[Erp5-users] What companies provide Erp5 Technical Support since Nexedi doesn't?

[jp at nexedi.com]

Hi,

I think the core of this discussion is mostly vain, since it is like asking how to be trained to implement ERPs (any) in short time and for free, something which I am unable to do for myself, although this is something I could do for other types of open source applications.

Yet, I will provide some references because I think there is always a constructive side in everyone.

> I always got the impression that ERP5 was just barely open source. The
> source is there and you can use/copy it but good luck getting started
> with it. All roads lead to paying Nexedi money to help you learn or

We spend a lot of time trying to provide documentation for free:
  http://www.erp5.com/developer-Learning.Track.Forum/view
  http://www.osoe-project.org/lesson
and packages for many distros:
  http://www.erp5.com/download/linux

Each new staff in Nexedi has to review all the initial training documentation, fix it and update it.

Also, quite a few people are using this documentation outside Nexedi. They are happy, but they are not willing to post on a a mailing list. They prefer personal communication. Their knowledge has lead to a few interesting contributions to ERP5 core (ex. http://www.freecloudalliance.org/ung-Home.Page/fca-UNG.Spreadsheet.Prototype?format=png).

What is interesting is that, the more we publish, the more people complain. Sometimes, we feel that this is unfair and that we'd better do something else than helping people and publishing documentation. However, it is in the nature of Free Software that people complain, sometimes by being unfair and sometimes by complaining to those who spent time to help them for free.

It is very disappointing for those who spent time to write documentation. However, Nexedi *will* do more, publish more, help more and keep on, whatever the complains we receive, providing free stuff to the community so that more people can do more ERP5 without Nexedi. It is worth because we personnaly know people who were happy to read our documentation, who could contribute to interesting extensions and who thanked us for our effort to provide free resources. Those people we know compensate for the disappointing and unfair complaints we receive sometimes.

> implement it and from what I can tell this is by design. Most of the
> questions here are answered by Nexedi: Jerome, Jean-Paul, Yoshinori,
> etc. and few others because there is little reason for anyone to get
> involved when the barrier to entry is so high. What good is an open

You are right, the barrier for entry for ERP (any) is high. Unless you use an ERP as a simple form design tool, which is what a majority of ERP system integrators actually do, it is necessary to be trained quite long. It takes for example more than 2 years to become a real expert of famous proprietary ERPs, and even longer to understand them completely.

Thanks to its simpler core design, this time is reduced with ERP5. Nexedi is now able to bootstrap of team of ERP5 developers in a large multinational company and implement an ERP5 system in 6 months or less. 

Yet, 6 months is still too much for most people, especially for someone who expects to join a community within a couple of days. I do not mean here learning how to do forms and workflows (this takes 3 days with ERP5). I mean learning well enough the design and being able to contribute to modules and extensions. As a result, it was found by Gartner last year in an article  "Open Source & Business Apps – Is There A Disconnect?" that communities for open source business applications are different with other types of open source software. Brian Prentice in his article was explaining that those who are using the software for running their business (vs. those who are taking a software to sell system integration services) should be the core of the community of a business application and share their knowledge on business processes and generic business modeling.  This is exactly what companies usually are affraid to share, because it could be part of their "trade secret" each time it is not "generic". 

This leads to an ERP5 community which is quite different from what one would expect in open source. On one side Nexedi, on the other side companies running ERP5 with well trained team and on a third part research institutions doing research with ERP5. By financing Nexedi through contracts, the generic knowledge found in research institutions and large companies is moved to ERP5 core by Nexedi. Also, because ERP5 users gain true ERP5 expertise, even if Nexedi disappears, their busines can keep on.

This structure works: R&D is financed (a lot) and long term future is protected. Because Nexedi does not need Venture Capital, the risk of Nexedi being purchased and killed is thus very low, unlilke what you see in open source companies with venture capital (http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/salesforcecom-acquires-web-company-dimdim-for-3631-mn_511188.html). 

However this community structure can be frustrating for people who are not working inside Nexedi and who are willing to provide ERP5 system integration without having good relations with Nexedi. 

For those people, I recommend to visit Nexedi, meet people and consider discussing practical projects, practical design and how to finance them. This will be more efficient than complaining in mailing list.

The UNG project, an open source equivalent of Google Docs, for now powered by ERP5, was born this way.
  http://www.freecloudalliance.org/ung-Home.Page

Through a network of personal contacts, people inside Nexedi and outside Nexedi are collaborating, without anyone being a customer of Nexedi. I think many other projects could be done in the same way.

Regards,

JP Smets.
Nexedi CEO