thesis final opentaps erp
TRANSCRIPT
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY
THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
ERP ON CLOUD
A report submitted to the School of Computer Science and Engineering in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Computer Engineering
SUPERVISOR : PHAM VAN HAU
STUDENT: NGUYEN HUU DUC – IT070007
Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam
2012
1
APPROVED BY Advisor
Pham Van Hau
APPROVED BY:
THESIS COMMITTEE
2
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude to Dr. Pham Van Hau, my thesis’s
advisor, for his enthusiastic support and guidance. He gave me an opportunity to conduct this thesis
work . Without his help and inspiration and encouragement, this thesis and the submitted paper would
not be possible .
I am grateful to the faculty of the School of Computer Science of the International University.
And I would like to thanks my boss, Mr. Bui Cao Hoc – Director at OnlineCRM compay for support
and patience during the long hours working on the thesis. He helpped me the working process of the
enterprises over ERP/CRM application. I would also like to thank my girl friend, and my friends for
their unwavering love and moral support.
Finally, my deeply gratitude goes to my family for their help and support that went on
throughout the thesis and university program.
3
Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................3List of Figures...................................................................................................................5List of Tables ....................................................................................................................5List of Appendixes............................................................................................................5ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................6
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................71 Rationale.............................................................................................................................................72 Statement of the Problem ..................................................................................................................73 Objectives...........................................................................................................................................84 Limitation...........................................................................................................................................85 Organization of the thsis report..........................................................................................................8
Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY.............101 Definition of eCommerce.................................................................................................................102 Definition of ERP System................................................................................................................113 History of ERP system.....................................................................................................................124 Definition of Open Source...............................................................................................................125 Definition of Small and Medium Enterprises...................................................................................125 The Chosen Open Source ERPs ......................................................................................................136 ERP Advantages and Disadvantages ...............................................................................................13 6.1 Advantages of ERP: ....................................................................................................................13 6.2 Disadvantages of ERP: ...............................................................................................................14 6.3 Conclusion: .................................................................................................................................147 Opentaps ERP...................................................................................................................................15
Chapter 3 IMPLEMENTATION..............................................................16Lab1 Introduction to Opentaps ........................................................................................17Lab2 Opentaps Items Management...................................................................................20Lab3 Opentaps Sales Process ............................................................................................23Lab4 Opentaps Purchasing Process .................................................................................27Lab5 Installation, Customization and Opentaps vs OpenERP vs Openbravo comparison...........................................................................................................................31
Chapter 4 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION .......................371 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................372 Recommendation..............................................................................................................................37
REFERENCES.............................................................................................38List of Appendixes........................................................................................39
4
List of Figures
Figure 1 Opentaps eCommerce Module Interface 10
Figure 2 Information Integrated through EC*ERP system 11
Figure 3 Opentaps Login Screen 17
Figure 4 Opentaps Modules Navigation Screen 17
Figure 5 Opentaps CRM/SFA Module Interface 18
Figure 6 Opentaps Report Screen 20
Figure 7 Create Contact Screen 21
Figure 8 Find Leads Screen 22
Figure 9 Lead List Screen 22
Figure 10 Merge Leads Screen 22
Figure 11 Opentaps UED Model 23
Figure 12 Opentaps Sale Process 24
Figure 13 View Order Screen 26
Figure 14 Opentaps Customer's Payment Screen 27
Figure 15 Opentaps Purchase Procesing 1 28
Figure 16 Opentaps Purchase Procesing 2 28
Figure 17 Select Organization Screen 29
Figure 18 Opentaps View Purchase Order Screen 30
Figure 19 Opentaps Products Inventory Screenshots 31
Figure 20 Entity Data Maintaince Searching Screen 32
Figure 21 Entity Data Maintaince Edit Screen 32
Figure 22 Opentaps Modules Screen 33
List of Tables
Table 1 Definition of small and medium enterprises of the EU 12
Table 2 Warehourse Module Shortcut Table 19
Table 3 Comparison of Opentaps vs OpenERP vs Openbravo3 33
List of Appendixes
Appendix A Opentaps 1.4 to 1.5 Technical Upgrade Notes 39
Appendix B Configuring keyboard shortcuts 41
Appendix C Open Source ERP Software 41
5
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, Open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are often targeted to
enterprises whose requirements are not covered by standard software. Similar circumstances apply to
organizations that need continuous adaption of the software to changing processes and needs. ERP
software brings many benefits to an organization , the systems are very common in large companies
and make the benefits in the way of business strategies in the company , but commercial software is
expensive, with smaller organizations may prefer free and open source solutions but are faced with an
enormous array of options from different vendors. To make the clearly about ERP collection for
enterprises and organizations, this work describes the suitability and to study every aspect of an open
source ERP systems for these enterprises and organizations - Opentaps ERP system.
This thesis work also prsents a brief description of the Opentaps ERP, the lists of the basic
functions and manage items in the fields, and the related information purchasing and sales working
process. The research method implied a pre-study and an experiment The pre-study's purpose was to
obtain an insight on open source Opentaps ERP deployment process before any experiments are made
as well as help students at the International University have a general looking and practice for the
software in the future.
6
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
The chapter briefly presents the main idea of this study. Additionally, this chapter discusses the
problem statement, objectives, scope, limitation and the contribution of the study.
