Newsletter

The xTupler #14 (April 2010)

Today is tax day in the US, and it seems an appropriate time to express our appreciation for the heroes of this rough season--the hardworking accountants of the world.

We'll also be doing what we should have been doing better for a long time--talking directly to accountants about xTuple ERP. When you're telling the story of ERP software, sometimes it's easy to focus on one aspect of the tool set, such as manufacturing or CRM, but the truth is, the financials really are the key to the whole system.

We like to say that the core of any ERP system is accounting, and the real benefit of using ERP is that all the functional areas of the business are integrated into one system, and one general ledger. That's an aspect of the software we need to talk more about, and we'll be doing so at the Accounting Software Expo in Atlanta on May 20. Hope to see you there!

In other news, we're in the final days of the version 3.5.0 release of xTuple ERP, and we're also pulling back the curtain on our first official web-based product. Please keep reading below for details.

The xTupler #13 (February 2010)

Open dialog with the people using our products. We do it every day in forums, the issue tracker and webinars. It's been at the core of the xTuple philosophy since our beginning in 2002. So we were happy to see that someone has given a name to this way of managing a product: Dion Hinchcliffe at ZD Net's Enterprise 2.0 blog calls it "Social CRM." Hinchcliffe believes that this business practice is the best way to earn the trust and cooperation of customers, and he predicts it will be an enterprise megatrend in 2010. Since we've been running things this way from the start, we hope he'll forgive us when we say, "Of course it is."

The xTupler #12 (December 2009)

While economic conditions around the world continue to be challenging, here at xTuple we've been fortunate to have done better than most in 2009.  We continue to see strong growth in customers, partners, and of course, our open source community.

It's you - the tens of thousands of active participants in the xTuple ERP community - that make our success (and the continuing enhancement of xTuple ERP products) possible.  We'd like to take this opportunity to say "thank you" ... and to hopefully give a little something back as well.

The xTupler #11 (November 2009)

Here in the U.S. we are about to take a couple days off to be with our families, eat turkey, and go shopping. That's right, this Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has become the biggest shopping day of the year. We want to get in on a little of this action ourselves--don't miss our announcements about year-end training deals and half-off paper forms, below.

The xTupler #10 (October 2009)

Tomorrow is Halloween here in the U.S. - and we're celebrating by embracing our inner geek. Looking around the office, we see a number of people wearing trade show-issued black T-shirts with cryptic software industry jargon. And of course this month's xTupler is chock full of updates on improvements to scripting and packaging tools, new ways to interface with third-party products, little references to open source history and culture, and new xTuple beta software that is ready for testing!

Of course, it wouldn't be a Special Hallow-Geek Issue if we didn't include a few references to Star Trek and Star Wars. But like our previous references to American politics, we won't take an official side on that debate. Let's just say we enjoy them both.

The xTupler #9 (September 2009)

Read below for details on the all-new version 3.3 of xTuple ERP (PostBooks, Standard, and Manufacturing Editions), as well as a FREE public beta release of xTuple's new Point-of-Sale package for retail businesses. Our global community continues to grow and thrive - and we're looking for your input as we look out to the next few releases of the software.

The xTupler #8 (August 2009)

We have a lot of exciting announcements to make this month. The first is the upcoming release of version 3.3.0 of xTuple ERP. The details are below, but in summary, it was the most collaboratively-designed (and coded) release yet of xTuple ERP. You'll be particularly pleased if you are a distributor with inventory to manage at various sites, or if you operate in a country with a complex VAT and other tax structures.

The xTupler #7 (July 2009)

It's summer time in the northern hemisphere, and while it's a little cooler in Virginia than usual for this time of year, it wouldn't be summer without bugs.

The climate-controlled offices at xTuple are 99.9% bug-free, but we'll freely admit that's not the case with software - ours, or anyone else's. In the last six months we've cranked out three well-received releases in the 3.2.x cycle, and we're currently in beta testing of version 3.3.0. All the new feature development in 3.3 is complete, and it's time to swat some bugs.

We see this as an opportunity, and so should you. For us it's a chance to resolve issues with the beta that our users and testers have reported. For you, it's a chance to win free stuff! We know a lot of you want help just because it's a good cause, but we're hoping the chance to win a t-shirt or even, for one lucky overachiever, a netbook, will spur you to greater feats of bug-smashing awesomeness. Read on below for details of the first annual xTuple Bug Derby.

The xTupler #6 (June 2009)

These days, it's not enough to offer an open source product; the magic comes from providing an open source platform. It's got to be possible for users to customize and extend the product.

We get that. Over a year ago we added full support for scripting to xTuple ERP to enable users to write modifications without the overhead of changing core code. In January we even embedded the scripting tools directly into the application. Giving out tools to modify the software, however, was only the first step. To really promote xTuple ERP as a platform we needed an effective place to distribute third-party apps, and a way to let developers profit from them.

So, this week, we launched our own "app store." We're calling it xChange, "The marketplace for xTuple ERP." It's our way of helping our community of users, developers and partners participate in the economic ecosystem of xTuple ERP.

The xTupler #5 (April 2009)

On March 17 we launched a major update to both xTuple.com and xTuple.org. We'd been working on the new sites for a few months, and thought we'd give them the extra benefit of a St. Patrick's Day launch for good luck. (And yes, we did push back the original date of Friday the 13th - who says software people are all cold-eyed rationalists?)

 

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