First posting Hi and a few questions!

[Steven Williamson-2]

Hi,
This is my first posting to the list so hello and forgive me if my questions
or vague.
I'm new to Ofbiz and just doing some research, I'm not sure whether it would
be the best fit for my needs.

Let me explain, I'm looking for a solution for a marketing company, the main
features required are to track jobs, and accounts, with basic CRM.
The jobs are to be structured to match the companies current work flow and
processes in place. Each job needs to record cost time tasks deliverables
etc.

The system is to essentially create a quote, then create a job from the
quote, then create an invoice, and tie in with an accounting system.
Possibly Sage.

Now i intended to use something like Sugar CRM and customize the solution
with adding/amending plugins as the projects module in sugar already is
about 70% there.
But i would then need to write modules to handle Quotes, Invoicing, And
Finance from scratch.

Since i came across Ofbiz I'm wondering if Ofbiz would be a better solution,
it seems very large and very flexible (yes i still have lots of docs to read
;)
Is Ofbiz designed for this sort of task? what does Ofbiz already provide i
could utilize, would i be re-inventing the wheel to get some of the
functionality already in sugar?

I guess im asking is Ofbiz capable of this and is it the correct scenario to
use it, or would i be better sticking with sugar rather than learning an
other API from scratch?


Kind Regards
Steven.

[Walter Vaughan]

Steven Williamson wrote:

> The system is to essentially create a quote, then create a job from the
> quote, then create an invoice, and tie in with an accounting system.
> Possibly Sage.

The power of ofBiz is the built in ERP accouting. A robust accounting system is
available in the form of Opentaps modules that attach to ofBiz.

> Now i intended to use something like Sugar CRM

Opentaps also has a CRM module that is modeled after SugarCRM.

You may not have to re-invent the wheel as much as you think, however I would
caution you that *I* don't think ofBiz or opentaps would be worth the effort if
you want to keep a separate accounting systems and a separate CRM system.

Look at ofBiz or Opentaps powered by ofBiz just like SAP or Netsuite. Would it
make sence to invest time and effort hooking your accounting or SugarCRM to
them, when they have fully integrated those functions as part of the platform?

YMMV

Regardless, welcome to the project!

--
Walter