Compiere Prepares Open Source ERP Partner Training
According to a statement from Compiere:
Compiere Inc., an open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) provider, is launching training courses to help strengthen the company’s customer and partner ranks. Backed by 65 channel partners, Compiere hopes more integrators will master the company’s software. Here are the details from The VAR Guy.
According to a statement from Compiere:
“Unlike traditional ERP vendors, Compiere does not require companies to purchase subscriptions in order to attend training courses, providing prospects with an opportunity to fully evaluate the company’s ERP and CRM solutions prior to investment.”
A five-day Functional Training program teaches industry-best practices, using both lecture and hands-on exercises. In contrast, a four-day Technical Training program uses the same hands-on approach and shows users how to develop customizations and extensions without programming, Compiere says.
Both courses will be held at Compiere’s corporate training facility in Redwood Shores, Calif. The Functional Training course runs February 23-27, 2009. The Technical Training course will be held March 2-5, 2009. Find details here.
Cooperating and Competing
Roughly 80 percent of Compiere’s revenue comes from the company’s 65 channel partners. And Compiere’s partner program has grown from about 40 partners in 2007, according to The VAR Guy’s Open Source 50 — an annual survey exploring open source’s influence in the IT channel. (Complete survey results will be published in January 2009.)
Compiere isn’t alone in the open source ERP and CRM markets. Rivals include SugarCRM, Openbravo, Concursive (formerly CentricCRM) and Kuali just to name a few.
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We are a Compiere partner and are benefiting from Compiere’s growth, strong product and well-organized partner program. In addition to having features and functionality that rival their competitors, Compiere has an incredibly flexible architecture. We have recently implemented a POC that is built around Compiere, SugarCRM and Talend and extends both the ERP and CRM the functionality to wireless devices like the Blackberry and iPhone. Geoffrey Mobisson, Levementum’s Managing Director recently published a blog on this topic here.
David: So, um… The VAR Guy built this site for IT consulting firms like yours. Forward thinking. Innovative. And open to emerging solutions.
Now, for readers who haven’t taken the open source plunge… How does Levementum actually make money with the Compiere/SugarCRM and Talend solution? Our readers would value your thoughts.
On the other hand if you’d rather your business is an equal member in an Open Source project instead of a customer you could checkout Adempiere!
Great article, Thanks for the post.
This seems to be and advertising effort (indirectly arranged via PR funds) from a commercialised open source project which is fine. But how does such tactics go well with the obvious main reasons of been truly open source? Which relies more on free riders that gives the added punch-lines in marketing, branding, testing and adoption rates – all without spending a single dime of advert?
Compiere has had 100 partners in 2006 at the moment before it decides to go commercial. To wipe that achievement out is rewriting real history. Today its community fork, ADempiere is ranked top in Sourceforge, beating yet another compierean but commercialised fork, OpenBravo.
Money may talk, but it does not walk so fast as codes in cyberspace. Also, you have to pay back all those millions soon.
Redhuan: Sorry for the belated reply.
On the one hand, The VAR Guy commends some open source companies for starting to MARKET and ADVERTISE their products. Some open source pundits frown upon such age-old tactics. But let’s face it: Marketing and advertising is what makes the world go ’round (oh, and those advertising programs sometimes wind up paying The VAR Guy’s salary.)
But on the other hand, The VAR Guy needs to take a closer look at Compiere’s history, plus ADempiere, etc. Thanks for keeping our resident blogger honest and on his toes.
More thoughts on ADempiere, Compiere and other open source companies will surface in The VAR Guy’s forthcoming Open Source 50 report, slated to debut January 14 2009.
One key to making money in open source is to partner with the ‘best in class’ in the world of open source software. We carefully selected partners that had solid products, a clear vision, and mature leadership. The rising stars, if you will.
As for the Compiere/SugarCRM and Talend solution, it is not about selling software, it is about building solutions that add business value for our customers. Our customers pay us to do this and in many cases our customers then choose to give back to the open source community. We are the systems integrators in the open source ecosystem – leveraging the technology provided by the open source community, adding value in the form of business functionality, which in turn drives innovation and growth. To be profitable and successful, being very good at this is paramount, we strive to be the best at bringing open source to the enterprise.
David: You’re succeeding because you’re not a traditional “reseller.” You sound more like a strategic consulting firm with deep CRM expertise. And people are willing to pay for that expertise. Kudos from The VAR Guy.
This exchange is good and especially David Baier’s comments on the role of the integrator and the importance of profit in the equation as it relates to the success of open source propogating through the business environment.
I think he is admitting that open source is not going to be successful unless there are intelligent consultants, like himself, that show up on someone’s doorstep and say: ‘Hey, I can support this. Hey, I am local. Hey, this is going to save you money., etc,etc,etc
The biggest negative for open source in the channel is that it has been marketed to the enduser as free. And the channel player is tired of hearing the word free. Like free PCs. Like free Internet access, like free software. Sure Linux is free, sure there are free PC’s, sure there is free Internet access. But do you really want to click through ads? Do you want your business running on free software with no number to call? There are free web sites and there is free internet backup. The only thing that isn’t free is Classmates.com or Reunion.com who both tell me that I have quite a number of visits by some old classmates, but I got to pay to find out who was visiting my profile. Well, I am betting that it was not the hot chick that I had the hots for in high school, but rather it was the folks that I really don’t want to talk to in spite of the fact that I haven’t seen them for 25 years or it is a total scam where it was just some webcrawlers hitting my profile. As a result, they still don’t have my money.
I, as a business owner, will not put my trust in free, especially if my business depends on it….
And I would be nervous if I had something for free with noone to call for help.
HurdyGurdy: You’ve nailed it — “free” is the worst thing that ever happened to open source. It’s not about free. It’s about value, reliability, stability, freedom to innovate, and so much more.
The VAR Guy will prove in January 2009 that the open source IT channel is emerging. Details coming January 14.
But our resident blogger will also concede that the open source IT channel is like a baby learning to walk. Few players are running and no players are sprinting right now.
In the meantime, thank you for helping to drive discussion about open source in the channel.
gt;The VAR Guy commends some open source companies for starting to MARKET and ADVERTISE their products.
Precisely my point about going Open Source is to avoid jumping into the market without such spending. Been Free is not evil as much as paying some pretty girl to stand besides your Software in an advert.
If you can get free marketing and branding from the web open community as well as testing, bug reports and code contribution then you have a new software development as well as a business model.
To go back to traditional spending beats the case. Thus Compiere that survived over 2000-2005 with a staff of 1 is proof. So are a host of other new dotcoms post the big bubble burst circa 2001. Compiere’s owner Jorg Janke remarked in 2003 that he saved USD2m to become a household name that time. When he took venture capital and spend it this way, his ratings dropped, OpenBravo and then ADempiere came to sweep the mindshare.
If you spend millions to get what you can for free, you have to recoup that spending and it usually means some awry business plan that only make certain ‘bankers’ rich without really doing anything.
I know today people are using Open Source as a marketing ploy. Go free for a while like an open fishing net in a blue ocean, and then pull in when free riding fish goes in. Well in this new ocean, people switch with just a click.
Hello!! We require people who can work on this Compiere Open Source ERP, can i have any contact??
Aparna: You’ll find contact info for Compiere here…
http://compiere.com/company/contact-us.php
-TVG