1 Rationale
The enterprises nowadays more and more depend on the ERP system cause its help manage the
companies easier and reduced the cost, increase revenuses, the necessarily services and human
resource, flexibility in sales acctivities. ERP can also help companies satisfy their stakeholders
demands accountability by using a creditble system measurement for reality life in the economics
growth.
Opentaps is an Open Source Enterprise Applications Suite. It is an integrated open source ERP
suite that including CRM, warehouse and inventory management, supply chain management, financial
management, business intelligence and mobility features. It supports verticals such as manufacturing,
distribution and retail.
This thesis aims is designation the Labs in Opentaps ERP framework about business arrays such
as basic definitions of fields, modules, tabs...., the items management, sale and purchase process and
how to install Opentaps on Ubuntu operating system as well as how to customization the software
appropriate with organization in basic in order to bring Opentaps Open-source ERP system to the
Internaltional University - IU in the future.
2 Statement of the Problem
Recently, almost all business use information technology to support business process. Several
information systems are used for different functions of work. ERP became very important for medium
and large enterprises, many companies need to use ERP to manage their business esier . The ERP may
migrates the costs to hire employess, the time to making marketing strategy by send email or sms
campaign. Although consistency data between employees and managers is more and more importance,
but to apply ERP is very diffcuilt and much money for deployment and lack of knowledge using ERP
caused new challenge and complexity. This research will study the several approaches to Opentaps
ERP systems and then compare Opentaps with some another Open-source (OpenERP and Openbravo)
7
to find the advantages and disadvantages and hava the best collection in deploy Open-source ERP.
3 Objectives
This thesis will illustrate how to several business process working with Opentaps application
which develop on ERP framework. Moreover, an ERP which will be chosen can reduce production
cost. To achieve this goal, this research will be implemented on these objectives:
• Describle the basic concepts of the ERP system.
• Express the meaning of the Items, fields … in the system.
• Configuration the system on the appropriate open source ERP.
• Perform purchasing and sales process.
• Installation and customization the Opentaps.
• Comparation Opentaps with some.
4 Limitation
This project is the graduation thesis which is developed for student to be evaluated for
graduation there for the project is limited in the boundary of student's knowledge level and and number
of students doing this thesis.
The thesis have just mainly focused on the sales and purchasing process, so it will limitted or
the knowledge in the fields such as: eComerce, Accounting, Inventory, Ledger … Customization in
order to suitable with organization business but in the small scope, so it’s very difficult to understand
the all the processes of Opentaps system as well as the programming language (lack of coding) in the
system. To handle and runing the Opentaps system we must use the computer with high processor and
memory.
5 Organization of the thsis reportThe organization of this thesis is as follows.:
Chapter 1 Introduces background, topic goal and objectives of my thesis and some related
limitations.
Chapter 2 This chapter reviews the technologies background and explains various research
concepts in Open-source ERP as well as eCommerce attached with ERP system.
8
Chapter 3 Shows the result of my thesis on each lab
• Lab 1 Introduction to Opentaps
• Lab 2 Opentaps Items management
• Lab 3 Opentaps Sales Process
• Lab4 Opentaps Purchasing Process
• Lab5 Installation, Customization and Opentaps vs OpenERP vs Openbravo comparison .
Chapter 4 Summarizes the main findings, limitations and the implication for ERP application.
9
Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY
This chapter is review in related theories, discuss about related works and discuss about open-
source technologies.
1 Definition of eCommerceElectronic commerce or ecommerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial
transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different
types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business
exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important
aspects of the Internet to emerge.
Opentaps Open Source ERP + CRM is a fully integrated application suite that brings together
top-tier open source projects to help you manage your business more effectively. Today, opentaps
supports ecommerce, Customer Relationship Management, Warehouse and Inventory Management,
Supply Chain Management, and Financial Management to Business Intelligence and mobility
integration out-of-the-box.
The Opentaps eCommerce module can be used as a standalone ecommerce system. If the user is
looking for the whole package, the ecommerce module can be set to interface and exchange data with
the point-of-sales (POS), the inventory module and any other module/s in the ERP and CRM system.
Figure 1 Opentaps eCommerce Module Interface
10
2 Definition of ERP System The definition from WikiPedia, Open Source software is computer software which source code
is available under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that meets the Open source
definition. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in
modified or unmodified form. It is often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open Source
software is the most prominent example of open source development and often compared to user
generated content .
According to the APICS dictionary, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a: “…framework
for organizing, defining, and standardizing the business processes necessary to effectively plan and
control an organization so the organization can use its internal knowledge to seek external advantage.”
ERP utilizes ERP software applications to improve the performance of organizations' resource
planning, management control and operational control. ERP software is multi-module application
software that integrates activities across functional departments, from product planning, parts
purchasing, inventory control, product distribution, to order tracking. ERP software may include
application modules for the finance, accounting and human resources aspects of a business.
Figure 2 Information Integrated through EC*ERP system
11
SCM
Supply
Chain
Management
CRM
Client
Relationship
ManagementFRM
Finance
Resource
Management
HRM
Human
Resource
Management
ERP SYSTEM
MRP
Manufacturing
resource
planning
MRP
Enterprise
Resouce
Management
3 History of ERP systemIn 1990 Gartner Group first employed the acronym ERP as an extension of material
requirements planning (MRP), later manufacturing resource planning and computer-integrated
manufacturing. Without supplanting these terms, ERP came to represent a larger whole, reflecting the
evolution of application integration beyond manufacturing. Not all ERP packages were developed from
a manufacturing core. Vendors variously began with accounting, maintenance and human resources. By
the mid–1990s ERP systems addressed all core functions of an enterprise. Beyond corporations,
governments and non–profit organizations also began to employ ERP systems.
