xTuple 3.3 ERP, has better EDI, 100 other enhancments

xTuple, provider of open source enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, announced the release of xTuple ERP 3.3 on Aug. 11, showcasing a robust international tax management system and over 100 new product enhancements, including greater support for email integration and electronic document interchange (EDI).

The new release is the culmination of seven months of collaborative development between xTuple, its customers and partners, and open source users and contributors in dozens of countries.

While xTuple ERP is deployed in companies of all sizes (including several Global 1000 firms), it is a particularly compelling choice for small to mid-sized businesses around the world, xTuple says. It is for this reason that the International Council for Small Business, a membership organization supporting entrepreneurship and economic development worldwide, has partnered with xTuple to make its open source ERP system available to its members globally.

"The ICSB and xTuple have a common goal of sharing best practices to help small businesses grow and thrive," said Ayman El Tarabishy, ICSB Executive Director. "We believe the open source development process, combined with xTuple’s global community of innovators and entrepreneurs, offers a tremendous opportunity for small businesses to acquire leading-edge technology and expertise at very little, if any, cost."

xTuple ERP is widely considered the most highly capable, fully cross-platform open source ERP system available in the marketplace. In addition to improved tax management, version 3.3 also boasts a new distribution requirements planning (DRP) feature, a powerful function allowing users to generate planned transfer orders (to move inventory, anticipated order blocks or indirect materials between warehouses, as an example) either manually or by using logic contained in xTuple’s existing Material Requirements Planning (MRP) algorithms. Sponsored by xTuple customer Sitwell Furniture, a Mexico-based upholstery manufacturer and supplier for a major international furniture retailer, xTuple’s DRP capability enables users to manage and release planned transfer orders with the same tools used to execute similar activities for other planned orders.

"We’re happy to be able to directly impact the ongoing development of such a comprehensive, feature-rich piece of ERP software," said Sitwell General Controller Alfredo Martinez. In addition to their sponsorship of the DRP functionality, Sitwell was also part of a working group of users from five continents who contributed to the international tax development effort. Martinez further noted that "since going live with version 3.2 earlier this year, we have already seen tremendous efficiencies and improvements in our operations; now, with the features we helped develop for version 3.3, we have an ERP system that is well-tuned to even our most demanding business processes."

Other new capabilities in xTuple ERP version 3.3 include:

– Consolidation of all customer information on one "workbench" screen;
– Numerous usability requests in Accounting, such as the ability to reverse and void Cash Receipts, and optional automatic forwarding of trial balances;
– Export all displays to OpenOffice document formats, as well as HTML and comma-separated text; and
– Support for Qt version 4.5, now available under the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL).

The PostBooks Edition of xTuple ERP is available free of charge under the open source Common Public Attribution License (CPAL), and is consistently ranked among the top ten projects on the SourceForge open source download portal, where it has been downloaded over 260,000 times by IT and ERP professionals. The Standard and Manufacturing Editions are available under xTuple’s innovative hybrid license, whereby customers and partners have full access to the application source code , and any enhancements made to the product flow back to xTuple for review, quality testing, and possible incorporation into the baseline product.

All xTuple ERP products run on Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and Linux computers, and are fully internationalized with multi-currency, support for multiple tax structures, and multilingual translation packs maintained by the global open source community, the organization says. xTuple (formerly OpenMFG) has public discussion forums, a documentation wiki, blogs, and the community issue/bug tracker.

– Edited by Mark T. Hoske, electronic product editor, MBT www.mbtmag.com

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