xTuple Release 3.5.0

I attended a webinar on xTuple's upcoming 3.5.0 release.  One new item I am looking forward to is drop-ship functionality for Purchase Orders.  It ties in very well with Sales Orders, such that when you create a Sales Order line for a drop-shipped item, it can automatically create the PO right then.  When you "receive" the PO, it automatically updates the Sales Order, telling the order that the quantity has shipped, so you can then Invoice the Sales Order.

Version 3.5.0 should be out any day now, followed by 3.5.1 not too long after.  3.5.1 will add a new "Desktop" to the application, with icons that link to a menu option.  This is more along the lines of what Microsoft is doing with their Dynamics ERP software packages - a customizable home page.

There are some other features in the release, such as autocomplete when looking up records, and some features around manufacturing and tooling that will be helpful.  Overall, I am really looking forward to evaluating this software and comparing it to Dynamics GP and others.

Related:
http://ostatic.com/blog/xtuple-expands-erp-software-with-cloud-computing-drop-ship

Open Source ERP Projects Worth Evaluating

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, by any means.  These are projects that I have played with some, and believe they can work well for small-medium enterprises.  List is in alphabetical order, nothing more is implied by placement.

• Compiere - http://www.compiere.com
• Openbravo - http://www.openbravo.com
• OpenERP - http://www.openerp.com
• openTaps - http://www.opentaps.com
• xTuple - http://www.xtuple.com

They each have their strengths and weaknesses.  Each have a free version, some have commercial versions with additional features.  Compiere, Openbravo, OpenERP, and openTaps all have web-based interfaces.  All can run in the cloud (usually Amazon EC2) or will be with new releases soon.  Hosted versions exist as well.

I plan on publishing more details about each as I continue to test and evaluate against other ERP solutions (mainly Dynamics GP), so stay tuned!