ERP/Roadmap - Openbravo wiki

ERP/Roadmap - Openbravo wiki

Openbravo ERP development roadmap

(Latest revision: Sept 30th, 2010)
Introduction and Objective

This is a tentative development roadmap for Openbravo ERP and it does not imply a commitment to deliver. The proposed dates may change due to the workload of the development team and the content of each release could vary depending on market changes. If this occurs the roadmap will be updated to reflect these changes.

The current production release is Openbravo ERP 2.50, which was released in April 2009 and this road map assumes that release as the base line.

This road map focuses on the planned content for Openbravo ERP 3.0, planned for general availability on 31st March 2011 (see Deliverables section below).

Beyond that production release, Openbravo plans the following:

* Openbravo ERP 3.1: H2 2011 (Roadmap for this future release will be published Q1 2011)
* Openbravo ERP 4.0: 2012 (long term release)

The Openbravo ERP 3.0 roadmap focuses on features that will both maintain the product and impress users:

1. Maintain: Openbravo ERP 3.0 must maintain its technological and functional position as a leader in the open source ERP environment. Openbravo ERP 3.0 will adopt technologies that support this, while the functional core of Openbravo ERP 3.0 will be maintained, prioritizing issues that support the next objective.
2. Impress: Openbravo ERP 3.0 must impress the Openbravo community through its ease of use and clear functional flows. This includes updating the user interface, extending and enhancing specific core workflows, and reducing the functional footprint to exclude workflows that are not considered core.

Feedback

Feedback on this roadmap is welcome. Please express your views in the Open Discussion forum.

Additionally, if you would like to provide feedback on the new user experience being delivered in Openbravo 3.0, you are invited to visit the User Experience Lab forum.

Feedback can also be provided on any deliverable by simply clicking on the Go to Project link for each item and participating in the discussions relating to that project.
Audience

The audience for this document is the global Openbravo ecosystem, including partners, users and prospective customers.
Deliverables

Openbravo ERP 3.0 is planned for general availability on 31st March 2011.

In advance of this release it is planned that there will be four Release Candidates (RCs):

* RC1: 10th July 2010. Released! Check Openbravo ERP 3.0 RC1 release notes here.

* RC2: 10th September 2010. Released! Check Openbravo ERP 3.0 RC2 release notes here.

* RC3: 10th November 2010. Released! Check Openbravo ERP 3.0 RC3 release notes here.

* RC4: 10th January 2011.

Incremental delivery of functionality allows continuous validation with community, customers and partners.

We invite our Community to monitor our progress through this road map on the Openbravo 3.0 Release Status page.
Narrower Functional Base

Openbravo ERP 3.0 will be based on a narrower functional footprint than previous releases. This release will focus exclusively on the key flows required by the large majority of customers, with the aim of:

* Eliminating complexity from the product;
* Perfecting the core functionality;
* Improving adoption rate and successful implementations.

The narrower functional footprint will cover the following flows:

1. Order-To-Cash: The blood flowing through every commercial entity is customers orders. All businesses are exist to make money from selling products (or a service, which can be considered as a type of product in our context). Like other core processes, Order-To-Cash can be broken down into two main sub-processes
1. Order To Shipment: The information included typically an order number and date, shipping and receipt dates, a customer purchase order number, the buyer's name and address, the shipping address (if different), and a list of the items ordered, including quantity and warehouse storage location.
2. Customer Invoice To Cash: Billing a sales order creates a record of debt owed to you by your customer for a sale. When you bill a sales order, your accounts receivable ledger increases by the amount of the bill. When the bill has been paid, the Cash is increased.
2. Procure to Pay: This process refers to an external supplier. It usually starts with a purchase requisite from one of the departments in your organizations (for smaller companies that step is often omitted), which is converted, after some price and terms negotiation with your vendor, to a purchase order which is sent to your vendor. The vendor, usually upon receiving your order will ship you the ordered products (not necessarily all the products you ordered are shipped to you as it depends on the products’ availability) together with an invoice. The invoice will be paid by your accounting team, and the process will be completed.
1. Requisition to receipt - indirect for accounting: Demonstrates the business processes for creating and authorizing requisitions, issuing, authorizing and distributing purchase orders, and receiving goods for Indirect Materials (e.g., Consumables, Expense Items).
2. Supplier invoice to payment: Demonstrates the business processes of receiving, recording and paying its supplier invoices. This flow enables users to enter, approve and manage supplier invoices, credit memos and debit memos, resolve invoice holds, and issue Employee and Supplier payments.