The theme of an open platform for creating accounting applications raised by the habraERP team
Hello Habrachitateli.
Recently on Habré I was faced with the topic of recruiting a team of free programmers to create an Open source platform with which accounting and management solutions will be developed. Something like 1C, only open.
More than five years ago, I started financing a similar project (but we had no concrete plans for the product to be open, otherwise I would not have funded).
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 laboratory rabbit.
He began to finance the project for two reasons:
1. I did not find a solution to my tasks in existing software products, but I really wanted to solve the problems. I’ll clarify, I wanted to organize financial accounting in real time. There were thoughts how it should look, but there was no solution to the problem of how to implement it (my topic reveals the essence of the problem, the topic on the hub is not very popular). Existing methods of accounting and management accounting were not suitable.
2. He believed in the promise of one programmer, as well as the promise of his ideas. (the main idea was just such a platform)
While working in a small provincial company, this programmer wrote a similar platform in Delphi in a couple of months and integrated it with MsSQL. I think everyone here will agree with a not the best choice of technologies, but even me, a person who does not understand anything in these technologies, was amazed at the results of this platform. That company still uses this platform.
Two more novice programmers tried to create accounting and management programs on this platform for my then diverse business.
But here is the trouble. A small provincial company with which I collaborated for a year and sent a lot of money there to the aforementioned programmer lost, he just did not go to work one day. The platform is no longer properly maintained and has no development prospects. All programs created on it have come into question. I could not put the business at risk and use these programs.
The most incidental case occurred when single data began to randomly disappear and no one could explain why. There were some problems with the integrity of the database.
As a result, I also lost the programmers who wrote on the platform. They also wanted development prospects, but they did not want to work in a dead environment.
At that time, the total investment was already beyond reasonable limits and the result was tending to zero.
After half a year, I found that programmer. These half a year, sitting at home, without money, he wrote a new platform already in C ++ (once he showed the beginnings of the platform in the SQL forum, to put it mildly, not the best experience :)). We agreed, and I began to finance his work. He began to fulfill the role of programmer creating programs for my business on the platform itself. Which was very useful for the development of the platform itself.
In two years, not only the platform “sprouted”, but also the technology, which brought us very close to solving the initial 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, drop it into the furnace of the project and automate the solution of very non-trivial accounting problems for him for free. This is the price of the investment issue ...
Today the team employs 10 people. The platform is a huge program, there is a web interface, deep integration with various DBMSs, a bunch of interesting non-standard solutions that allow the programmer to concentrate more on the business task. Inexperienced programmers begin to program on it from the first day. My tasks are solved, and the technology is patented. The platform itself is believed to be free, but not open. Most likely, small money will be taken from users not for using the platform, but for its development and maintenance (updating). In the next couple of months, we will begin beta testing.
Comment. This topic is only an answer to the thought of the habraERP team. All information on our project is currently closed (the site is closed, you can not go there). We will 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 very inspiring, but this is only 1% of everything that needs to be done.
2. Without financing, this project is a dead end, and the investor will finance subject to visible financial benefits. In my case, the investor closed the risks with a loan agreement, knowing that you can return my money back from me, plus I received our programs and services for free, and got the prospects for half of the project if it was successful. (I repeat, this is such an investment price). The tale of the suckers of investors is just a fairy tale. Another factor in the difficulty of finding an investor. I have been in business for many years and had trust and connections.
3. It is appropriate to say that you must immediately think about how, who and how much will earn. The argument that there are a lot of ways to monetize then, is somehow not very. Programmers who will not be able to write the platform will be able to earn from implementations. But others will be able to. Thus, it may turn out that some carry eggs, while others hatch them. This is not fair.
4. Attention. You can spend a lot of effort and time 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 don’t have experience and knowledge, but if so, then collecting the platform from everything ready, you can get a bunch of other unpredictable bugs. And we are drowning in our own. Adding new features to the platform then takes 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, such a danger triples.
8. I strongly believe that it is programmers who will discover new methods of accounting that are modern and understandable for people, instead of existing paper and wretched ones (double entry, batch accounting, bodice, fivo, prime cost and much more). It may not be worth pushing on to a project manager experienced in a specific field, but to set accounting and management tasks for programmers who do not know how they are usually solved and watch what sprouts.
9. In my practice, it is not a good idea to work with a specific production. Really dig into the problems of this particular production. Our experience working with my business and the tasks of a new investor definitely pulled back and led away from achieving the main goals, but at times brought new ideas. In my opinion, it is necessary to combine, but work with a specific business should be in a separate branch of the project and should not affect the main goals.
In conclusion, I want to wish the guys from habraERP success and more determination. I will answer all questions in the comments.
