Exciting news in the open source ERP world. Openbravo, one of the leaders in this area has started releasing what is going to be an exciting 6 months of updates and new features.
Due to the changes that have taken place with the development of modules in Openbravo the team is taking a new approach to release. Rather than the classic cycle of code, alpha, beta, stabilize and release, they are now taking advantage of the modularity of the application to release new functionality in intermediate steps.
The Version 3.0 roadmap has a list of all the functionality that we can expect by the end of Q1 next year, but for now they have managed to delivery 50 of the 128 changes that are expected.
The biggest change for this release is the interface.
Gone is the collapsing tree on the right hand side of the screen that we are used to, there is now a drop down menu system that allows you to navigate the system much like a traditional windows application.
Windows now open up as tabs across the top of the interface which is great for completing multiple tasks within the interface. Previously if you were in a sales order and had to create a new business partner you would have to leave the sales order window and create a new business partner then navigate back to the sales order and start again (or reload the old order). Now you can open up the business partner creation screen, work in the appropriate tab and then flick back to the sales order screen and continue on your merry way.
The other changes that can be found in RC1.0 are;
Enhanced Application Layout:
Tabbed Panels - Records can be viewed and edited on tabs, with different parallel tabs in use at the same time, thereby supporting user multi-tasking,
Top Navigation - The menu bar will contains the following types of navigations and shortcuts: A quick launch menu to create new records, A quick launch menu to jump to existing grids, Application Menu, Recent, Alerts: shortcut to the existing alerts, Profile: a flyout menu for user and password settings, Help: shortcut to the existing help
My Openbravo: A sneak preview to the home tab "portal style" with widgets containing role based information, such as KPIs, saved searches, news feeds or performance charts.
Simplified functional footprint with pre-configured roles: Openbravo ERP 3.0 will be based on a narrower functional footprint than previous releases. This release will focus exclusively on the key flows required by the large majority of customers, with the aim of:
Eliminating complexity from the product;
Perfecting the core functionality;
Improving adoption rate and successful implementations.
Advanced Payables and Receivables Management: offers a completely new user experience that simplifies and automates the business processes around receiving and making payment, including the reconciliation of those events with bank statements.
I have included some screen shots to give an indication as to how the new application feels.
One exciting part from our perspective is the introduction of the user portal and that Openbravo are really stepping up to the mark to make their application compete with the other commercial web based ERP's that are in the market at the moment.
In keeping with their open source philosophy Openbravo have made this release available to everybody that wants it, and you can download, test, try it for yourself by visiting the following URL;
Be warned though, the demo has some strange limitations due to the way that the user profiles are setup, so it might look like functionality is missing, it isn't you just need to change your user profile to access. If anybody needs assistance in evaluating the product then please drop me a message and let me know.
This is the first of many releases that will be coming over the next few months. As always we will be incorporating these changes into our version of Openbravo ERP as soon as we are happy that the system is stable. In the meantime we welcome any feedback that you might have regarding the changes either via the openbravo forums or directly to us here at eintel.
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