Ever thought about running an entire business on Open Source? Or even a huge enterprise that has the size of Microsoft, Sun, IBM, Ericsson or Steria? It might sound impossible or even insane, but I’m about to show that’s it not. Far from it even.

A business is always far more complex that it appears to it’s customers, there are internal processes, divisions, decision organs, infrastructure and much more. Can all that be supported by Open Source Software? Of course!

Although some of the products I will be mentioning in this article, I do not normally use them. The reason for choosing them here is because they can be easily integrated, which is the reasoning behind this article. I discovered a net of OSS products that might seem unrelated but together might be quite exciting.

The foundation

Software needs hardware, quite fundamentally. Software also requires an operating system. Most software these days are multiplatform and since this article is about Open Source, using an commercial OS is out of the question. More and more companies and governments are moving away from Windows to Linux, not just for servers, but even for workstations. Out of the box or even customised Ubuntu distributions on desktop PCs is a huge cost saver. Maintenance of Linux based workstations is as easy as Windows, but if needed there are also distributions with commercial support that offer the same functionality as the Windows centralised management suites. (Open Source can still be commercial, take Sun’s OpenSolaris and RedHat’s Fedora for example, where their Open Source versions are  test environments for their commercial products.)

Communication

The most basic need for IT infrastructure in and business is communication, or simpler put, e-mail.

Office

Zimbra is an Open Source product that provides e-mail, address book, calendar, document management and instant messaging.

Home: http://www.zimbra.com

I’m currently running this system on my own server after having had problems with VirtualMin. It’s stable and completely functional out-of-the-box. It can be integrated into the other products: Funambol and ProcessMaker.

Zimbra inbox

Zimbra Address Book

Zimbra Calendar

Mobility

Although Zimbra provides a client for mobile phones and smart phones people that are on the move might need more flexibility and features.

Funambol is a mobile Open Source platform that can be used for many types of mobile applications, including push email, PIM data synchronization and device management.

Home: http://funambol.com

Synchronising a mobile device with office information like e-mail, contacts and calendar is one of the key features of Outlook. Outlook is most often integrated into the corporate Directory linking users and data automatically. With Funambol this can be achieved with too, by using the community projects Funambol can be integrated with Zimbra and OpenBravo. (An independant project also exists on SourceForge: Finambol Zimbra Connector.)

Organisation

Every company needs orginisation, processes that define who does what and when. These organisation processes are most often not supported by the IT infrastructure but executed manually by every individual. (People know how to do things and send the right e-mails to the right people at the right time, hopefully.)

ProcessMaker is an Open Source Business Process Management (BPM) product that allows to map processes visually, create forms and integrate into other DMS, ERP, CRM and BI systems. In this case Zimbra, KnowledgeTree and OpenBravo.

Home: http://www.processmaker.com

ProcessMaker

Collaboration

Collaboration is a key requirement to make any business successful, especially in IT. Providing a platform where people can work together, share ideas and easily document and exchange information is crucial.

KnowledgeTree is the Open Source equivalent of Microsoft Sharepoint (They don’t dare say it, so I will)

It’s a true collborative DMS that has all the features you could ever need, even integration into the other products. ProcessMaker can hook into KnowledgeTree.

Home: http://www.knowledgetree.com

Browse documents

Create workflow

Resource Management

OpenBravo is an Open Source ERP with a lot of features. Master Data Management, Procurement Management, Warehouse Management, Project and Service Management, Production Management, Sales Management and Customer Relationship Management, Financial Management and Accounting and Business Intelligence. But that’s not all. ProcessMaker and OpenBravo can be integrated.

Home: http://www.openbravo.com

Architecture

Overview

Procurement Management

Sales

Conclusion

An Enterprise can definately have an IT infrastructure based on Open Source Software. Zimbra, Funambol, ProcessMaker, KnowledgeTree and OpenBravo are just a few products (with commercial support) that can be used to reduce costs and create an integrated working environment.

Disclaimer

I am in no way associated or affiliated to any of the products and companies mentioned in this article.