Recently on Habré I was faced with the topic of recruiting a team of free programmers to create an Open source platform with which accounting and management solutions will be developed. Something like 1C, only open.
Here is my personal experience with this.
More than five years ago, I started financing a similar project (but we had no concrete plans for the product to be open, otherwise I would not have funded).
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 laboratory rabbit.
He began to finance the project for two reasons:
1. I did not find a solution to my tasks in existing software products, but I really wanted to solve the problems. I’ll clarify, I wanted to organize financial accounting in real time. There were thoughts how it should look, but there was no solution to the problem of how to implement it (my topic reveals the essence of the problem, the topic on the hub is not very popular). Existing methods of accounting and management accounting were not suitable.
2. He believed in the promise of one programmer, as well as the promise of his ideas. (the main idea was just such a platform)
While working in a small provincial company, this programmer wrote a similar platform in Delphi in a couple of months and integrated it with MsSQL. I think everyone here will agree with a not the best choice of technologies, but even me, a person who does not understand anything in these technologies, was amazed at the results of this platform. That company still uses this platform.
Two more novice programmers tried to create accounting and management programs on this platform for my then diverse business.
But here is the trouble. A small provincial company with which I collaborated for a year and sent a lot of money there to the aforementioned programmer lost, he just did not go to work one day. The platform is no longer properly maintained and has no development prospects. All programs created on it have come into question. I could not put the business at risk and use these programs.
The most incidental case occurred when single data began to randomly disappear and no one could explain why. There were some problems with the integrity of the database.
As a result, I also lost the programmers who wrote on the platform. They also wanted development prospects, but they did not want to work in a dead environment.
At that time, the total investment was already beyond reasonable limits and the result was tending to zero.
After half a year, I found that programmer. These half a year, sitting at home, without money, he wrote a new platform already in C ++ (once he showed the beginnings of the platform in the SQL forum, to put it mildly, not the best experience :)). We agreed, and I began to finance his work. He began to fulfill the role of programmer creating programs for my business on the platform itself. Which was very useful for the development of the platform itself.
In two years, not only the platform “sprouted”, but also the technology, which brought us very close to solving the initial 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, drop it into the furnace of the project and automate the solution of very non-trivial accounting problems for him for free. This is the price of the investment issue ...
Today the team employs 10 people. The platform is a huge program, there is a web interface, deep integration with various DBMSs, a bunch of interesting non-standard solutions that allow the programmer to concentrate more on the business task. Inexperienced programmers begin to program on it from the first day. My tasks are solved, and the technology is patented. The platform itself is believed to be free, but not open. Most likely, small money will be taken from users not for using the platform, but for its development and maintenance (updating). In the next couple of months, we will begin beta testing.
Comment. This topic is only an answer to the thought of the habraERP team. All information on our project is currently closed (the site is closed, you can not go there). We will be ready to show everything, and first of all, on Habré.
What can I say on the topic under discussion, having such 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 very inspiring, but this is only 1% of everything that needs to be done.
2. Without financing, this project is a dead end, and the investor will finance subject to visible financial benefits. In my case, the investor closed the risks with a loan agreement, knowing that you can return my money back from me, plus I received our programs and services for free, and got the prospects for half of the project if it was successful. (I repeat, this is such an investment price). The tale of the suckers of investors is just a fairy tale. Another factor in the difficulty of finding an investor. I have been in business for many years and had trust and connections.
3. It is appropriate to say that you must immediately think about how, who and how much will earn. The argument that there are a lot of ways to monetize then, is somehow not very. Programmers who will not be able to write the platform will be able to earn from implementations. But others will be able to. Thus, it may turn out that some carry eggs, while others hatch them. This is not fair.
4. Attention. You can spend a lot of effort and time 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 don’t have experience and knowledge, but if so, then collecting the platform from everything ready, you can get a bunch of other unpredictable bugs. And we are drowning in our own. Adding new features to the platform then takes 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, such a danger triples.
8. I strongly believe that it is programmers who will discover new methods of accounting that are modern and understandable for people, instead of existing paper and wretched ones (double entry, batch accounting, bodice, fivo, prime cost and much more). It may not be worth pushing on to a project manager experienced in a specific field, but to set accounting and management tasks for programmers who do not know how they are usually solved and watch what sprouts.
9. In my practice, it is not a good idea to work with a specific production. Really dig into the problems of this particular production. Our experience working with my business and the tasks of a new investor definitely pulled back and led away from achieving the main goals, but at times brought new ideas. In my opinion, it is necessary to combine, but work with a specific business should be in a separate branch of the project and should not affect the main goals.
In conclusion, I want to wish the guys from habraERP success and more determination. I will answer all questions in the comments.