4 Definition of Open Source In this work the open source definition of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) is used. According
to OSI this means that software must comply to the following conditions (shorted):
• Free redistribution, including selling or using as component without fee.
• The Source code must be available in readable form.
• Derived work must be allowed under the same license conditions.
• Integrity of the author's source code (licenses may require that modifications are redistributed only as patches).
• No discrimination against fields of endeavor.
• Distribution of license (license applies to all whom the program is redistributed to, closing up software is forbidden).
• License must not be specific to a product.
• License must not restrict other software.
• Licence must be technology neutral.
5 Definition of Small and Medium EnterprisesIn this paper the definition of the European Union is used:
Enterprise category Headcount Turnover Balance sheet total
Medium-sized < 250 <= € 50 million <= € 50 million
Small < 50 <= € 10 million <= € 10 million
Micro < 10 <= € 2 million <= € 2 million
Table 1 Definition of small and medium enterprises of the EU
12
5 The Chosen Open Source ERPs In the beginning of this thesis, I have research some the current leading Open Source ERP
systems. The following systems have been identified:
Open ERP, OpenBravo, ERP5, Opentaps, Compiere, Adempiere, WebERP, BlueERP,
GNU Enterprise
After a preliminary research on each of those systems, it became evident that only a few
deserved being looked into in more details due to their competitive offering. The three systems
OpenERP, OpenBravo and Opentaps ended up being retained for a more in-depth analysis.
6 ERP Advantages and Disadvantages
6.1 Advantages of ERP: In the ERP system, a enterprise may find the advantages may involve:
• Design engineering (how to best make the product)
• Order tracking from acceptance through fulfillment
• The revenue cycle from invoice through cash receipt
• Managing interdependencies of complex Bill of Materials
• Tracking the 3-way match between Purchase orders (what was ordered), Inventory receipts
(what arrived), and costing(what the vendor invoiced)
• The Accounting for all of these tasks, tracking the Revenue, Cost and Profit on a granular level.
• ERP systems are more secure as centralized security policies can be applied to them and all the
transactions happening via the ERP systems can be tracked.
• There are various modules in an ERP system like Finance/ Accounts, Human Resource
Management, Manufacturing, Marketing / Sales, Supply Chain / Warehouse Management,
CRM, Project Management, etc.
• Automatic and coherent work-flow from one department / function to another to ensure smooth
transition/ completion of processes.
• Single Database is implemented on the back-end to store all the information required by the
ERP system and that enables centralized storage / back-up of all enterprise data.
13
6.2 Disadvantages of ERP: Many problems organizations have with ERP systems are due to inadequate investment in
ongoing training for involved personnel, including those implementing and testing changes, as well as a
lack of corporate policy protecting the integrity of the data in the ERP systems and how it is used.
• Personnel turnover; companies can employ new managers lacking education in the company's
ERP system, proposing changes in business practices that are out of synchronization with the
best utilization of the company's selected ERP.
• ERP deployments take 1-3 years to get completed and fully functional.
• Customization of the ERP software is limited. Some customization may involve changing of the
ERP software structure which is usually not allowed.
• ERP systems can be very expensive to install
• ERP vendors can charge sums of money for annual license renewal that is unrelated to the size
of the company using the ERP or its profitability.
• ERPs are often seen as too rigid and too difficult to adapt to the specific workflow and business
process of some companies
• Systems can be difficult to use.
• Systems are too restrictive and do not allow much flexibility in implementation and usage.
• Once a system is established, switching costs are very high for any one of the partners (reducing
flexibility and strategic control at the corporate level).
• The blurring of company boundaries can cause problems in accountability, lines of
responsibility, and employee morale.
• There are frequent compatibility problems with the various legacy systems of the partners.
6.3 Conclusion: The success of the system is fully dependent on how the workers utilize it. This means they
must be properly trained, and a number of companies have attempted to save money by reducing the
cost of training. Even if a company has enough money to implement ERP, they may not be able to
successfully use it if they do not have enough money to train their workers on the process of using it.
One of the biggest problems with ERP is that it is hard to customize. Very few companies can
effectively use ERP. It must be modified to suit their needs, and this process can be both expensive and
tedious. Even when a company does begin changing the system, they are limited in what they can do.
14
7 Opentaps ERPOpentaps is a production-ready version of the Open for Business (OfBiz) framework that offers
stable releases and upgrade patches. Thus Opentaps is used as a synonym for OfBiz in this paper. The
framework is intended for developing enterprise-level custom business applications. Its initial focus
was on e-Commerce solutions, but it evolved into a general framework for ERP development.
The target groups are retailers, distributors and manufacturers. There are modules for e-
Commerce, product catalog, point of sales, order entry, inventory and warehouse management,
manufacturing, customer service, CRM, marketing and content management.
