Open platform theme for creating accounting applications raised by the habraERP team
Hello Habrachiteli.
Recently, Habré is faced with the topic of recruiting a team of free programmers to create an open source platform with which to develop accounting and management solutions. Something like 1C, only open.
More than five years ago I began to finance a similar project (but we did not have specific plans for the product to be open, otherwise I would not finance it).
I acted as an investor, implementer, project manager. On the second and third points, I did not have much experience. And my business was a lab rabbit.
Began to finance the project for two reasons:
1. I did not find a solution to the tasks I set in the existing software products, but I really wanted to solve the problems. To clarify, I wanted to organize financial accounting in real time. There were thoughts about how it should look, but there was no solution to the problem, how to implement it (my topic reveals the essence of the problem, paravda on the theme is not very popular). Existing methods of accounting and management accounting are not suitable.
2. I believed in the prospect of one programmer, as well as in the prospect of his ideas. (the main idea was just such a platform)
Working in a small provincial company, this programmer wrote a similar platform in Delphi over a couple of months and integrated it with MsSQL. I think everyone will agree with not the best choice of technologies, but even me, a person who does not understand anything about these technologies, was amazed at the results of the work of this platform. In that company, this platform is still used.
Two more novice programmers tried to create accounting and management software on this platform for my then diversified business.
But the trouble is. A small provincial company, with which I have worked for a year and sent a lot of money to the aforementioned programmer, he simply did not go to work in one day. The platform ceased to be properly maintained and ceased to have prospects for development. All programs created on it were questionable. I could not put business at risk and use these programs.
The most miserable incident occurred when isolated data became randomly disappearing and no one could explain why. There were some problems with the integrity of the database.
As a result, I lost and programmers who wrote on the platform. They also wanted development prospects, and they did not want to work on a dead environment.
At that time, the total investment was already beyond reasonable limits and the result went to zero.
After half a year I found that programmer. He spent half a year sitting at home, without money, writing a new platform already in C ++ (once he showed the beginnings of a platform in the SQL forum, to say the least not the best experience :)). We agreed, and I began to finance his work. He began to fulfill the role of a programmer who creates programs for my business on the platform itself. That was very useful for the development and the platform itself.
For two years, not only the platform has sprouted, but also the technology that brought us closer to solving the original problem. It was necessary to go further, and the crisis deprived me of the main business and income from which I financed the project.
I had to find an investor - a client. Attention! I borrow money from this investor, throw it into the firebox of the project and automate for him a solution to very non-trivial accounting tasks. This is the price of investment ...
Today the team employs 10 people. The platform is a huge program, there is a web interface, deep integration with various DBMS, a bunch of interesting non-standard solutions that allow the programmer to concentrate even more on the business task. Inexperienced programmers start programming on it from day one. My tasks are solved, and technologies are patented. The platform itself is an opinion to make free, but not open. Most likely, small money will be taken from users not for using the platform, but for its development and maintenance (update). In the next couple of months, we will start beta testing.
Comment. This topic is only an answer to the thoughts of the habraERP team. All information on our project is currently closed (the site is closed, you can not go there). Let's be ready to show everything, and first of all, on Habré.
1. The very idea of a platform for the rapid development of accounting and management tasks is very correct and promising. The prototype is created quickly and is very inspiring, but this is only 1% of what needs to be done.
2. Without funding, this project is a dead end, and the investor will finance it on the condition of apparent financial gain. In my case, the investor closed the risks with a loan agreement, knowing that I could get my money back, plus received our programs and services free of charge, and received half the project’s prospects if it is successful. (I repeat, this is the price of investment). The tale of suckers of investors is just a fairy tale. Another factor in the search for an investor. I have been in business for many years and had trust and connections.
3. It is appropriate to say that you should immediately think of how, who and how much will earn. The argument that there are a lot of ways to monetize it later is somehow not very. Programmers who write the platform will not be able to earn money from implementations. But others will be able to. Thus, it may happen that some carry eggs, while others hatch them. This is not fair.
4. Attention. You can spend a lot of time and effort and get deep disappointment instead of a positive experience. Winning or losing is also a kind of habit ...
5. On the other hand, my experience shows that the project can be quite successful!
6. I heard that open source programs are mostly “buggy”, I can’t say this, I have no experience and knowledge, but if so, then collecting a platform from everything ready can get a bunch of other unpredictable bugs. And we are drowning in ours. Adding new features to the platform costs then considerable time to find and fix bugs.
7. There is a danger of leaving key people, and this can put an end to the project. In the free software version, this danger is tripled.
8. I firmly believe that it is the programmers who will open up new modern and user-friendly accounting methods, instead of the existing paper and poor ones (double entry, part-time accounting, bod, Fivo, cost price and much more). It may not be worthwhile to stress an experienced project manager in a specific area, but to set accounting and management tasks for programmers who do not know how they usually decide and look at what is sprouting.
9. In my practice, it is not a good idea to work with a specific production. Really catch up on the problems of this particular production. Our experience with my business and the tasks of the new investor was definitely back and away from the achievement of the main goals, but at times brought new ideas. In my opinion it is necessary to combine, but working with a specific business should be in a separate branch of the project and should not affect the main objectives.
')
In conclusion, I want to wish the guys from habraERP success and more dedication. I will answer all questions in the comments.
