I have been at erpnext for 3 months now. As is the case, i have done a questioning of whether i want to stay or not and till date it is a great resounding yes. When i came to mumbai to join,i didn’t have high expectations(experience helped me not to build up much of it.). Infact i was in a dilemma even before i made the decision.. i mean after the fallout during leaving ibm, i still retained a negative reaction to just the word erp..So that made me fairly cautious, but figured a job is a job after all ,they are open-source and they are using python. It can’t be all that bad. Anyway so here i am and have been for 3 months. For the most part of our founder Rushabh has been liberal in letting me work on the framework per se and not on the functionality of erp. He has also been ok with letting me poke around and modify the settings on the server(of course, i shouldn’t be causing downtime on the server. Anyway, we ar e not the only online saas based erp product. So what makes erpnext unique? For me, it has so far been the open management style.But then, if the company is going to sink, open management style won’t save the day on it’s own, will it? Besides, if i am to spend a third of my life working, i need to be happy about what i do right? I mean if everyday,i get up in the morning and the first thought that comes to mind is oh crap i have to go to work, then something’s very wrong. With IBM, it happened, or rather i ignored it for too long when it happened…till it blew up into a full-blown depression..Goes on to say, all the hr policies in the world won’t stop the individual from going to hell, if the individual can’t see where he is going..
Anyway, the point is why i am at erpnext and working on online saas-based open-source erp? These are the 2 questions that have been occupying me over the last couple of months. I believe the answer to the first is clear by now(atleast to me it is).
So the next question stands as why online saas-based,open-source erp? Now that’s a tougher one, i can only make attempts at answering.
And perhaps the reason for me to attempt at writing this post. Now i don’t really like to write, but do it because my head does have limitations and i can’t keep all thoughts there without using circular logic and getting lost.
Anyway, here are my points:
a, As much as i have been wary of going into erp, i have already been curious about, and trying out open-source erps on and off over the last year.
b, I think ERP-customization(mostly an innovation in the business process to gain a minor edge over competition) is given an over-rated importance and that attention,energy if spent on product innovations, will result in a better world for all of us.
softwaremechanic 