No national accounting schemes are available. It supports multiple sites, multiple costing
methods and file based interfaces to external general ledger applications (XML, ASCII and CSV
export). The data model allows features like planning, forecasting and budgeting. Multiple web stores
and distributed brick and mortar stores with separate inventories and data synchronization are
supported, too. Opentaps' module structure is an attempt to group OfBiz application functionality like
traditional ERP modules.
15
Chapter 3 IMPLEMENTATIONThis chapter describes the steps to implementation of 5 labs. All screenshots tables and
subcontents was shown in each lab for easier understand the overall processes as well as the thesis
contribution. However I just summarized the key business process, the more details in each lab will be
submit to COMMITTEE DEPARTMENT and ADVISOR in soft or hard copy.
The first lab (Lab 1) shows how ERP can support IT process. It shows the concepts of modules,
tabs, fields... in an Opentaps ERP based approach. I will describe details the functions on the modules
and the keyboard shortcuts in the system.
The second lab (Lab 2) how to manage the items of the fields navigation in Opentaps, the more
details of Tabs in Modules such as Leads, Orders, opportunities fields in module CRM/SFA. How to
create the screen and input the data and necessarily concepts. Step-By-Step Create Sales Agreement or
marketing email campaign.
The third lab (Lab 3) research focuses on carrying out a comprehensive review of relevant
definition and sales process of the Opentaps ERP systems. The lab includes the managing sales process
when working with Leads, Contacts, Account, Step-By-Step Create Sales Orders to receive Items,
update Items to warehouses and Receivables in SME or a large organization simulation. SMEs and
large organizations may have different as well as common needs from an ERP.
The next lab (Lab 4) is designated purchasing process using both Material Resources Planning
(MRP) and order-driven requirements, and creating and managing purchase orders . How to manage
suppliers run MRP, the planning and requirements processing, receipt of a Supplier Order by Purchase
Order.
The last lab (lab 5) focuses on Opentaps configuration and installation. It shows step-by-step
prerequisite requirements, coding in commad line, and the changing when Opentaps are update until
now is version 1.5.0 working on Ubuntu OS and the way how to access the system. This lab includes
some basic steps to customize the Opentaps system. I also designed a table comparing 3 popular open-
source aims help the students distinguish the differents and varieties of ERP system.
16
Lab1 Introduction to Opentaps
Opentaps is an Open Source web application based ERP for large and medium sized
businesses. Its functions include eCommerce, Point-of-Sales, inventory, warehouse, order, customer
management and general ledger. It also offers built-in business intelligence tools and mobility
integration, including with Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Google Apps,VOIP and mobile
phones. Opentaps running in many platforms such as Windows, Linux, MacOS... starting with MySQL,
PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server .
The Opentaps has a strong role management so that everyone who want to access the interfaces
then thay must have account login assign by administrator.
Figure 3 Opentaps Login Screen
Figure 4 Opentaps Modules Navigation Screen
17
The lab shows all the Opentaps modules (CRM/SFA, Financials, eComermece... ) and the list
definition of their tabs (e.g in module CRM/SFA I show the Activities tab).
Activities
This tab is brief descriptions of the activities which working with customers such as meetings,
phone calls, email... Similarly, in module Financials is about Recievables, Payables...
The conceptual basic help students and readers can understand the structured of Opentaps
system.
Figure 5 Opentaps CRM/SFA Module Interface
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts or hotkeys that allow us to navigate the application by using keyboard
sequences such as F2, Ctrl-FT, Ctrl-O-E. opentaps supports a similar capability. You can configure
keyboard shortcuts for your users.
Getting Help
The following types of documentation are offered with Opentaps.
➢ Online Help
Because this is a free edition, so we dont have phone support, chat live support, Consulting...
but we have existing support following :
• Email Support
This service belongs to Opentaps Professional Edition
• Community Support
18
Via Facebook and Twitter
➢ User manuals ➢ Training material and video ➢ News
Function Keys
Warehourse Module
Table 2 Warehourse Module Shortcut Table
There are sample shortcuts already defined in opentaps. In each application's data directory, you
will find a file called DemoKeyboardShortcuts.xml with these predefined shortcuts.
The remaining modules such as: Party Admin, Catalog, Webtools, Docs, Wiki, Human Res
eCommerce there are private characteristic and don't have function key shortcut so that we will
consider it later.
Language Support: Opentaps system support many languages in the world such as English,
Vietnamese, Chinese, French...
Reports: By default Opentaps allows us to print report and documents into PDF (.pdf), Excel
(.xls) file and import/export by Excel file, but we also may customize it by modify source code and
19
replace it by other format. The system has 4 types of chart following dashboard screen.
Figure 6 Opentaps Report Screen
Summary
Opentaps is one of famous opensource in the world used to manage medium and large
enterprise with high security and structured, ability permission and decentralization system users, high
customization capability and the friendly user interface.
Knowing how to navigate between the different windows and use the basic functions to process
data are the first prerequisites for any user of Opentaps. Once you have acquired this knowledge, you
can start to learn and use all of the program's business functionality.
Lab2 Opentaps Items Management
Opentaps is a very flexible system for business process automation that is readily applied to a
variety of different kinds of businesses, so that opentaps come with the large configuration options
which suitable to the economics growth and changes nowadays.
This topic will figure out how we and understand the basic concepts and managing the items in
the fields, the manipulation in the system with Edit view screen. The purpose is help the end
20
users/customers and students have a general looking of the Opentaps ERP system.
