xTuple xChange, Add on to Your ERP

In a alarm bygone with xTuple’s Ned Lilly, we had a adventitious to bolt up on the accessible antecedent ERP vendor’s accepted business. I capital to say a chat about the company’s afresh launched xChange online store, which I anticipate is a acute way for an accessible antecedent action software bell-ringer to accommodate audience acceptable admission to association and accomplice innovations. It may aswell be a cost-effective agency for accepting specific ERP-related functionality and casework as needed.

In the chargeless and accessible antecedent software world, it’s not absolutely aberrant to see projects action a abode to download add-ons and calmly adapt or extend an application’s functionality. Abounding FOSS applications are advised in a modular way to accredit lots of humans to calmly innovate and add functionality after necessarily affecting the amount of the application. This makes it accessible to amend releases while aspersing affinity issues that may appear from customizations.

The xTuple xChange abundance seems to advance this archetypal in a bartering environment. I don’t accept I’ve apparent abundant from added ERP vendors to advance agnate opportunities. The xChange abundance enables not alone xTuple’s ally but aswell participants in its association to accord add-ons and extensions. Organizations appliance xTuple can download these add-ons and extensions to bung into their absolute systems. Some are chargeless (for archetype a amount of address definitions are listed at no cost), others amount a fee (a point-of-sale module, for example).

According to Ned, accumulation abounding of these additions to a PostBooks or added xTuple arrangement is almost easy. He compared it to alive with bales like apt or rpm on a lot of Linux systems. Anyone accustomed with those amalgamation managers knows it’s about absolutely simple to install or advancement applications. What I begin absorbing is that in some cases, items purchased from the xChange abundance appear with support, maintenance, and testing. For example, if you charge a wireless bar coding band-aid for your barn you can acquirement that add-on in the xChange abundance and you’re not larboard on your own to apparatus it. Rather, you get the accomplice company’s abutment ambience up the business argumentation and testing that it works properly.

Finally, xTuple does analysis what goes in its xChange so that care to advice assure humans that the items listed are applicative for their system. It charcoal to be apparent whether xTuple will be any acceptable at breeding altercation the way Apple does if abnegation apps in its store. Then again, I don’t accept abounding humans will advance a babyish shaker appliance for an ERP system.

A lot has happened back the account I appear with Ned in 2004 (note: xTuple was called OpenMFG at that time). We’ll be publishing an accessible antecedent ERP address in the not-too-distant approaching with added detail about the xTuple systems a part of others. In the meantime, analysis out the acutely abundant section that my aide PJ wrote not too continued ago.

Finally, let me just agenda that the company’s grown. 2008 profits up 250% over 2007. It has three calmly differentiated artefact offerings (the chargeless PostBooks edition, as able-bodied as accepted and accomplishment editions for companies that charge a altered across of functionality). xTuple now counts over 260,000 downloads, added than 150 customers, and the admeasurement of those barter is absolutely increasing.