xTuple's Collective Brainpower Blog

What do enterprise resource planning (ERP) and aviation have in common? As many of you with whom I have worked know, I am an active instrument rated private pilot. I frequently offer up this information when introducing myself in the hopes of encountering other pilots with whom I can share endless hours of hangar stories. And, it also tells me something about that person. To be a good pilot means much more than simply developing the skills to control the airplane. It means subscribing to and embracing a culture, processes and procedures that govern how you prepare for, conduct and learn from every flight. Over the years I've often drawn on the discipline that aviation requires and applied this to the work I do in ERP.

Being a die-hard Star Wars fan, I totally appreciated the reference used by manufacturing technology industry veteran Greg Jones in a recent article he wrote.

In his article (shared with permission in its entirety below), Greg quotes a study on the troublesome skills gap in U.S. manufacturing, sponsored by The Manufacturing Institute — the authority on the attraction, qualification,...

xTuple is excited to announce the major release of xTuple ERP+CRM version 4.11.0. Read on to learn more about some of the specific features, changes and improvements that will help you Grow Your World™ using next generation business management software. The Release Notes for xTuple 4.11.0 cover the complete list of changes. This post is all about why you should care.

For companies involved in importing, the cost of freight and duty on items purchased overseas can be quite significant. In developing a fully realized product cost to maintain profit margins, their accounting department must capture every cost of doing business associated with each product. Freight and duty are such expenditures that must be rolled into the core item cost so values such as cost of sales are reflected accordingly. Processing this manually means extra work for your back-office. Automating these calculations is much preferred, much simpler, and delivers a much more accurate “landed cost” for ...

Project management is no doubt one of the most stressful jobs in any company. If you're a Project Manager (PM), then you're directly responsible — and accountable — for the success or failure of your project. Some PMs try to cope with the high level of stress, while some PMs simply ignore or refuse to recognize that they are under stress. Other PMs don't fare as well and suffer the negative impact on their personal health and well-being. Yes, taking on and rolling out a large project such as a new eCommerce launch can put loads of stress on you — and your staff. What if I told you that you'll be just fine, if you follow ...

Whether you work in sales and/or marketing, accounting or purchasing, or any of the myriad operational roles in manufacturing or distribution (or perhaps you inhabit the c-suite as an owner or CFO), if your business has more than ONE CONTACT to its name, your success relies on accurate information about your contacts — employees, suppliers and vendors, customers and prospects. Failure to keep your lists “clean” and orderly is not an option.

When starting with xTuple, one of the first challenges you face is getting the system set up and ready, before you can even log in. We do offer a free online demo, of course, to preview the software, but once you are ready to get started on your own, you need something to guide you through the required steps. xTuple has just updated and consolidated a wealth of essential information for systems administrators and database administrators who want to set up and run xTuple ERP software. We've combined knowledge from websites, manuals, code repos, and other sources into a new book called the xTuple Admin Guide that is available to read for free at xTuple University.

Life's a journey. It's not always easy to tell what events will be life-defining ones, at least not then and there, in the moment. Life's biggest changes begin in such small, seemingly obscure ways — ways that start you on the path to something bigger. The person on that next phone call could be your future boss. Your voluntary internship could be your next paying job. These moments become iconic milestones. They help you look back and track your progress in life's journey. The successful quest from intern-to-full-time-employee is a very, very rare one indeed. Only a fortunate few can claim to have attained a win. I was one of the lucky few — to have the opportunity to get a ticket for the right ride, at the right time.

More knowledge is a good thing — we know that. Life-long learning not only improves us personally and moves us along our career paths, it's also good for business. We've seen literally thousands of xTuple training participants over the years take what they've learned from us and apply it to their own businesses. This lines up perfectly with our mission — to help companies of all sizes successfully implement powerful, and easy-to-use, open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to grow their business profitably. What's good for your individual business is also good for your local, regional, and the global economy as well.