The sample step to create a Contact and the information of the fields/tabs, and other tabs/fields
are the same way.
Create Contacts
To create a new contact we have to input the information in to the empty fields.
First Name/Last Name: This is the full name of the contact, and is a required field to create the
contact.
First Name (Local) / Last Name (Local): This is the contact's name in his or her at home.
Preferred Currency: This is the currency for the contact. Select the currency from the drop
down menu. The default is set during CRM/SFA Configuration.
Initial Account: Enter the internal ID value of an account we would like to associate this contact
with, we also may find it in widget lookup to search by name or phone number that account.
Description: The information details more about contacts.
Figure 7 Create Contact Screen
Find Leads
This Screen is used to search the information of the Leads by enter Name and ID, Phone , Email
or we can user advanced mode searching in Advanced column in Find by box.
And the corresponding result
21
Figure 8 Find Leads Screen
Figure 9 Lead List Screen
Merge Leads
This screen allows you to merge one lead into another. Manually enter the internal ID of the
From Lead and the To Lead fields or search for the lead IDs by clicking the lookup widget.
Figure 10 Merge Leads Screen
Summary
Modules, Items, Fields are a central element of the Opentaps ERP system, in order to use
requirement knowledge for any user or partner role training to become a product specialist.
Once an Item, fields created, it can be purchased, stored, reclassified, consumed, outputted,
sold, and tracked in various ERP processes throughout the system. This will be demonstrated for sales
and purchases in Purchasing Process and Sales Process course.
22
Lab3 Opentaps Sales Process
Opentaps system supports all typical tasks and information needs relating to managing sales,
purchasing and receivables - an essential business area in all companies.
Basic sales concepts are introduced by illustrating the complete sales process flow and its
integration to other application areas.
After following the demonstrations and doing the labs in this chapter, the student is well
equipped to discuss the program's core sales functionality and to perform the basic tasks covered.
Customer Management Processes
Figure below illustrates the concept of the business process groupings that are used in the
framework of a unified enterprise database, immediately available management information via a
dashboard and numerous real-time status reports, and very importantly, the teamwork venue including
business context, plans and actions, and and integrated communications tools.
Figure 11 Opentaps UED Model - The source of this picture came from
http://www.opentaps.org/docs/index.php/Image:Wiki_Fig3_UsingCustomerManagement.jpg
The CRM Orders tab will allows you to process quotations, and sales orders, including creation,
look-up, and view of these quotes and orders. The Opentaps system is made ready for processing sales
orders by configuring the necessary information items, or prerequisites, in advance. Usually, a number
of the prerequisite items are configured on your system and are maintained by either a business or sales
manager with assistance of your the system/user administrator.
23
Almost standard processing usually beginning with order or contract through out shipment
transfer and cash transaction of customers, we need to know the following business processing :
Figure 12 Opentaps Sale Process
Usually a company may use the following standard procedures to manage businesses flow :
Marketing Campaign
Track sales leads
Qualify sales leads and convert them into accounts
Track contacts at accounts
Create and manage quotes for customers
Create and view sales orders
Manage customer service requests (cases)
Track activities and work including meetings, calls, emails
The first stage of Sales process is marketing campaign which was shown in previous labs (you
can also find out the necessarily concepts there ) to find the Leads or contacts then send them the
Quotes.
24
The Marketing tab allows you to create a Marketing Campaign. Enter the appropriate
information into the fields of marketing campaign for example Name, From, Thru,... and then attach
Contact List (the Contact Lists must be created before including Email Address, Phone Number...)
The processing finished will have the information look like below image, and then send them to
the customers. The next step is find out the Leads and converts it into Accounts, Contacts to find the
Opportunities (The targets list which was got from the marketing campaign ).
The most important step is create a sales order. Following is the step-by-step to create a new
sales order.
Sales Order Step-By-Step
Step 1: Access the opentaps main page
And click CRM/SFA icon from the Opentaps main page
Step 2: From the CRM/SFA screen select the Orders tab
Step 3: Click Create Order/Resume Order
Step 4: On the create order screen, you can enter the product ID or name for the item the
customer wants to order along with the quantity.
Step 5: Click Save All to add the items in the cart.
Step 6: Next step is to choose your existing customer or create a new one for this order. Click
Update in order to save the customer information that you just entered.
Step 7: Once you click the Update button, if there are items already in the order and you try to
change the customer the system will ask you whether to recalculate prices for the new customer, or
keep the same prices.
Step 8: Click Finalize Order at the top of the page to complete the creation of your order.
Select Payment Method
In the Select Payment Method box, indicate how the customer is paying for this order.
Step 9: Click Review Order to continue creating this order. Click Return to Order to go back to
the Orders page if some changes are required.
Step 10: When you click Review Order the last page of review is opened presenting the overall
order summary.
Step 11: When you click Create Order the View Order Screen will open.
25
All the steps finished you got the result look like this:
Figure 13 View Order Screen
Also if we are short on inventory then the order item will be marked as Backordered in red and
when we have the item back in stock then this tag would disappear.
If you receive a Paypal payment from your customer outside of the ecommerce store, go to
Financials → Receivables → Receive a Payment and receive a payment of the type “Paypal”. You can
then apply it to invoices outstanding. When you mark it as “Received”, it will be applied to the correct
account. To create sales invoices: Financials → Receivables Tab→Create Sales Invoice.
