ERP5 demonstrated at EuroPython 2003

   First Public Presentation of ERP5 at EuroPython 2003

   For Immediate Release

   2003/06/29 - ERP5, the Open Source / Free Entreprise Resource Planning
   system  based  on the Zope / CMF framework was officially presented to
   the public at the closing session of the EuroPython 2003 international
   conference  (Charleroi,  Belgium).  A  live  demonstration  of an ERP5
   system  used  by  a  large  apparel  factory  located 200 Km away from
   Charleroi was presented. ERP5 is published under GPL license. ERP5 has
   been  the  first  ERP solution exclusively based on Open Source / Free
   Software  to  be  successfully  implemented in European industry since
   January 2003.

   During  the  presentation at [1]EuroPython 2003, a 256 Kbps VPN tunnel
   was  created between Charleroi (Belgium) and Gravelines (France) where
   the  largest  [2]ERP5  implementation  is located. The system was used
   simultaneously  by  60 users and includes more than 80,000 records and
   about  800,000  lines in its largest table. An assistance of about 100
   python  developers  assisted  to  a  presentation  of  ERP5  currently
   available features: manufacturing, supply chain and customer relation.
   Other  features  such  as  accounting  and  human  resources  will  be
   implemented by the end of August 2003.

   Jean-Paul  Smets,  leader  of the ERP5 project and CEO of Nexedi SARL,
   explains  "ERP5 is a very innovative ERP which is built on the concept
   of:  variation  is everywhere. For example, a model of swimsuit can be
   produced  in  different  size  and  color. Color and size are possible
   variations.  A  laptop  computer  can be produced in different size of
   memory  or  hard disk. RAM and hard disk size are possible variations.
   ERP5  allows  to  manage  in  a  generic  way  an  unlimited number of
   variations   of  each  product  reference.  Build  of  Material  (BOM)
   documents  are  based  on predicate tensors technology which allows to
   define quantities depending on any number of variations. The variation
   concept  is  quite  common  in  the apparel industry but is still very
   innovative  in  other  industries.  With  the  growing  complexity  of
   customer  requirements,  and  a  demand for lean management, companies
   which can handle variations get a significant competitive advantage."

   Smets  adds  "ERP5 is quite easy to understand for programmers because
   it is built on a very simple model and uses only 5 concepts: resource,
   node,  movement, item and path. ERP5 thus uses the same data model for
   accounting,  stock management, human resources, etc. Moving some goods
   between  stocks  is recorded exactly the same way as transfering money
   between  two  acounts or transmitting skills between two person. Also,
   ERP5 is based on an innovative object relational model. Information is
   recorded  on  the  Zope  persistent database and is indexed on a MySQL
   relational  database.  Data  storage  and  data  query  are completely
   independent  yet  consistent.  This  approch greatly simplifies system
   design and provides much higher scalability."

   Thierry  Brettnacher, COO of Coramy, a leading apparel manufacturer in
   Europe concludes "ERP5 is based on the best of the [3]Zope application
   server  and  the [4]CMF framework. This includes the DCWorkflow engine
   which was tremendously optimized by ERP5 to meet the constraints posed
   by  large  datasets such as ours. Coramy management is now implemented
   through  custom  workflows,  roles and tasks which are specific to our
   company.  A single workflow typically contains more than 20 states, 15
   roles  and  generates  20  tasks  each  of which may point to 500 ERP5
   records.  ERP5 can handle this in a fraction of second and provides us
   a  global  overview  of  management  and  manufacturing process in our
   company."

Permanent URL for this Press Release

   http://www.nexedi.com/news/europython

About Nexedi: Next Generation EDI

   Nexedi  is a consulting and development services company helping small
   and  medium  organisations  to  choose open source / free software and
   fulfill  their IT application needs. Nexedi is the founder of the ERP5
   project,  a  Free  /  Open  Source  ERP  software  based on innovative
   technologies  (www.erp5.org).  Nexedi is the global coordinator of the
   OpenBrick  embedded  platform  (www.openbrick.org).  Nexedi  customers
   include  apparel  industry,  telecommunication  industry  and consumer
   electronics.

   Email: info@nexedi.com
   Tel. +33(0)6 62 05 76 14
   Fax. +33(0)1 53 01 09 29

References

   1. http://www.europython.org/
   2. http://www.erp5.org/
   3. http://www.zope.org/
   4. http://cmf.zope.org/