Is OFBiz for me?

2008-04-28 Thread sebastianscheid

Hi,

I am still trying to understand the functional concepts of OFBiz to find out
if it is the right product for me. I find that quite difficult, because
documentation is not complete and there are so many functions of which I
think, not all are necessary for me. So I want to ask if someone could show
me the direction where to search.

I am trying to map the following business process to OFBiz:
My company sells services. There are no physical goods to be produced or to
be managed in a warehouse. There is no need for a webshop, the app would
only be used by the backoffice.

For the most services we provide, we in turn have to order other services
from external service providers. These providers may produce a physical
product that is shipped to the customer (I have already found the drop
shipment in OFBiz).

The major task I want to do with OFBiz is to
- create orders for customers
- plan which services we have to buy from external providers to fulfill a
sales order
- plan when certain activities have to be done by us, the customer or an
external provider
- track the status of these activities

So, a sales order seems appropriate to start with. Purchase orders could be
used for other service providers and work efforts seem to be useful for
activities. My problem is, I don't get it all work together.

My idea was to use this pretty cool drop shipment feature to link purchase
orders (for the external providers) to sales orders. But it seems to be not
implemented yet (see earlier posts) and I don't know how to link a new
purchase order to an existing sales order. Furthermore a drop shipment has
to be declared before the sales order is actually created. But I want to
create the sales order (perhaps from a proposal) and later assign any
purchase orders to it.
The next problem is to plan the activities. I can create Work Efforts which
I can see in the task list (type task) or in the calendar (type event). But
I don't know how to assign a task to an order, so I could track the
fulfillment of the order.

Another question: can I define alternative products in a proposal? I.e.
assign an alternative product to a proposal item whose price is not
calculated in the sum of the proposal. So the customer knows he can choose
from these two items (and can calculate the price itself, or perhaps it
would be cool if only the difference for the alternative product is shown in
the proposal). 

Two last questions:
1. Can I attach external files (like received invoice pdfs) to an order or
any other object?
2. I have recognized that the party entities have a historization feature
(the name in the profile has a history). Is this a generic feature which can
be enabled for e.g. sales orders, too? 


Thanks a lot for reading so far and for giving me any advice
With best regards
Sebastian
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Re: ofbiz for me?

2012-11-20 Thread Paul Piper
Hi Philipp,

truth to be told, it may be that the size & scope of the project would be
too much for you. I personally feel that the project is most succesful in a
mid- to largesize corporation. The problem with ofbiz is that it delivers it
all - at once. If you take a look around the framework you will see that it
can do it all. However, at the same time it forces you to reduce the
functionality to what you really need.

So I recommend to install ofbiz locally, and check the demo store
application. There are commercial alternatives available - from many
agencies just like mine - those give you a better start, but the demo store
is really what you may want to look at in terms of available functions. It
will then be up to you to reduce whatever is available to what is actually
needed.

Regards,
Paul



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Re: ofbiz for me?

2012-11-20 Thread Mark Schneider

Hello Phillip

Am 20.11.2012 03:19, schrieb Phillip Rhodes:

I would like to use ofbiz instead of "quick books" for our small family
business. We  enter in our sales (summary by day) and payments and
reconcile our bank statements with Quick Books.

I am a java software engineer full-time, so I wouldn't be completely
helpless, and wouldn't mind learning more about ofbiz, provided it fits our
needs.

Do you think I could use ofbiz in this fashion?  I


The learning curve for OFBiz may get quite long. Most existing "simpler" 
eCommerce solutions based on OFBiz are closed source and there is no 
really "ready to go" shop solutions like in python (django framework), 
TYPO3 shop (php CMS) etc yet.


Due to many advantages and clean design of OFBiz I decided myself to use 
OFBiz and downgrade and extend existing opensource examples (demo shop 
or http://http://bigfish.salmonllc.com/bfDownload.html )


You may want to have a look at http://www.jasig.org/uportal to get 
better feeling. It is a ready to go open solution another kind.


Recommended books (http://www.packtpub.com/):
*Apache OFBiz Development: The Beginner's Tutorial* [eBook]
Jonathon Wong
Using Services, Entities, and Widgets to build custom ERP and CRM systems
1   Available now   £18.99  eBook bundle discount -50.00% (£9.50)   
No tax  £*9.50*


*Apache OfBiz Cookbook* [eBook]
Ruth Hoffman
Over 60 simple but incredibly effective recipes for taking control of OFBiz
1   Available now   £16.99  eBook bundle discount -50.00% (£8.50)   
No tax  £*8.50

*

regards, Mark

--
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http://rsync.it-infrastrukturen.org



Re: Is OFBiz for me?

2008-04-28 Thread BJ Freeman
short answers:
OOTB does not direct support services, but has bee modified in the past
to do this.
OOTB you can not yet do project(activity) planning though a lot has been
done in this area.
OOTB you can do quotes and turn them into sales.

some of the things you looking for can be added.

