Achieving a similar comfort and fit is
the draw for those contemplating buying open source code software.
Open source code software is software
in which the underlying code is made available to partners, value-added
resellers and even end users. The code is left open for anyone to make
customizations to fit the needs of the end user. Such customized packages
can create an easier life for accountants, as important financial data can
be drawn from a system with less of a chance for error.
"The reason we chose AccountMate [an
open source code accounting software system] was flexibility," said Jeff
Wagoner, who, until recently, served as the accounting and IT manager at
Hubner Seed Co. Inc., a supplier of seeds and agricultural technology
services in West Lebanon, Ind. "We could then interact our data with other
software systems to import data into ours and easily export. The interaction
between the two was very significant. And with the way we did our
distribution, we needed that capability."
Many of the big players in the
accounting software market don't offer open source code software solutions
today. Rather, they prefer to partner with third-party developers for
features and functions that add on to the original package. However, open
source code software providers and their resellers insist that the demand
for customizable systems is growing, despite the small number of players in
the market.
Steve Jones, chief executive officer
for Seattle-based Explore Consulting, a software reseller and consulting
firm, has worked with and implemented NetSuite applications, an on-demand
open source code accounting software system, for the last five years. "We
are seeing growth across the board - it's not a size or organization thing,"
said Jones. "With such unique business models today, you can't get
everything you need with packaged software."
AccountMate Software's chief technical
officer, Tommy Tan, claimed that his company, which has offered open source
code since its inception in 1984, has grown by 10 percent in the last year.
Tan also noted that AccountMate resellers have sold the open source code
application to some Fortune 100 companies in the last two to three years, a
shift from the small and midsized businesses that the software provider
normally sees buying its products.
However, just as waistlines and feet
grow and swell, customized software solutions need upgrades. If end users
make too many modifications to the original provider's code, upgrades can
turn into a real problem.
"Clearly, upgrades are an issue for
anyone exposing source code," admitted Gerald Beaulieu, senior product
marketing manager for Sage Software's MAS 90 and 500 enterprise resource
planning software systems. (Sage's MAS 500's code can be purchased for
modifications.) "There is no practical way to ever preserve the original
code once it's been modified. You almost have to have a dictionary of what's
been changed and what was there. It's clearly an issue."
And most open source code providers
agreed that upgrades for modified systems cost the end user more time and
money than using an upgrade for an out-of-the-box solution, but if the end
user has found a reputable consultant to perform the modifications, the
upgrade need not be a complete disaster.
"It all depends on how the
modifications are written. If they are written and interface in a way
recognizable to the system and it does not step on the underlying code -
people with those modifications have nothing to worry about," said David
Link, vice president of product development for OSAS, an open source
accounting software from Shakopee, Minn.-based Open Systems Inc. "And we try
to help minimize the impact of the upgrades, but of course whenever you
modify something, you always have to worry about the upgrades. With proper
training you can minimize the effects, but you can never eliminate it."
For end user Josh Clemence, manager of
manufacturing at EnvirOx LLC, a mid-market cleaning solutions manufacturer
in Danville, Ill., the problem with using a closed or proprietary system was
its inability to bend to the company's inventory processes, creating a need
for a third-party system. However, the third-party system did not integrate
well with the proprietary accounting software.
"The system design did not fit our
needs, mainly the inventory process, and we heavily rely on the inventory
here, so we basically had to keep inventory on a different system," said
Clemence. "We ended up with all these offline systems and trying to converge
everything into the accounting system. It was a real mess and not a very
efficient way to work."
Because so many processes, primarily
the inventory system, were kept separate from the main accounting system,
numbers consistently did not reconcile from one system to another. The
result was that EnvirOx implemented the AccountMate system. Local
AccountMate reseller NexLAN helped the company build its own inventory
processes into the AccountMate system.
With the inventory system completely
embedded into the ERP system, there was no need for integrating any
additional third-party systems, and numbers became more consistent, said
Clemence.
Inserting some customization tools in
proprietary systems does, however, go a long way, said Sage's Beaulieu, and
does not create problems when upgrades are released. For accounting software
packages MAS 90 and 500, a tool called the Customizer allows end users to
modify labels, change some setting defaults and do some light scripting
changes for business processes.
"It's hard to argue if one is better
or worse - it's quite dependent on what you want and are trying to
accomplish," said Dan Levin, vice president of product management at Intuit,
producers of the proprietary accounting software application QuickBooks.
"For our over three million customers, most of whom are not technologically
sophisticated but who would like to buy add-ons that are unique to their
industry or provide additional functionality, they have no ability to do
their own customizations. Providing interfaces is thought to be the better
choice."
Opening the access for accounting
systems so other applications like an outside inventory system can exchange
data with the accounting application is something that both sides of the
coding debate agree upon.
Such integration tools include
interfaces and communication layers like an XML interface, an interface
using the universal language for financial software; an open database
connectivity layer, a layer in a database that allows it to connect to
another database in real-time; or a COM layer, an object-oriented technology
that enables software applications to communicate and exchange data.
These layers and interfaces make the
integration from one software system to another more seamless and
transparent, creating more consistent data within the separate systems.
However, die-hard open source fans refuse to consider leaving their totally
customizable, all-in-one applications.
"[After] dealing with an open source
system, I will never go back to a closed one," declared EnvirOx's Clemence.
"There is no doubt about it."