Life's a journey. It's not always easy to tell what events will be life-defining ones, at least not then and there, in the moment. Life's biggest changes begin in such small, seemingly obscure ways — ways that start you on the path to something bigger. The person on that next phone call could be your future boss. Your voluntary internship could be your next paying job. These moments become iconic milestones. They help you look back and track your progress in life's journey. The successful quest from intern-to-full-time-employee is a very, very rare one indeed. Only a fortunate few can claim to have attained a win. I was one of the lucky few — to have the opportunity to get a ticket for the right ride, at the right time.
xTuple's Collective Brainpower Blog
More knowledge is a good thing — we know that. Life-long learning not only improves us personally and moves us along our career paths, it's also good for business. We've seen literally thousands of xTuple training participants over the years take what they've learned from us and apply it to their own businesses. This lines up perfectly with our mission — to help companies of all sizes successfully implement powerful, and easy-to-use, open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to grow their business profitably. What's good for your individual business is also good for your local, regional, and the global economy as well.
Streamlining your business is our number one response to the question, "Why ERP?" Even the smallest manufacturers and distributors can benefit from the scalable functionality of xTuple's business software solutions. From our introductory level PostBooks® to our robust, "everything included" Enterprise Edition, we probably have a solution to meet your needs. Remember the old rotary-dial telephone?
Editor's Note: Blog post author, Perry Clark, is known among our customers and open source community as "the guy with all the answers." He is a true jack-of-all trades; the guy that can help with anything. Really. Anything! Perry joined xTuple 10 years ago when the company was young and looking for ambitious "jacks" (and "jills"). Over the years he's not only maintained that title, he's...
Recently, xTuple co-hosted a roadshow in Texas with long-time partner Larry Cartee of Magical Custom Programming. While in Houston, I was invited to a radio interview with The Price of Business to talk about the latest in business management technologies and what they can do for a company's bottom line. The show, which is the longest running business program in Houston, Texas, is on Bloomberg’...
Let’s face it. In the "high-school dance party" of software, enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the kid in the corner, shirt buttoned to the top, playing with his calculator while the other kids dance. ERP is complex, serious stuff: supply chain management, material requirements planning, master production scheduling, cost analysis, sales forecasting, financials. You need it to be successful, but you tend to keep it up and away from the customers. You don’t want them to see it — you want them to talk to sales, not operations and accounting. Right?
About 10 years ago, our daily newspaper wrote an article [Virginian-Pilot: Granby Street's hipness is luring high-tech workers] about our CEO Ned Lilly. A few days after it was published, his friends commented that they still don't know what he does. Yeah, it can be complicated. Most people are comfortable with word-processing and spreadsheet programs, and while there are some great features (linking sheets, etc), it's not a replacement for enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. But what is ERP?
Grab a cup of coffee, and let's chat. As you may have gathered from another of my blog posts, 6 Ways to Make Your ERP Work Better, I highly recommend customers and partners attend our Training Classes. Every user — even those in the software testing or research phase — benefits from more hands-on education. Not only can you learn how to setup and configure the software for your specific needs, you'll also learn tips and tricks for every day use of xTuple ERP. Group training has the added benefit of...
Whether you're new to xTuple or a long-time community participant, you'll undoubtedly agree that xTuple Forums are the best place to meet other users online. It's where ideas are exchanged and your most important questions are asked — and answered (or debated!). The forums are a great resource to tap into the xTuple open source ERP global community and our shared user knowledge base. Drum roll, please ... Out with the old, in with the new! We've been listening to your feedback and...
It's been a while since we talked in any great detail about xTuple's roadmap for the future, and I thought this might be a good time to do so. You can always look at the near-term xTuple development plan for the next couple of releases — which will include specification links to confirmed customer-sponsored features when available.
But I'd like to take it up a notch, if I could, and...
Here at xTuple, we're often asked, "what makes you different? Why shouldn't I go with one of the big guys?" It's a fair question, and our answer has usually revolved around open source, and how it enables us to deliver a higher quality, more flexible and less expensive solution. More recently, we've started talking about how xTuple is one of a very few systems out there with a fully-integrated Customer Web Portal.
What is Industry 4.0? Since the dawn of the first Industrial Revolution (i.e., Industry 1.0) welcomed mechanization and steam power, a numbering system was been created out of necessity to delineate each "time period." Industry 2.0 came about with mass production enabled by assembly lines. Industry 3.0 saw the age of computers and robotics in manufacturing technologies. Industry 4.0 ushers in automation and data exchange with cyber-physical systems as they communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing. Industry 4.0 creates what is today called the "smart factory." According to Forbes...
At xTuple, we're always looking for ways to help more manufacturers grow their businesses using the latest in business management solutions and digital technology. And I’ve read a few interesting articles on current trends in the Automotive Aftermarket Industry that made me stop and think about their marketplace opportunities.
According to Hedges & Company — a highly regarded...
That's something we say a lot here at xTuple when people ask, " Why open source ?" Yes, we're proud to call ourselves the world's #1 open source ERP software. For us, though, open source is important because it is how we're able to make better, faster, cheaper software — not because we set out to make free software for some kind of ideological reason.
Turns out we're in good company in...
Due to a recent increase in intrusion attempts on Internet-connected business databases, we are writing to strongly encourage all our users to review the security of your PostgreSQL database. The following information will guide you through the process of updating important security settings for your database server. The following steps (described in detail below) should be taken to prevent intruders from accessing your data.
Around the world, Valentine's Day (also known as Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine) is an annual celebration of love and affection — February 14 for those of us here in the United States. While it's an occasion most often associated with flowers, candies, greeting cards and candlelight dinners, we're celebrating this year with Customer Reviews . Every day marketers are tasked with "tooting the horn" of their companies. And, touting the features and benefits of their products are delegated to the company's sales teams. As our good fortune would have it — open source ERP xTuple enjoys the value of a community of users who report bugs, submit feature requests, engage on forums with and for help, propose new code and extensions they've built to enhance the software, and review our products and services on highly acclaimed software review sites.
Whenever my husband buys a new toy ('er, I mean power tool), the very first thing he does is read the manual. If I ever agree to invest in the CNC machine he really wants, I know he would attend a training class to ensure he was fully aware of how to properly setup and use his new toy (oops… there I go again!). The same is true for ERP training. xTuple is an extremely powerful tool that enables you to streamline your business. But if you don’t know how to properly use this tool, you may only benefit from 20 or 30% of its capabilities.
“You don't know what you don't know” was the resounding message at the "I Love it When You Call Me Big Data" day-long summit held by the Pittsburgh Technology Council* last week. Thanks to the reach of the Internet and today's low data storage costs, we are now accumulating geopbytes of information that include text messages, photos, videos, and browsing activities. What’s a geopbyte, you ask?
If you've been running PostBooks® under a single-user license, you may have noticed a license expiration message. Yes, it's true: single-user keys that were distributed two years ago will be expiring at the end of this month. But don't worry. New keys — now set with an annual renewal — are freely available for anyone who requests one. Here's how to get your renewal PostBooks® key now. In fact, you can get free PostBooks® licenses for up to four (4) concurrent users, personalized for your company. All you have to do is ask...
Recently I've had the opportunity to chat with a quite a lot of manufacturers and distributors about using direct online access to sales and service for customers and vendors — i.e., a sales portal — in their business strategy. We talked about the specific challenges they are facing, new changes in their industry, and how the Web seems to be the root of much of the change in technology....