Companies outgrowing the three user limitations of the QuickBooks accounting package have found relief with the new QuickBooks enterprise version of the software, suitable with the proper host computer of serving the QuickBooks application to more than ten users. But companies have long known that richer pools of applications and the need for 25 to 50 online users drive facilities to look at the wider panoply of ERP and CRM applications on the market.

While commercial applications such as PeachTree Accounting, MAS-500 and even SAP/Baan provide new avenues for companies to explore extremely sophisticated functionality like absorption accounting support, departmental specializations, production planning through bills of material, bills of labor, and resource routings that allow capacity planning requirements to be evaluated, a number of new software licensing models have brought to market some powerful and cost effective solutions built on Jboss and JVM stacks integrating with Oracle Database.

[random_image]While Oracle licensing is too expensive for smaller enterprises, all of these new software solutions for complex enterprise resource and accounting control also interface to PostgresSql, a better choice for smaller companies. The Jboss/JVM stacks also generally provide client support for not only Microsoft Windows Computers but for Linux based computers like Ububtu and Fedora as well as Apple Mac computers. The advantage of this is the use of old but reliable computers on far flung edges of the manufacturing facility that are still capable of updating production schedules per completed runs and the like.

One compelling story out of Europe in the ERP front is the forking of the Compiere project and the startup of the ADempiere licensing path. Both projects allow hosting of the database on either PostgresSql or Oracle database servers and a rich set of enterprise planning and accounting functions.

Two drawbacks of these approaches are the European bias to the accounting rules, and the IT complexity of the required computing environment. Atlanta ERP users still interested in the open source model can still look toward an eastern United States company that offers a package called XTuple. With monthly online seminars, the XTuple option as an upgrade to QuickBooks is important to consider.