Don't see a problem in accomplishing what you want.

Suggest you go through the demo and see what is there and not there.

sebastianscheid sent the following on 4/28/2008 7:15 AM:
> Hi,
> 
> I am still trying to understand the functional concepts of OFBiz to find out
> if it is the right product for me. I find that quite difficult, because
> documentation is not complete and there are so many functions of which I
> think, not all are necessary for me. So I want to ask if someone could show
> me the direction where to search.
> 
> I am trying to map the following business process to OFBiz:
> My company sells services. There are no physical goods to be produced or to
> be managed in a warehouse. There is no need for a webshop, the app would
> only be used by the backoffice.
> 
> For the most services we provide, we in turn have to order other services
> from external service providers. These providers may produce a physical
> product that is shipped to the customer (I have already found the drop
> shipment in OFBiz).
> 
> The major task I want to do with OFBiz is to
> - create orders for customers
> - plan which services we have to buy from external providers to fulfill a
> sales order
> - plan when certain activities have to be done by us, the customer or an
> external provider
> - track the status of these activities
> 
> So, a sales order seems appropriate to start with. Purchase orders could be
> used for other service providers and work efforts seem to be useful for
> activities. My problem is, I don't get it all work together.
> 
> My idea was to use this pretty cool drop shipment feature to link purchase
> orders (for the external providers) to sales orders. But it seems to be not
> implemented yet (see earlier posts) and I don't know how to link a new
> purchase order to an existing sales order. Furthermore a drop shipment has
> to be declared before the sales order is actually created. But I want to
> create the sales order (perhaps from a proposal) and later assign any
> purchase orders to it.
> The next problem is to plan the activities. I can create Work Efforts which
> I can see in the task list (type task) or in the calendar (type event). But
> I don't know how to assign a task to an order, so I could track the
> fulfillment of the order.
> 
> Another question: can I define alternative products in a proposal? I.e.
> assign an alternative product to a proposal item whose price is not
> calculated in the sum of the proposal. So the customer knows he can choose
> from these two items (and can calculate the price itself, or perhaps it
> would be cool if only the difference for the alternative product is shown in
> the proposal). 
> 
> Two last questions:
> 1. Can I attach external files (like received invoice pdfs) to an order or
> any other object?
> 2. I have recognized that the party entities have a historization feature
> (the name in the profile has a history). Is this a generic feature which can
> be enabled for e.g. sales orders, too? 
> 
> 
> Thanks a lot for reading so far and for giving me any advice
> With best regards
> Sebastian



Re: Is OFBiz for me?

2008-04-28 Thread David E Jones


On Apr 28, 2008, at 8:54 AM, BJ Freeman wrote:

short answers:
OOTB does not direct support services, but has bee modified in the  
past

to do this.


I wouldn't agree with this... you can manage the whole process of  
taking requests, planning/performing services, billing for them, etc.


OOTB you can not yet do project(activity) planning though a lot has  
been

done in this area.


Yes, quite a bit has been done in this area and it is currently  
possible to do a lot of these sorts of things, including complex task  
hierarchies, multiple hierarchies for a project and other ways to  
manage it and report on it differently, even a gantt chart based on  
the hierarchies and such.



OOTB you can do quotes and turn them into sales.

some of the things you looking for can be added.

Don't see a problem in accomplishing what you want.

Suggest you go through the demo and see what is there and not there.

sebastianscheid sent the following on 4/28/2008 7:15 AM:

Hi,

I am still trying to understand the functional concepts of OFBiz to  
find out
if it is the right product for me. I find that quite difficult,  
because
documentation is not complete and there are so many functions of  
which I
think, not all are necessary for me. So I want to ask if someone  
could show

me the direction where to search.

I am trying to map the following business process to OFBiz:
My company sells services. There are no physical goods to be  
produced or to
be managed in a warehouse. There is no need for a webshop, the app  
would

only be used by the backoffice.

For the most services we provide, we in turn have to order other  
services
from external service providers. These providers may produce a  
physical
product that is shipped to the customer (I have already found the  
drop

shipment in OFBiz).

The major task I want to do with OFBiz is to
- create orders for customers
- plan which services we have to buy from external providers to  
fulfill a

sales order
- plan when certain activities have to be done by us, the customer  
or an

external provider
- track the status of these activities

So, a sales order seems appropriate to start with. Purchase orders  
could be
used for other service providers and work efforts seem to be useful  
for

activities. My problem is, I don't get it all work together.

