OpenMFG Brings Advanced ERP Functionality to Mac Users

NORFOLK, VA

Enterprise Software for Manufacturers and Distributors Available for Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server

OpenMFG, the leading provider of open standards-based enterprise solutions for small manufacturers and distributors, today announced the general availability of the OpenMFG Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Suite for Mac OS X.

The OpenMFG Suite is a next-generation, Internet-enabled and fully-integrated ERP application. Both the OpenMFG Client and the OpenMFG Server run on the two most recent versions of Mac OS X, including Mac OS X version 10.3 "Panther." Available modules include Inventory Management, Part Definition and Costing, Work Order Management, Master Scheduling, Capacity Planning, Purchase Order Management, Sales Order Management, Shipping and Receiving, Sales Analysis, Project Management, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Bank Reconciliation, and a full General Ledger.

The OpenMFG ERP Suite also features a graphical report writer and renderer, OpenReports, with support for leading document sizes and label formats, barcodes, images, and watermarks. OpenReports for Mac OS X ships standard with the OpenMFG ERP Suite, and is also available separately as a fully embeddable report writer and rendering engine for other Mac OS X software.

"We've been very impressed with the performance of OpenMFG on Mac OS X," said Ned Lilly, OpenMFG's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The new Xserve G5 offers a price/performance value that rivals any other platform, and we've had very good results deploying the OpenMFG Client on the PowerMac G5, iBook, iMac and eMac. And the ease of use and stability of Mac OS X delivers everything the world has come to expect from Apple."

"Panther Server, the fourth major release of our award-winning, UNIX-based server operating system, makes it extremely easy to deploy popular solutions for Mac, Windows and Linux clients," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "By joining the family of enterprise solutions for Mac OS X, OpenMFG offers manufacturers advanced ERP functionalities while taking advantage of the reliability and high performance of Mac OS X."

Two early users of the OpenMFG for Mac OS X solution are U.S. ThermoAmp of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and Moline Bearing Co., of St. Charles, Illinois. The companies manufacture swimming pool heat pumps and ball bearings, respectively. Both customer sites received implementation assistance from EzBizPartner, Inc. (www.ezbizpartner.com), an OpenMFG-certified solutions provider based in the Chicagoland area. "It's good to see an alternative to the Windows platform," said Adam Wroblewski, President of EzBizPartner. "We are discovering more and more small and mid-sized companies that are running the Mac OS X platform, and we anticipate this market will continue to grow."

"We're delighted to be working with Apple," said Lilly. "We believe that Mac OS X will continue to grow as a strategic platform for enterprise software. Providing OpenMFG solutions on Mac OS X is tightly aligned with our mission of giving our customers the flexibility to decide what's best for their business."

All OpenMFG products are built with robust open source components including the PostgreSQL database, and the Qt framework for C++. This underlying technology, invisible to the user, enables OpenMFG and its partners to deliver sophisticated ERP functionality at a very low total cost of ownership. It also enables a true multiplatform solution for individual workstations; in addition to Mac OS X, the OpenMFG Client runs on Windows, Linux, and various commercial Unix systems. By leveraging this open source "stack," and through an innovative partner program which borrows from the open source software development process, OpenMFG brings a competitive new approach to a sorely underserved market.

About OpenMFG

OpenMFG, LLC, develops enterprise software tailored to the needs and budgets of small, entrepreneurial manufacturing and distribution companies. OpenMFG products give companies visibility into costs, supply chains, processes, inventory and financial operations with a lower cost of ownership than competing enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, and are sold to end-user customers through a network of value added partners throughout North America.

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