According to Xu (2003) it is possible to classify a software user company in accordance to its positioning in relation to a FOSS: Consumer: a passive role where the adopter will just use the software as it is, with no intention or capability of modifying or distributing the codes, Prosumer an active role where the adopter will report bugs, submit feature requests, post messages to lists. A more capable Prosumer will also provide bug fixes, patches, and new features. Profitor: a passive role where the adopter will not participate in the development process but simply will use the software as a source of profits. Partner: an active role where the adopter will actively participate in the whole open source development process for the purpose of earning profits.
Published in Chapter:
Free and Open Source Enterprise Resources Planning
Rogerio Atem de Carvalho (Federal Center for Technological Education of Campos, Brazil)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 13
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-859-8.ch003
Abstract
This chapter introduces the key aspects of Free/Open Source Enterprise Resources Planning systems (FOS-ERP). Starting by related work carried out by researchers and practitioners, it argues in favor of the growing acceptance of this category of enterprise systems while showing how this subject is not yet well explored, especially by researchers. The goals of this chapter are to highlight the differences between FOS-ERP and their proprietary equivalents (P-ERP) in terms of business models, selection, customization, and evolution; and showing the challenges and opportunities that they offer to adopters, vendors, researchers, and individual collaborators. Therefore, this chapter tries to broaden the discussion around the FOS-ERP subject, currently focused only in cost aspects, bringing more attention to other aspects and pointing out their innovative potential.