[Discussion] Who Are We (Take 2)?

Community
1

We truly believe in supporting the goal of making ERPNext usable out of the box for millions of users but over the years we’ve learnt that code, features and functionality is only one side of the coin. The other side is usability, supportability and relevancy. One of the biggest hurdles for most SMEs is the setup and configuration ERPNext (any ERP system for that matter). It is beyond most people to understand basic concepts like master data, roles and permissions, chart of accounts etc. Even with the vast online resources for most it is just daunting. And adding more and more features with each new release doesn’t address this issue for the vast majority of businesses.

I touched on this subject in the 2016 conference where alongside a developer community contributing code we could also have an end-user community contributing knowledge that can lead to more ‘pre-configured’ things in ERPNext. This can help ERPNext be more relevant say to a particular country or industry and make standard ERPNext much more usable. I’m not saying contributing code isn’t as important. It is and those who can should continue to do so. But I do believe that there are other (non-technical) ways that our community members can contribute to make ERPNext the best open source, out of the box ERP solution in the world.

I’ll end with this very interesting pictograph which can be found here. In Singapore (and probably most countries) SMEs make up 99% of all companies yet only contribute 47% to the economic output. I truly believe that providing every SME with a powerful, simple and integrated ERP system can change these statistics globally and lift every economy.

image
image1044×1039 256 KB

So it is a very poignant question that Rushabh has raised in asking Who We Are. I do hope we can grow into not just a community of developers but a community that will re-shape the SME world where every business has an ERP system at its core.

13 Likes
2

Thanks @tonyta for sharing your thoughts! Service providers are indispensable to the community. I find it surprising when people write that we (Frappe) don’t care for the service providers, because we have left the entire local + midsize market open for service providers, nor do we expect any “cut” from the service providers. Unlike most product companies, we are clear we will never become a multi-national with local offices.

Service providers have so much value to add and so much to gain too. All we expect is that improvements should be contributed back to the product and not kept privately. If it takes effort in making the improvement upto contribution standards, it only adds to the long term value of the community, from which all of us stand to benefit. We have come a long way in making ERPNext a very credible player in the market. If we have to become #1, then we will need all of us to pitch in.

4 Likes
3

Hi All, would be great to have a pledge signed by service providers something to the effect: “ I hereby commit to have all development/ customization in an open source way that facilitates integration to the master branch”.

From my side (I am not a developer) but when I hire someone that is my first requirement. To make it an app/or go to the master branch.

CRISP chat integration is our first contribution.

More to come in 2018. Ideas include integration to
(1) Skype for business : when customer calls, it tells us via CRM who it is

(2) Input assistant (OCR scanned invoices, orders) for easy input

…

6 Likes
4

many thanks for your first contribution :wink:

5

I believe Frappe/Erpnext is already a multinational…:smile: people contributing from across the world, local chapters

2 Likes