Rogerio Atem de Carvalho

Issues on Evaluating Free/Open Source ERP Systems

Free/Open Source ERP Systems represent an area which is increasingly gaining acceptance due to many reasons. However, there is still a lack of specific evaluation methods for adoption and very little academic research is reported in this area. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss important issues on Free/Open Source ERP Systems evaluation and, as of consequence, to propose an evaluation method that takes into account not only aspects related to the software itself, but also to the possibility of joining the software development effort.

An Enterprise Content Management Solution Based on Open Source

Spread out on the Internet, mail servers, and hard-drives everywhere, unstructured information in the form of Web pages, email, RSS feeds, office documents, images, video, and sound, accounts for approximately ten times the structured information stored in databases. Seeking to organize their large volume of non-structured content, companies implement Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems to make this information more accessible for users and make these systems communicate with relational database backed solutions through a single interface. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and local governments also have the same need for unstructured information organization. However, most of times, they cannot afford the high acquisition and customization costs, or don’t want to become dependent of proprietary ECM solutions. This paper aims to present NSI2, an ECM solution totally built on top of open source software that offers the functionalities demanded by this kind of system.

Free and Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning: Systems and Strategies

Free/Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning systems (FOS-ERP) are gaining popularity and acceptance due to two main factors: their lack of licensing fees and customizability. Given this, organizations are able to easily adopt and manipulate these systems to meet their individual needs.Free and Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning: Systems and Strategies unites research on FOS-ERP, comparing differences with proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning products, and demonstrating key research factors. It includes cases demonstrating how small enterprises have benefited from FOS-ERP in Spain and in Belgium, along with difficulties encountered and solutions developed. This essential reference addresses key issues such as security and legal risks, as well as challenges, opportunities, and barriers to adoption.

Software tools for requirements management in an ERP system context

Identification and specification of business requirements are extremely important when development of Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) take place. Our aim is to present some prescriptive thoughts about requirements management useful when developing future requirements management software tools in the ERP system realm. From an initial test we suggest further research in this area that could end up in some more practical guidelines on how to develop a requirement management software tool that can be used when developing future ERPs.

Uma análise de aspectos relacionados ao desenvolvimento e adoção de Enterprise Resources Planning livre de código aberto

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) enables the processing of information required in an enterprise, using a single database. Much has been written about this type of software, addressing issues such as the high cost of licenses acquisitions, and the dependence on consultants for its adaptation and implementation in companies. Currently the development and use of ERP Free Open Source (FOS-ERP) has increased. However, this type of system is still not sufficiently explored, even in academia. This article analyses some papers on the subject, and raises questions that must be addressed by researchers and other stakeholders for the adequate use of these systems according to Brazils reality. After an introduction to the subject, some differences between the FOS-ERP and its equivalent Proprietary ERP (P-ERP) are presented, in terms of business models, selection, customization and evolution. Next, some challenges and opportunities that FOS-ERP can offer to users, suppliers, researchers and individual contributors are described. This article expands the discussion about FOS-ERP, highlighting factors such as its potential for technological innovation and business strategy.

GeoOlap: An Integrated Approach for Decision Support

The integration of information from different sources within the enterprise is one of the basis for implementing successful Decision Support Systems (DSS). Typically a DSS supplies analytical information obtained and transformed from large data warehouses. Recently, the geographical component of information has become more important due to the growing use of this type of information in logistics, marketing, and other applications. This work describes GeoOIap, a decision support approach that proposes a method to develop decision support applications that integrates analytical and georeferenccd elements from the ground up - at the design stage - and OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) and GIS (Geographical Information System) technologies to visualize the results. Additionally, this paper describes PostGeoOIap, an open source general-purpose tool, which supports GeoOlap and that allows developers to easily build decision support applications. A case study is presented to validate the proposed ideas.

Quality Assurance in the ERP5 Development Process

The design and implementation of an ERP involves capturing the information necessary for implementing a system that supports integrated enterprise management, starting at the enterprise modeling level and finishing at the coding level. Unfortunately, in both academic and industrial communities, large quantities of papers focus on ERP deployment management, keeping specific development issues aside most of times. Research on specific techniques for developing ERP software - open source or proprietary, is rather deficient. This paper aims to help filling this gap by presenting a development process for the open source ERP5 system, highlighting the Quality Assurance (QA) techniques used, and the tools that support it. The proposed process covers the different abstraction layers involved, and supplies customized Enterprise, Requirements, Analysis, Design, and Implementation workflows. Each of these workflows is accompanied by one or more QA activities to assure the quality of every modeling and implementation artifact delivered.

A Combined Method for Evaluating Criteria When Selecting ERP Systems

There are many benefits offered by integrated enterprise computer systems. There are a growing number of options available to obtain such management information system support. A major problem when selecting Enterprise Information Systems, in special ERP systems, is how to deal with the great diversity of options as well as the number of criteria used to evaluate each alternative. There is an implicit tradeoff between cost and system functionality. Total cost of ownership (TCO) is in itself very difficult to calculate accurately, and needs to be considered in light of other criteria. Published criteria for ERP selection decisions in a variety of contexts are reviewed. We also present a method which integrates a multicriteria rating strategy based on the Simple MultiAttribute Rating Theory (SMART) with the meta-method Prepare-Identify-Rate-Compare-Select (PIRCS) framework for driving the selection process. The method is demonstrated with a general ERP selection decision, but is meant as a framework that can be applied with whatever criteria decision makers deem important in the context of their specific decision.

Modeling Architecture and Reference Models for the ERP5 Project

The adoption of ERPs systems by small and middle-sized companies may not be possible due to their cost. At the same time, when adapting ERP to the company’s particular needs, the user keeps depending on the system’s sellers due to the lack of access and knowledge of the respective code. Free and open-source software may promote advantages to the enterprises, however, for its adoption it is necessary the development of techniques and tools in order to facilitate its deployment and code maintenance. This article emphasizes the importance of defining modeling architectures and reference models for the development and maintenance of open-source ERPs, in special the ERP5 project.

A Multi-Layer Framework for Enterprise Application Development

Building Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) presents, by a structural point of view, a number of somehow repetitive tasks like programming behavior and structure for Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) for user input and data retrieving; coding verbose protocols to accessing application servers for merely input and retrieve data; coding numerous routines implementing database queries for answering several kinds of user transaction requirements, and others. For most applications, these tasks are numerous, repetitive, complex and error prone. Besides, they are very similar in most enterprise applications. This work proposes an object-oriented multi-layer framework for automating basic structural tasks for enterprise applications, freeing developers from time-consuming, low aggregated value tasks and allowing them to concentrate on the actual goal of software development: the implementation of user requirements. The framework is constructed over three conceptual layers — presentation layer, business layer and service layer — each one playing a well-defined role in the architecture.