xTuple Newsletter — xTupler

You may have already heard, thanks to the overwhelming support from our community, that xTuple PostBooks® was voted "Project of the Month" on the SourceForge open source portal. It was a tremendous honor for all of us, and we share the accolade with all of you. So we started thinking about more ways we could engage with you to make sure this software is meeting your needs...

If you're using any edition of xTuple to run your business, or even if you're just kicking the tires, we'd like to ask for your help. You're probably aware of Sourceforge, the open source community portal which is one of the primary ways we distribute xTuple PostBooks® and various other free software to the world. I am happy — and proud — to say that PostBooks® was nominated as a finalist for the March 2013 SourceForge "Project of the Month."

This is it. After years of research and development, we're happy — and proud — to release xTuple 4.0, the first version to include our new Mobile Web client with over 400 new enhancements to what we now refer to as the "Desktop client" — including a new Social Desktop featuring integrated intra-company Instant Messaging, Cost Plus Pricing, Enhanced Job Costing and significant enhancements to Projects and Corporate Relationship Management. But the Mobile Web client is truly a game-changer...

We are in the final phases of beta testing for our landmark release of xTuple 4.0. If you have followed xTuple for a while, you know we are modest with our version numbering. The current release, 3.8.x, is really the 17th major release of the xTuple software. And we save the big version numbers for something special...

It's been a busy summer for us here at xTuple. Our new Mobile Web app is now in private beta testing, and we continue to expand into the wholesale distribution market. We've seen terrific growth so far in 2012, and we'd like to say "thank you" to our ever-growing global community of customers, partners and other users. In thanks - we'd like to give you something back.

We're always looking for better ways to help people become proficient with xTuple software. Our in-classroom training classes are always well attended and offer great opportunities to network and share with other xTuple users; check out the upcoming...

I'm writing today with exciting news. In a few weeks' time, we will begin limited beta testing of a brand new xTuple product — a product which xTuple customers will receive at no additional charge, as part of their ongoing annual software maintenance relationship with xTuple. The product is a full-blown Mobile Web app, which runs on tablets and smart phones (Apple and Android), as well as any modern Web browser on a desktop or laptop computer. It's unlike anything on the market today...

Many people know xTuple primarily as a manufacturing-focused ERP system, but I'd like to share a lot of new functionality available to support wholesale distributors. These features have been contributed to or sponsored by customers and open source community members. Examples include...

It's been a while since our last newsletter, and there's lots to talk about! First and foremost, we're happy to announce the general availability of xTuple 3.8.1. Version 3.8.0 has been out for a little while, but we've made a few minor tweaks and simplified the all-in-one installer. For those who may have missed the 3.8.0 release, here are some highlights.

It's autumn in the northern half of the world — the kids are back in school, the politicians have returned to whatever it is they do, and businesses are looking to fine-tune their operations before the end of the year activities take over. We can't help you with the first two — but we've definitely got some things lined up that can help you get your business ready for the end-of-year rush.

Here in the U.S., it's summertime. The kids are out of school, and lots of people are already thinking about that vacation coming up. (Don't have one planned yet? How about a visit to Washington DC in August — see the second story down in this newsletter!) But if your business, like most companies, is doing more and more with less and less these days, you might be looking at a short-staff situation this summer with some alarm. Particularly if you'll be doing without I.T. help for some period of time. Well, your friends at xTuple have the answer.

There's nothing we like better than introducing great new products. In case you missed my blog announcing two new additions to the xTuple family, we now have a Project Edition of xTuple as well as an Enterprise Edition. The Project Edition consists of the exciting new Project Accounting package on top of the PostBooks® core and fully integrated with the Time and Expense functionality (which remains freely available). Check it out.

xTuple is celebrating the new year by showering you with a nicely-wrapped collection of great new stuff! Check out the Fixed Asset Management package, below, and read up on the new features in xTuple version 3.6, both of which are available now for free download.

We invite you to join us and many fellow community members to add email integration into xTuple, and get a discounted license for the fast-growing xTuple Connect product in the bargain. Read on to find out more about what we're calling a "feature mob." For those eager to learn more about xTuple, our chief trainer and video producer extraordinaire Mike Atherton has been hard at work.

We like that word, especially when it's applied to our software (by someone besides ourselves!) And we're getting a lot of that reaction when users see the latest feature we're releasing with xTuple 3.5.1, now available for download. The first thing you'll notice in 3.5.1 is the application looks totally different.

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 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."

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.

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.

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!