26
Figure 14 Opentaps Customer's Payment Screen
Summary
All typical sales processes are supported by Opentaps with simple and integrated features. The
program supports complete flows, from setting up customers to creating sales orders where items are
shipped to the customers and payment initiated by sales invoicing.
As an essential element of all businesses, it is a prerequisite for anyone training to become a
product specialist that they understand the program's basic sales processing functionality and can use it
for the simple tasks demonstrated.
For detailed information on more advanced sales and receivables functionality, refer to any
courses in Trade and Finance.
Lab4 Opentaps Purchasing Process
The Opentaps Purchasing application is designed to help you manage the purchasing process. It
supports creating and managing supplier information, automating the purchasing process using both
Material Resources Planning (MRP) and order-driven requirements, and creating and managing
purchase orders. The below picture illustrates the purchasing process in an enterprise.
27
Figure 15 Opentaps Purchase Procesing 1
The process after purchasing
This flow is update products into warehourse and payable methods then update data in General
Ledger:
Figure 16 Opentaps Purchase Procesing 2
ERP Purchasing module streamline procurement of required raw materials. It automates the
processes of identifying potential suppliers, negotiating price, awarding purchase order to the supplier,
and billing processes. Purchase module is tightly integrated with the inventory control and production
planning modules. Purchasing module is often integrated with supply chain management software.
Features of purchasing module :
• Requirements
• Suppliers collection
• Quotations
• Orders / Contracts
28
InventoryPurchasing G/LPaybles
• Generates a purchase order
• Routing the CommonPO to the supplier
• Warehouses
• Invoices
• Payment
• General Ledger (G/L)
In Purchasing Process you should note about Supplier's, Requirements and Planning,
Purchase Orders .etc...
Managing Suppliers
Suppliers are organizations from whom you purchase products, supplies, and services. You can
manage information about your suppliers, including contact information, agreements with your
suppliers regarding payment terms, and general information such as tax identification numbers under
the Supplier Screens.
You must chose your organization first by drop down button and press Select
Figure 17 Select Organization Screen
Planning and Requirements
The applications deal with inventory management using manual, Requirements Enumeration,
and Material Resources Planning (MRP) which is a sophisticated and automated method of projecting
inventory management actions based upon a full set of considerations.
Purchase Orders
Rise Purchase order and send to supplier - PO identifies the items being procured the Quantity
required and the price being paid.
Initializing a Purchase Order
When you create a purchase order you begin by initializing the order with some basic
information:
Select a supplier.
29
Select a purchasing agreement - When you enter or change the supplier, the list of your
available purchasing agreements automatically changes.
Set the currency of the purchase order.
Name your purchase order.
Set the ship before for all the items on the order and/or,
Set ship after dates for all the items on the order.
Add Item to Purchase Order
Go to Purchasing application's Order tab. Select Create Order and choose DemoSupplier from
the list of suppliers. Continue past the agreement screen to reach the main create order screen. The form
on top lets you enter a product ID. The list at the bottom shows the items in the order.
Click Finalize Order
The Finalize Order screen allows you to select the Shipping and Payment options for your
order. The top half of the screen is for setting shipping addresses and methods.
Figure 18 Opentaps View Purchase Order Screen
Warehouse Management
The opentaps Warehouse application is designed to help you manage your warehouse and
30
everything that goes on in them. It supports inventory management, shipping, manufacturing and
production.
Figure 19 Opentaps Products Inventory Screenshots
Summary
Opentaps Open Source ERP + CRM will give you all the tools you need to manage your
purchasing activities. It will manage all vendor/suppliers records, including contact information. The
system will also allow you to see your inventory in real-time to give you insight into what needs to be
purchased. The system contains a purchasing calendar to schedule purchasing activities in the future. A
purchasing workflow will ensure that you have control and security of your purchasing activities.
Lab5 Installation, Customization and Opentaps vs OpenERP vs Openbravo comparison
Opentaps Installation
Firstly download opentaps in directory (View Opentaps 1.4 to 1.5 Technical Upgrade Notes
changing in Appendix A).
$cd Desktop/opentaps-1.5.0
In linux system, We should make the startup scripts executable:
$chmod u+x startofbiz.sh
$chmod u+x stopofbiz.sh
We need to reload the seed data into the new MySQL database by typing in this command from
the opentaps directory.
31
$ant run-install
To start the opentaps server:
$./startofbiz.sh
If we want to stop opentaps server just type :
$./stopofbiz.sh
Accessing the Opentaps: To access the opentaps ERP + CRM server, open any browser
and type in the following :
http://localhost:8080/opentaps. With user name “admin” and password “opentaps” we will
access to main page of th server.
Opentaps Customization
We need to customize opentaps applications, such as change the tabs or shortcuts at the top or
add new screens aims suibtable with businesses. The tabs and shortcuts available are now stored in the
database, so you can rearrange or change the user interface labels, you can make these changes without
affecting the core opentaps code, making it easier for you to upgrade later when new versions of
opentaps becomes available.
From Main menu, Click on Webtools. In the Web Tools Main Page click on Entity Data
Maintenance and tpye OpentapsWebApps in search box.
