Content area
Full Text
1 Introduction
In the last decade, there has been an explosive interest in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as well as in free and open source software (FOSS) systems. In this paper, we aim to describe the combination of these two areas, namely open source ERPs with respect to small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs). This combination presents three interesting areas of analysis. Firstly, the development model of open source has changed during the recent years, raising the question about how the "new" development model for open source will influence future development of ERPs. This change means that FOSS systems are developed and designed for mass consumption ([3] Boulanger, 2005). It also means that FOSS systems development has increased its focus from low-level infrastructure layer moving up to a focus on middle-level application ([1] Ajila and Wu, 2007) and then focusing on business applications. Secondly, the business environment for SMEs has become more complex through globalization, resulting in a need to implement more advanced information technology ([25] Raymond et al. , 2005). Thirdly, software vendors of proprietary ERPs face some challenges that they must address if they are to stay in the business. However, the basic question discussed in the paper is: what could influence SMEs in the adoption of open source ERPs?
The rest of the paper is organized in the following way: Section 2 introduces the subject by giving definitions of ERP systems and Section 3 describes the open source development. Section 4 discusses open source ERPs and describes the status of open source ERPs. Section 5 discusses reasons that organizations could have for adopting open source ERPs. The final section of the paper offers some suggestions for future research related to adoption of open source ERPs.
2 Enterprise resource planning systems
ERP systems have received much attention in the recent years. ERPs are often defined as standardized packaged software designed to integrate an organization's entire value chain ([20] Lengnick-Hall et al. , 2004; [28] Rolland and Prakash, 2000). [35] Wier et al. (2007) argue that ERPs aim to integrate business processes and ICT into a synchronized suite of procedures, applications and metrics which goes over firms' boundaries. [19] Kumar and van Hillegersberg (2000) say ERPs originated in the manufacturing industry, and development...