I have to agree with Ruth on this one. The question is, what is the OFBiz "community", is it users or developers? The question has lots of implications, and deserves careful thought.
If venture capitalists (a community I know something about) are willing to invest $3MM euro to increase OpenERP market share, then 1) they see a product that can increase its revenues (and profits) by at least 10-100X in the next 3-5 years, and 2) they see a path to liquidity (public offering or sale), whereby they expect to recoup their investment. I agree with Jacques that OpenERP is an inferior solution. Yet he loses contracts to OpenERP. Why? Partly because OpenERP looks more polished and finished, and appearances are in fact important. However, the bigger issue is that OpenERP is more user-friendly (meaning more inviting to users, who are not developers). The general perception in the OFBiz community seems to be that if you want an ERP solution, you will need to customize it. For that, you need a developer, and we are those developers. So if you want an OFBiz solution, pay us and we'll get you a custom OFBiz solution-- otherwise, don't waste our time. Sorry, but that attitude is ass-backwards. You have the cart driving the horse. Even record and movie companies (the most ass-backward marketing people on the planet) know that they don't get people to buy records without radio play, or movie tickets without trailers. Even low-life drug dealers grasp the simple marketing concept of the "loss leader"-- you can get more people using your product by giving it away for free, initially. In my business, we give away lots of free samples because it it the best way to get people converted to our products. People need to know up front what value they are going to get, and also how much it is going to cost. As an end-user with OpenERP, you get that information (I looked hard at OpenERP a few months ago), but with OFBiz, you really don't. You have to look really hard (under the hood) to see the things that make OFBiz better, and as developers, you probably all know what those advantages are. OFBiz's weaknesses, on the other hand, are right on the surface-- the very things that Ruth complains about. Choosing any ERP solution is a hard, painful task, and the initial difficulty of evaluating and customizing OFBiz makes it a harder choice than most. Inertia (personal and institutional) definitely works against acceptance and adoption of OFBiz, initially. If OFBiz had a polished, truly "OOTB" solution, then users could try it and (hopefully) find it immediately useful, at least for some limited applications. Once the nose of the camel gets inside the tent, the rest of the body will follow. use breeds curiosity, and the incremental cost (other than learning curve) of using more features and applications is zero, so the learning process is encouraged. Soon, the customer is fully committed and using OFBiz for many things, but inevitably, there are some customizations they would like to make. Cha-ching! Customers create themselves. Instead of a "missionary sale", you have more customers than you can service, and they are looking for you, instead of the reverse. That is the difference between OpenERP and OFBiz in a nutshell. From a user's perspective, OpenERP delivers benefits first and costs later, while OFBiz demands costs up front and delivers the benefits later. Which way do you think is the FASTEST path to a LARGE user community? The venture capitalists have already cast THEIR vote. On Wed, 2010-02-24 at 14:31 -0500, Ruth Hoffman wrote: > Hi Anil: > I'm sure this will start an avalanche of responses all directing vitriol > towards me. Rest assured I don't take any attacks personally: > > First off, IMHO, encouraging community contributions IS a problem for > OFBiz. The "community" as you so correctly point out is one of software > developers. There is much more to bringing a product to market, or more > importantly, surviving to play another day, than software development > and copious amounts of code contributed to a source code repository. > > Secondly, OFBiz will never survive, let alone grow, if there are no new > adopters (end-users, service providers or whatever you want to call > them). I further argue that the project won't get any new adopters by > sticking its collective head in the sand and ignoring real world issues > like release management, quality control and my favorite, documentation > and training. > > And to your point about selling "services". I'm curious. Since you > brought it up, what services does HotWax sell that help promote the > health and well being of the OFBiz project? Or is that not what you do? > Maybe I don't understand. > > Well I for one feel really comfortable saying that I sell a "product" > that helps promote the health and well being of OFBiz. Probably the only > one out there? Not only that, my product is reasonably priced to > encourage new OFBiz adopters. If you can afford to buy a week's worth of > Starbuck lattes, you can afford to purchase my product. Does that make > me a "Company" backing OFBiz? LOL! > > > Regards, > Ruth > > ---------------------------------------------------- > Find me on the web at http://www.myofbiz.com or Google keyword "myofbiz" > ruth.hoff...@myofbiz.com > > > Regards, > Ruth > > Anil Patel wrote: > > Here is another blog http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10458449-16.html > > > > One interesting issue these Company driven projects are struggling (evedent > > from reading these blogs) with is, encourage community to contribute. In > > Ofbiz we don't have this issue, Ofbiz is build on the concept of "Community > > driven software development" > > > > I feel confident that OfBiz will live longer and grow much more quickly > > then usual software open source software dragged by corporations. Ofbiz > > service providers can focus on their core activity "Sell services", and not > > really wonder around to get funding to keep project alive and moving. > > > > Thanks and Regards > > Anil Patel > > HotWax Media Inc > > Find us on the web at www.hotwaxmedia.com or Google Keyword "ofbiz" > > > > On Feb 24, 2010, at 11:14 AM, Anil Patel wrote: > > > > > >> Jacques, > >> Why do you think so? > >> > >> It does not take too long to use 3M euros. And they are trying to make > >> community contribution thing work for them, We got it working for years. > >> > >> In case of OpenERP, One provider is dominating the community. In case of > >> Apache Ofbiz we don't encourage that. Its up to providers to decide how > >> they want to use OfBiz for building their business. > >> > >> Thanks and Regards > >> Anil Patel > >> HotWax Media Inc > >> Find us on the web at www.hotwaxmedia.com or Google Keyword "ofbiz" > >> > >> On Feb 24, 2010, at 10:15 AM, Jacques Le Roux wrote: > >> > >> > >>> Maybe the future of OFBiz in Europe (and even in USA it seems) will be > >>> harder... > >>> > >>> http://fptiny.blogspot.com/2010/02/openerp-raises-3-million-euros.html > >>> > >>> Or maybe this ERP will not be Open-Source longer in the future... > >>> > >>> Actually it was the last of the Open-Source ERPs to not follow this way > >>> (though I"m not sure for ERP5) > >>> > >>> The strategy : > >>> http://robertogaloppini.net/2009/06/01/open-source-business-strategy-openerp-and-long-term-sustainability/ > >>> > >>> Jacques > >>> > >>> > > > > > > -- Matt Warnock <mwarn...@ridgecrestherbals.com> RidgeCrest Herbals, Inc.