Figure 20 Entity Data Maintaince Searching Screen
Figure 21 Entity Data Maintaince Edit Screen
32
Figure 22 Opentaps Modules Screen
Opentaps vs OpenERP vs Openbravo3
In order to make decision how to chose the best Opensource ERP we need spend many times for
understand the requirements and all the functions and features. Here I made a comparison table about 3
famous opensources in the world in order to help reders find out the general looking and how to get the
best one.
33
34
Table 3 Comparison of Opentaps vs OpenERP vs Openbravo3
The source of this picture came from
http://accounting-software.findthebest.com/compare/60-108/opentaps-vs-Openbravo-3
35
Summary
From the table you can see many features and functions are listed, each software has each
priority characteristics suibtable with the business. You can chose OpenERP but you can not deploy it
in MAC environment or you can cho Opentaps but you have not phone or consulting support...
In my view point, I like Opentaps the best because it is developed in JAVA application which
easy develop in opensource, The Opentaps system is supported by a large community. Support services
include the evaluation of companies and requirements, mentoring, customization, development and
technical support. Also, various detailed books, a wiki and videos are available to help understand the
functions of the programs. OpenERP uses a 2 tier client/server design. The installing client s/w to each
PC is a trouble something to do when deploying ERP. Imagine when the server adds new functionality.
the client also have to upgrade, compared to a PHP application, JAVA is much more intensive. So will
need some powerful hardware to run Opentaps, require more resources. Openbravo is probably better
for smaller businesses with basic accounting, etc. needs. Opentaps/ofbiz is more scalable and better
suited for large volume online businesses or with more warehouse/inventory management and
manufacturing needs.
36
Chapter 4 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
1 Conclusion
I have learned by a variety of experiences after finishing this thesis, I understood a enterprises
working process, the functional fit of the system to business processes., many concepts in ERP system.
The customer's needs and enterprises when they deploy ERP in their company, adaptable processes
that support a diversification strategy where IT is a source for differentiation from competitors.
The main reasons for choosing open source ERP systems are cost, flexibility, vendor
independence and company-internal knowledge generation. Opentaps ERP is evolving fast, provides
more ERP functionality than others and can be customized with add-on modules. OpenERP and
Openbravo3 also have very flexible architectures, providing many customization possibilities.
For the purpose of a course, subjective summary, some system properties are pointed out: As a
result, I have seen the importance of working phase and difficult some kowledge about Ledger,
financials or customization but after all I have 5 labs contribution for the International University
which help students more understanding about ERP functions as well as Sales and purchasing process
in order apply it for IU in the future.
2 Recommendation
The purpose of this thesis is contribute the labs for students practice about Opentaps ERP, The
application can be development on the university environment by customize with education business
from that students, staffs,...can be executed and data consistent sharing documents, easy to manage the
university system in working and stydying, increase income and decrease revenues for the school,
because of this is open source, so will not be lost liscence fees like the other software such as Microsoft
Dynamics Navision, SAP or Oracle. However, this software requires a big team for analysis and coding
for the interfaces and customization, as well as a general Opentaps ERP course requirement in the IU
school for al students family with the software.
This application is also ease to develop over Cloud Computing, especially in developing
information technologies nowadays, all the information put in the cloud and sharing data.
37
REFERENCES[1] Jones, D. E., 2005. “Getting And Using OfBiz, http://www.ofbiz.org/docs/ Getting And Using
OFBiz.pdf, December 3, 2012
[2] Opensourcestrategies, Available at: www.opensourcestrategies.com, 16 November 2012
[3] OpenERP, Available at, http://www.openerp.com/en, September 30, 2012
[4] Opentaps, 2012 www.opentaps.org/docs , 16 December 2012
[5] Opentaps Demo, Available http://demo1.opentaps.org/crmsfa/control/myHomeMain December
2012
[6] ERP Purchasing Module, avalable at: http://www.open-source-erp-site.com/erp-purchasing-
module.html , December 27 2012
[7] Tutorial 2: Purchase Order Process) Available at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en
us/library/aa577834%28v=bts.20%29.aspx December 2012
[8] Basil Argasosy: OfBiz An Insider View, 2005. http://ofbizwiki1.gointegral.com/ Wiki.jsp?
page=OFBizInsiderTutorial, November 28, 2012.
[9] findthebest, Available from http://accounting-software.findthebest.com/compare/60-108/opentaps-
vs-Openbravo-3 , 1 January 2013
[10] Drew Robb, August 3, 2012 By http://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/erp/open-source-erp-buyers-
guide.html, November 2012
[11] Gupta, ‘Enterprise Resource Planning: the Emerging Organizational Value Systems’,
Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 100, No. 3, 2000, pp. 114-18
[12] Herzog, T., 2006. “A Comprasion of Open Source ERP Systems”, Vienna University of
Economics and Business Administration.,http://www.big.tuwien.ac.at/teaching/theses/ma/herzog.pdf,
2012
[13] Herzog T., A Comparison of Open Source ERP Systems, master’s thesis, Vienna University of
Technology, 2006, Vienna, Austria 2012
[14] Openbravo ERP, Available at:, http://www.openbravo.com/product/erp/features, December , 2012.
[15] Kessinger, K. (2008). Can open source ERP software make an impact on the market?(online).