My idea was to use this pretty cool drop shipment feature to link  
purchase
orders (for the external providers) to sales orders. But it seems  
to be not
implemented yet (see earlier posts) and I don't know how to link a  
new
purchase order to an existing sales order. Furthermore a drop  
shipment has
to be declared before the sales order is actually created. But I  
want to

create the sales order (perhaps from a proposal) and later assign any
purchase orders to it.
The next problem is to plan the activities. I can create Work  
Efforts which
I can see in the task list (type task) or in the calendar (type  
event). But

I don't know how to assign a task to an order, so I could track the
fulfillment of the order.

Another question: can I define alternative products in a proposal?  
I.e.

assign an alternative product to a proposal item whose price is not
calculated in the sum of the proposal. So the customer knows he can  
choose
from these two items (and can calculate the price itself, or  
perhaps it
would be cool if only the difference for the alternative product is  
shown in

the proposal).

Two last questions:
1. Can I attach external files (like received invoice pdfs) to an  
order or

any other object?
2. I have recognized that the party entities have a historization  
feature
(the name in the profile has a history). Is this a generic feature  
which can

be enabled for e.g. sales orders, too?


Thanks a lot for reading so far and for giving me any advice
With best regards
Sebastian






Re: Is OFBiz for me?

2008-04-28 Thread BJ Freeman
and your thoughts and the rest he said.

David E Jones sent the following on 4/28/2008 8:08 AM:
> 
> On Apr 28, 2008, at 8:54 AM, BJ Freeman wrote:
>> short answers:
>> OOTB does not direct support services, but has bee modified in the past
>> to do this.
> 
> I wouldn't agree with this... you can manage the whole process of taking
> requests, planning/performing services, billing for them, etc.
> 
>> OOTB you can not yet do project(activity) planning though a lot has been
>> done in this area.
> 
> Yes, quite a bit has been done in this area and it is currently possible
> to do a lot of these sorts of things, including complex task
> hierarchies, multiple hierarchies for a project and other ways to manage
> it and report on it differently, even a gantt chart based on the
> hierarchies and such.
> 
>> OOTB you can do quotes and turn them into sales.
>>
>> some of the things you looking for can be added.
>>
>> Don't see a problem in accomplishing what you want.
>>
>> Suggest you go through the demo and see what is there and not there.
>>
>> sebastianscheid sent the following on 4/28/2008 7:15 AM:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am still trying to understand the functional concepts of OFBiz to
>>> find out
>>> if it is the right product for me. I find that quite difficult, because
>>> documentation is not complete and there are so many functions of which I
>>> think, not all are necessary for me. So I want to ask if someone
>>> could show
>>> me the direction where to search.
>>>
>>> I am trying to map the following business process to OFBiz:
>>> My company sells services. There are no physical goods to be produced
>>> or to
>>> be managed in a warehouse. There is no need for a webshop, the app would
>>> only be used by the backoffice.
>>>
>>> For the most services we provide, we in turn have to order other
>>> services
>>> from external service providers. These providers may produce a physical
>>> product that is shipped to the customer (I have already found the drop
>>> shipment in OFBiz).
>>>
>>> The major task I want to do with OFBiz is to
>>> - create orders for customers
>>> - plan which services we have to buy from external providers to
>>> fulfill a
>>> sales order
>>> - plan when certain activities have to be done by us, the customer or an
>>> external provider
>>> - track the status of these activities
>>>
>>> So, a sales order seems appropriate to start with. Purchase orders
>>> could be
>>> used for other service providers and work efforts seem to be useful for
>>> activities. My problem is, I don't get it all work together.
>>>
>>> My idea was to use this pretty cool drop shipment feature to link
>>> purchase
>>> orders (for the external providers) to sales orders. But it seems to
>>> be not
>>> implemented yet (see earlier posts) and I don't know how to link a new
>>> purchase order to an existing sales order. Furthermore a drop
>>> shipment has
>>> to be declared before the sales order is actually created. But I want to
>>> create the sales order (perhaps from a proposal) and later assign any
>>> purchase orders to it.
>>> The next problem is to plan the activities. I can create Work Efforts
>>> which
>>> I can see in the task list (type task) or in the calendar (type
>>> event). But
>>> I don't know how to assign a task to an order, so I could track the
>>> fulfillment of the order.
>>>
>>> Another question: can I define alternative products in a proposal? I.e.
>>> assign an alternative product to a proposal item whose price is not
>>> calculated in the sum of the proposal. So the customer knows he can
>>> choose
>>> from these two items (and can calculate the price itself, or perhaps it
>>> would be cool if only the difference for the alternative product is
>>> shown in
>>> the proposal).
>>>
>>> Two last questions:
>>> 1. Can I attach external files (like received invoice pdfs) to an
>>> order or
>>> any other object?
>>> 2. I have recognized that the party entities have a historization
>>> feature
>>> (the name in the profile has a history). Is this a generic feature
>>> which can
>>> be enabled for e.g. sales orders, too?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot for reading so far and for giving me any advice
>>> With best regards
>>> Sebastian
>>
> 
> 
> 
>