So is anyone using ERPNext in a Chinese company? What is the industry? Manufacturing, foreign trade, logistics? I am interested to hear about challenges and your experiences. What needs to be built to be ERPNext more viable for Chinese manufacturers and supply chain companies?
Wechat and Whatsapp integrations perhaps? Data input adapters from local foreign trade data sources? Data importation from other expensive ERPs? More Chinese language support and localisation?
I am a experienced developer with a small team, I can build these features and make the free and open-source so that ERPNext gets more adoption in Chinese and SEA companies. Lets Go!
那么，有没有人在中国公司使用ERPNext？是什么行业？制造业、外贸、物流？我很想听听你们遇到的挑战和你们的经验。需要构建什么，才能让ERPNext对中国制造商和供应链公司更可行？
也许是微信和WhatsApp集成？来自本地外贸数据源的数据输入适配器？从其他昂贵ERP导入数据？更多中文支持和本地化？
我是一名经验丰富的开发者，有一个小团队，我可以构建这些功能，并让它们免费且开源，以便ERPNext在中国和东南亚公司中获得更广泛的采用。来吧！
There are a myriad of ERP’s developed in China for the Chinese-speaking users. A lot of them seem to be quite impressive (from what I see on Weixin). How does ERPNext compare with the Chinese developments?
It seems most of the Chinese ERPs are not open-sourced. So you can’t customised it how you want to. I think certain things like local taxes configurations and Wechat integration are important if ERPNext wants to be successful in China. Also China is more focused on cross-borders eCommerce so integrations with eCommerce platforms are also important. The only one I am aware of is MabangERP, but it was not that impressive from the demo they gave me.
Hi @zshanhui and welcome! It’s great to see more developers interested in expanding ERPNext in China and SEA.
I’ve been dedicated to promoting and implementing ERPNext in China for years—I’m an active Frappe/ERPNext code contributor, official forum moderator, and Frappe’s partner in China. You can check out some of my work and thoughts here: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/2065549041715372640
To answer your question: Yes, ERPNext is actively being used by Chinese companies, particularly in SME manufacturing and foreign trade.
So far, I have implemented ERPNext for around 20 Chinese SMBs. Here is a quick look at the diverse industries using it:
- Household LED light manufacturing
- Proprietary brand IoT hardware (R&D, manufacturing, and sales)
- Ultra-low temperature compressors (R&D, manufacturing, and sales)
- Custom valve manufacturing
- Shoe die/cutter manufacturing
- Plastic mold and packaging production
- Heavy hardware casting manufacturing
- Plastic injection molding production
- Mining equipment export/foreign trade
- Semiconductor / IC import trade
What needs to be built?
Most of our clients migrated from local legacy ERPs like Chanjet (畅捷通), Kingdee (金蝶), or other small proprietary systems. In China, the real challenge and opportunity lie in data migration from these legacy vendors to ERPNext.
In the long run, I am planning to build a Legacy ERP Migration Tool for ERPNext (similar to the Tally Migrator concept used in India) to directly streamline migrations from Kingdee, Yonyou, and Digiwin (鼎捷). With current AI capabilities, automated structural data mapping and ETL from legacy Chinese ERPs are now extremely viable, and this legacy market is massive.
Let’s connect!
@zshanhui Since you have a development team and a shared passion for open-source adoption, I’d love to connect deeply with you. Building a dedicated legacy ERP migration App is a high-value open-source project that could massively accelerate ERPNext adoption in the region.
Feel free to send me a direct message here on the forum, my WeChat is szufisher, or let me know how best to reach you (WeChat/email) so we can chat more about teaming up on this initiative!
Hi @szufisher - it’s great to hear your response! It seems that you have been working with ERPNext and SME manufacturers and foreign trade businesses in China for many years so your feedback and response is much appreciated.
It is good to hear that there are already SMEs using ERPNext in various industries like manufacturing and foreign trade. There was not much forum activity from users in China or SEA so I thought perhaps many people over here did not know about ERPNext.
Yes, the industries and businesses using ERPNext seems quite diverse and also the type of businesses that I am quite interested in. I worked with a mining equipment batteries manufacturer in Luoyang last year on some customisations.
On what needs to be built. I am 100% on board that data migration remains the major and first bottleneck to ERPNext adoption. I only know the basic details about Chinese ERP systems, however I think data migration should be possible as long as they have an API export or CSV/XML exporter interface. AI agents can help out with both writing code to connect with legacy data interfaces and as part of the migration process for creating mappings and checking data quality.
I actually started working on such a tool a couple weeks ago called erpgen which is still work in process and open sourced here: GitHub - zshanhui/erpgen-data-migration-agent: Deterministic data migration agent for ERPNext · GitHub
Currently, I am focus on the core data mapping engine and getting CSV master imports correct. Then, I think additional DataSources like Chanjet/Kingdee can just be added one by one. There are many errors and things to sort out so still very much WIP, but feel free to try it. Eventually, I think is should be possible to automate 90%+ of the data migration process and lower the cost and time of ERPNext data migrations so more SMEs can switch.
Yes, lets connect for sure! My email is [email protected] and WX is shanhui68. For long technical discussions, email of course is ideal.