Commercial Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning as a Credible Business Solution in South Africa

Abstract

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions and open source software have both received increased business interest over the past two decades. A combination of these two topics, open source ERP, provides organisations with unique capabilities not present in proprietary ERP solutions and addresses many of the factors believed to have caused the failure of many ERP adoptions. However, the question remains as to whether open source ERP solutions will be able to provide a sustainable and credible enterprise solution for organisations, given the nature of the open source software model. This research focuses on the factors that need to be addressed in order for an open source ERP solution to be recognised as a credible business enterprise solution in South Africa. Interviews were conducted with senior executives from various organisations that have been involved in open source ERP adoptions in order to establish which factors should be addressed by organisations in order to ensure the successful adoption of such a solution. The results that emerged from these interviews indicated that many of the traditional factors ensuring the successful adoption of an ERP solution do apply to the adoption of an open source ERP. However, unique challenges not present in proprietary ERPs face organisations that consider the adoption of an open source ERP solution, due to the vastly different business model that is present in open source software. Both open source ERP solutions and proprietary ERP solutions pose unique challenges and different factors that should be taken into consideration by adopting organisations. As each business has unique needs and business requirements, business executives should ensure that the needs of an organisation remain the focal point when deciding on a business enterprise solution.