Managing document templates with OpenOffice.org

416 Tip: Module Recorder If you want to enter data into Open ERP manually, you should use the Module Recorder, described in the first section of this chapter. By doing that you will generate a module that can easily be reused in different databases. Then if there are problems with a database you will be able to reinstall the data module you generated with all of the entries and modifications you made for this system. 417 CHAPTER TWENTYEIGHT IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY You may have mastered the technical aspects of administering and using your enterprise management system, but you still have a great deal of work to do integrating Open ERP into your company. This work is more business-related and social in nature than technical. The Open ERP implementation process encompasses several different phases: evaluation, planning, configuration, data migration, deployment, and user training, and affects both support and maintenance. The management of ERP projects, and IT project management in general, are the subject of very many other books that you might want to investigate for yourself. The elements of the methodology presented here are not intended to be an exhaustive review, just a brief overview of the different phases necessary to implement Open ERP in your company Tip: Implementation Implementation encompasses the whole process of integrating and deploying Open ERP, including evaluating it, establishing specifications, planning the deployment, the configuration of the software, loading data, installation and training the users. It does not generally extend to software customization, nor support and maintenance.

28.1 Requirements Analysis and Planning

Requirements analysis and planning are the keys to the success of an implementation. At this stage you should set up a management team to define the costs and benefits of the project, select a project team, and set out the detailed stages that will have to be carried out. Open ERP is so easy to start using that it is not always obvious, particularly to IT staff, that a clear requirements plan is necessary for implementing the system successfully. The difficulty is not particularly in installing the software nor in configuring it, but rather more about: • knowing what to configure, • deciding if you should adapt the software or perhaps change your method of working, for some of your specialized processes, • forming teams that can specify and work on some of the changes, • ensuring that your users are committed to the change. ERP system implementation is a project carried out using information technology but it is a business project rather than an IT project in itself. The challenge of this type of project is in changing the behaviour of those involved at all levels of the enterprise. People in the IT department will certainly be an integral part of the project but they should be managed by someone in a senior position who both understands the business impact across the organization and has experience of technical projects. Ideally the project manager should know the company well, both its specific quirks and its different standard cross-company processes. 418 If the enterprise does not have its own IT group, you are probably better off opting for a SaaS offer. This means that you subcontract all the difficult technology, from the installation of the server to its maintenance, all the while being assured of the installation of a robust architecture with its redundancy, backed-up servers, and separation of authentication and data.

28.1.1 Planning methods

Planning methods vary in their degree of complexity, formality and level of automation. It is not the intention of this chapter to steer you towards one method or the other. Open ERP’s menus are organized to lead you through an implementation in a sensible order, so that information that has to be entered first is encountered first in the menu system. Forms are also organized so that if you enter data in the natural order you will get later fields completed automatically by the earlier ones where possible. And demonstration data illustrates how Open ERP’s functional areas are linked from one to the other The menus themselves hint at several helpful implementation suggestions, for example the sub-menus of Administration → Configuration are useful for the configuration of the software. New functions such as the Module Recorder enable you to significantly accelerate the configuration of data.

28.2 Deployment

As you have seen, the complete architecture of Open ERP includes the following elements: • a database server, • an Open ERP application server, • an Open ERP client-web server, • several clients that access the Open ERP server: they can either be web clients if the client-web server is installed, or GTK clients. Note: Deployment Deployment is the process of putting a Open ERP database into a production-ready state, where it can be used by everyone in your business for their daily work. You would usually configure Open ERP and load data into it on one development system, train staff on that or another training system and deploy it onto a production system that has better protection against failure, better security and more performance.

28.2.1 Deployment Options

To deploy Open ERP in your company, several options are available to you: • a SaaS Software as a Service or On-Demand offer which includes the equipment, the hosting, the maintenance and the support on a system configured to your needs in advance, • an internal installation, that you manage yourselves or have managed by an IT services company such as an Open ERP partner, • hosting by a server supplier on which Open ERP is installed, which enables you to proceed to add adaptations on your server. The first two approaches are the most commonly used. The SaaS Software as a Service offer SaaS is a complete package hosted at a supplier, that includes the following services: server hardware, hosting of the generic solution, installation and initial configuration, redundancy of the architecture, backups, system maintenance and support. It is also known as On-Demand. 419 It is provided in the form of a monthly subscription with a fixed price per user. You can find the detail of Tiny’s SaaS packages at http:ondemand.openerp.com . SaaS packages do not permit you to develop specific modules to your needs. On the contrary, they offer a service at a set price based on standard software modules that contain few migration risks. SaaS suppliers are limited generally to the modules certified and validated by the original author and project manager, Tiny. Here are the main advantages of an Open ERP SaaS solution: • an unbeatable return on investment cost of implementation: 0, cost of licenses: 0, • costs that are controlled and without surprises the offer includes maintenance, frequent migrations and support, • a turnkey solution, installed in less than twenty-four hours, • packages adapted and preconfigured for different sectors of activity, • a very robust architecture guaranteed to have constant and permanent access, reachable from anywhere. So this server is recommended for small companies with fewer than about fifteen employees. Hosting by a supplier At first sight a hosted Open ERP system appears similar to SaaS: it provides Open ERP from a remote installation through a web browser. But in general the similarities stop there. To compare it with an SaaS package you should check if the hosting offer properly includes the following elements: • server hardware, • hosting, • maintenance, • future migrations, • backups, • server redundancy, • telephone and email support, • frequent updates to the modules. Also get yourself up to speed on the following points: • the version of Open ERP proposed, • the costs of implementation configuration, data loading, training, • the cost of configuration if it is proposed, • the technology and the procedure used for securing your database, • the technology and the procedure for preventing system faults, • the technology and the procedure for restoring a faulty system, • limitations on the number of users, the number of simultaneous users, and the size of the database, • the level of support and its costs, • the procedure used to update Open ERP to fault-fixed versions • the procedure adopted for Open ERP upgrades to versions that have both fault fixes and new functionality. Calling such suppliers can be a good solution if you are willing to entrust all the technical specifications for the functioning of Open ERP to them, especially if you need to use customized or extension modules that are not in the stable version released by Tiny.