Recently, Habré is faced with the topic of recruiting a team of free programmers to create an open source platform with which to develop accounting and management solutions. Something like 1C, only open.
Here is my personal experience with this.
More than five years ago I began to finance a similar project (but we did not have specific plans for the product to be open, otherwise I would not finance it).
I acted as an investor, implementer, project manager. On the second and third points, I did not have much experience. And my business was a lab rabbit.
Began to finance the project for two reasons:
1. I did not find a solution to the tasks I set in the existing software products, but I really wanted to solve the problems. To clarify, I wanted to organize financial accounting in real time. There were thoughts about how it should look, but there was no solution to the problem, how to implement it (my topic reveals the essence of the problem, paravda on the theme is not very popular). Existing methods of accounting and management accounting are not suitable.
2. I believed in the prospect of one programmer, as well as in the prospect of his ideas. (the main idea was just such a platform)
Working in a small provincial company, this programmer wrote a similar platform in Delphi over a couple of months and integrated it with MsSQL. I think everyone will agree with not the best choice of technologies, but even me, a person who does not understand anything about these technologies, was amazed at the results of the work of this platform. In that company, this platform is still used.
Two more novice programmers tried to create accounting and management software on this platform for my then diversified business.
But the trouble is. A small provincial company, with which I have worked for a year and sent a lot of money to the aforementioned programmer, he simply did not go to work in one day. The platform ceased to be properly maintained and ceased to have prospects for development. All programs created on it were questionable. I could not put business at risk and use these programs.
The most miserable incident occurred when isolated data became randomly disappearing and no one could explain why. There were some problems with the integrity of the database.
As a result, I lost and programmers who wrote on the platform. They also wanted development prospects, and they did not want to work on a dead environment.
At that time, the total investment was already beyond reasonable limits and the result went to zero.
After half a year I found that programmer. He spent half a year sitting at home, without money, writing a new platform already in C ++ (once he showed the beginnings of a platform in the SQL forum, to say the least not the best experience :)). We agreed, and I began to finance his work. He began to fulfill the role of a programmer who creates programs for my business on the platform itself. That was very useful for the development and the platform itself.
For two years, not only the platform has sprouted, but also the technology that brought us closer to solving the original problem. It was necessary to go further, and the crisis deprived me of the main business and income from which I financed the project.
I had to find an investor - a client. Attention! I borrow money from this investor, throw it into the firebox of the project and automate for him a solution to very non-trivial accounting tasks. This is the price of investment ...
Today the team employs 10 people. The platform is a huge program, there is a web interface, deep integration with various DBMS, a bunch of interesting non-standard solutions that allow the programmer to concentrate even more on the business task. Inexperienced programmers start programming on it from day one. My tasks are solved, and technologies are patented. The platform itself is an opinion to make free, but not open. Most likely, small money will be taken from users not for using the platform, but for its development and maintenance (update). In the next couple of months, we will start beta testing.
Comment. This topic is only an answer to the thoughts of the habraERP team. All information on our project is currently closed (the site is closed, you can not go there). Let's be ready to show everything, and first of all, on Habré.
What can I say on the subject under discussion, having the following experience:
1. The very idea of a platform for the rapid development of accounting and management tasks is very correct and promising. The prototype is created quickly and is very inspiring, but this is only 1% of what needs to be done.
2. Without funding, this project is a dead end, and the investor will finance it on the condition of apparent financial gain. In my case, the investor closed the risks with a loan agreement, knowing that I could get my money back, plus received our programs and services free of charge, and received half the project’s prospects if it is successful. (I repeat, this is the price of investment). The tale of suckers of investors is just a fairy tale. Another factor in the search for an investor. I have been in business for many years and had trust and connections.
3. It is appropriate to say that you should immediately think of how, who and how much will earn. The argument that there are a lot of ways to monetize it later is somehow not very. Programmers who write the platform will not be able to earn money from implementations. But others will be able to. Thus, it may happen that some carry eggs, while others hatch them. This is not fair.
4. Attention. You can spend a lot of time and effort and get deep disappointment instead of a positive experience. Winning or losing is also a kind of habit ...
5. On the other hand, my experience shows that the project can be quite successful!
6. I heard that open source programs are mostly “buggy”, I can’t say this, I have no experience and knowledge, but if so, then collecting a platform from everything ready can get a bunch of other unpredictable bugs. And we are drowning in ours. Adding new features to the platform costs then considerable time to find and fix bugs.
7. There is a danger of leaving key people, and this can put an end to the project. In the free software version, this danger is tripled.
8. I firmly believe that it is the programmers who will open up new modern and user-friendly accounting methods, instead of the existing paper and poor ones (double entry, part-time accounting, bod, Fivo, cost price and much more). It may not be worthwhile to stress an experienced project manager in a specific area, but to set accounting and management tasks for programmers who do not know how they usually decide and look at what is sprouting.
9. In my practice, it is not a good idea to work with a specific production. Really catch up on the problems of this particular production. Our experience with my business and the tasks of the new investor was definitely back and away from the achievement of the main goals, but at times brought new ideas. In my opinion it is necessary to combine, but working with a specific business should be in a separate branch of the project and should not affect the main objectives.
')
In conclusion, I want to wish the guys from habraERP success and more dedication. I will answer all questions in the comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/120619/
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