In the month of February, two major industry publications listed Compiere as one of the top ERP vendors, and we are in good company with a number of top vendors on each of these lists.
CRN, a publication targeting VARs and integrators, put together a list of the 6 key players in ERP. The article and list associated with it was targeted at the small business market, and Compiere was one of six vendors on the list along with Microsoft, Sage, Intuit, and others. In addition to making the list, CRN made a couple of great points about the ERP market and Compiere. CRN stated that “In the SMB sector, the ground is slowly shifting to open-source ERP alternatives. Solution providers are exploring low-cost open-source ERP alternatives because they have full control of the software and can easily differentiate themselves.” This is certainly a trend that we have been seeing at Compiere. As more customers look for flexible solutions, they are naturally turning toward open source products. CRM also points out that “Compiere is an out-of-the-box ERP product, but with an unusual twist—the software uses a generic model-driven architecture to change the application and add new features.” This model driven architecture in addition to having access to the Compiere source code is what provides our customers and partners the flexibility to create customized solutions to meet a particular need. One of the biggest advantages of Compiere in the SMB market is our ability to scale. A company can start with a Compiere solution when they have only a few employees, and the same solution can continue to scale as the company moves from small to medium to large enterprise without the pain and cost of migrating to a new ERP provider.
CIO magazine put together a list of Open-Source ERP's Big 3 with Compiere featured prominently at the top of the list as the oldest open source ERP vendor. The article states that “at least five open-source ERP projects exist today, but just three of those—Compiere, Open For Business and Openbravo—have gained traction, analysts say.” Compiere “has the most adoption and 'has grown into a significant level of functionality,' says Paul Hamerman, a Forrester Research analyst.” This list was part of a broader article answering the question “Is Open Source the Answer to ERP?” The short answer is: “A growing number of mid-market CIOs say yes. In the wake of recent ERP vendor consolidation, open source promises flexibility for the future. Plus it fits the need to customize—affordably.”
A big thank you to Wilfrido Solano at WOSS Business Solutions, one of Compiere's new partners in 2007, for reminding me to blog about these articles!
