DB’s are available as

Sourceforge side projects, but they are neither supported nor tested

Sybase also supported Runs under the Firebird database using

the Fyracle extensions, without porting SQL code for PostGreSQL was translated manually

11. Programming Language Java

Support 1. Support Infrastructure (support services, support request, support

service exclusions)

Provides various levels of support

Support Services will be provided to customer's Authorized Users only on unmodified versions of the Software

Uses reasonable commercial efforts to respond to the Support Request within the Response Time specified in the Support Agreement

Except if expressly provided, Compiere provides the support services and software to customer and the authorized users "as is.“

Customer agrees that as a condition of Compiere's providing the Support Services, Customer shall migrate to the most current version of the Software at least once per year using Version Migration Services to enable & provide effective ongoing support.

2. Training User & developer training Implementation Technique Documentation Pack Development Technique Documentation Pack Tutorial Video Online Q & A

3. Documentation User manual consisting of 850 pages Little developer documentation is available Auto generated API documentation in Javadoc

format is minimal Instructions on Community maintained developer

documentation( 36 pages) & Developer forums

Continuity 1. Product structure Company driven project, led by Jorg Janke

(based in Portland, US) Concentrates on development, second level

support & training Project management, planning and execution No implementation services no competition with

partners More than 70 partners sell consulting &

consulting services in at least 25 countries They determine development priorities Track costs associated with multi-phase projects

across your business solution.

2. Community activity

Active user community Responsive forums About 500 forum messages a month Support requests, bugs & feature requests

tracked separately

3. Transparency

Project roadmap & detailed change log available Public services for bug tracking & change

requests Public CVS access

4. Update frequency Regular

5. Other lock-in effects PDF generation & migration tool need license Customers with support contract have access to

installable fixes & patches They get priority support & optional embedded

Oracle license

Maturity 1. Development status Stable Manufacturing and full web client in beta status

2. Reference site Many reference sites available Partners have customer cases on home page &

more details are provided during contracting phase

Few are presented on an open source conference

Own Web site has accurate information Helpful third-party Web sites

COMPARISON

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