SearchManufacturingERP. Available from:
http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid193_gci1339 673,00.html 2012
[16] wikipedia, Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning#cite_note-3,
january 2012
38
List of Appendixes
Appendix A Opentaps 1.4 to 1.5 Technical Upgrade Notes
Database configuration in /framework/entity/config/entityengine.xml
<delegator name="default" entity-model-reader="main" entity-group-reader="main" entity-eca-reader="main"
distributed-cache-clear-enabled="false">
<group-map group-name="org.ofbiz" datasource-name="localmysql"/>
<group-map group-name="org.ofbiz.olap" datasource-name="localderbyolap"/>
<group-map group-name="org.ofbiz.tenant" datasource-name="localmysql_tenant"/>
<group-map group-name="org.opentaps.analytics" datasource-name="analytics"/>
<group-map group-name="org.opentaps.testing" datasource-name="testing"/>
</delegator>
You will then need to define the datasource more than once, even if they both use the same
database:
<datasource name="localmysql_tenant"
helper-class="org.ofbiz.entity.datasource.GenericHelperDAO"
field-type-name="mysql"
check-on-start="true"
add-missing-on-start="true"
check-pks-on-start="false"
use-foreign-keys="true"
join-style="ansi-no-parenthesis"
alias-view-columns="false"
drop-fk-use-foreign-key-keyword="true"
table-type="InnoDB"
character-set="latin1"
collate="latin1_general_cs">
<read-data reader-name="seed"/>
<read-data reader-name="seed-initial"/>
<read-data reader-name="demo"/>
<read-data reader-name="ext"/>
<inline-jdbc
jdbc-driver="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
39
jdbc-uri="jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1/opentaps_1_5
autoReconnect=true&useOldAliasMetadataBehavior=true"
jdbc-username="opentaps"
jdbc-password="opentaps"
isolation-level="ReadCommitted"
pool-minsize="2"
pool-maxsize="250"
time-between-eviction-runs-millis="600000"/>
</datasource>
as well as:
<datasource name="localmysql"
helper-class="org.ofbiz.entity.datasource.GenericHelperDAO"
field-type-name="mysql"
check-on-start="true"
add-missing-on-start="true"
check-pks-on-start="false"
use-foreign-keys="true"
join-style="ansi-no-parenthesis"
alias-view-columns="false"
drop-fk-use-foreign-key-keyword="true"
table-type="InnoDB"
character-set="latin1"
collate="latin1_general_cs">
<read-data reader-name="seed"/>
<read-data reader-name="seed-initial"/>
<read-data reader-name="demo"/>
<read-data reader-name="ext"/>
<inline-jdbc
jdbc-driver="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"
jdbc-uri="jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1/opentaps_1_5 autoReconnect=true&useOldAliasMetadataBehavior=true"
jdbc-username="opentaps"
jdbc-password="opentaps"
isolation-level="ReadCommitted"
pool-minsize="2"
40
pool-maxsize="250"
time-between-eviction-runs-millis="600000"/>
</datasource>
Appendix B Configuring keyboard shortcuts
Configuring keyboard shortcuts, Opentaps comes with two default handlers, KB_URL and
KB_FOCUS. The first one redirects the browser to a different URL, the second one focuses the
browser on an element of the current screen document. These are defined in hot deploy/opentaps
common/data/CommonSeedData.xml (or opentaps- common/data/CommonSeedData.xml in Opentaps
1.5.0), and you can define other JavaScript handlers like this:
<KeyboardShortcutHandler actionTypeId="KB_URL" description="Redirects to the target URL"
handler="opentaps.addUrlShortcut" /> <KeyboardShortcutHandler actionTypeId="KB_FOCUS"
description="Set focus on the target DOM element" handler="opentaps.addFocusShortcut" />
Then, you would define the shortcuts for your applications using the KeyboardShortcut entity,
like this
(change code lines in /opentaps/crmsfa/data/DemoKeyboardShortcuts.xml): <KeyboardShortcut
shortcutId="CRMSFA_FIND_OPPRT" sequenceNum="120" shortcut="f6"
actionTypeId="KB_URL"actionTarget="findOpportunities"applicationName="crmsfa"description="F
ind Opportunities" />
Appendix C Open Source ERP Software
Opentaps: Opentaps is compatible with Windows, Linux, MAC OS X operating systems. As
database, it can use MySQL, MaxDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL and IBM DB2. Using Java
and XML as software language, the program supports 39 different languages (Basil Argasosy,2005).
Open ERP: OpenERP is published under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Open ERP
is known to be very complete and extremely modular, with 350 available modules. It is based on a
strong MVC (Model – View – Controller) architecture, with a distributed server, flexible workflows, an
object database, a dynamic GUI, an XML- RPC (Extensible Markup Language – remote procedure
call) interface, and customizable reports. OpenERP used to be known under the name TinyERP.
OpenBravo3: OpenBravo is a web-based, Open Source ERP business solution mainly intended
for SMEs, released under the OpenBravo Public License, based on the Mozilla Public License. The
41
license ensures public access to source code and permission to freely modify source code. The
OpenBravo project is among the top ten most active projects of Sourceforge as of January 2008
(SourceForge is a web- based source code repository that provides and promotes Open Source software
downloads, development, discussion and news). Openbravo ERP has been designed as a single ERP
application: all functionalities share a common architecture, philosophy, rules and user interface, and
all are seamlessly integrated.
42