xTupler #32 | November 2013
Dear Community —
Well, that was fun! For those of you not able to join us at our inaugural user conference in October... well, let's just say we hope to see you next year!
xTupleCon13 was a fantastic three days of learning, networking, and yes, fun. Despite the fact that it rained persistently for most of the conference (delaying, but not destroying, our inaugural xTuple Open golf tournament), and generally keeping people inside the admittedly tight quarters of the host hotel.
Thanks to all those who filled out our survey! Yes, we heard you loud and clear that we need a bigger venue next year. Our sold-out, standing room only situation was a nice problem to have! But thank you, of course, for your patience with us as we grow...your feedback will help us plan an even bigger and better user experience for you.
We compiled a pretty comprehensive repository of content from the conference - including presentations, video, and contact information for participants who want to get in touch. xTupleCon13 attendees have exclusive access here (login required).
Believe it or not, we're already planning #xTupleCon14 - please look for our save-the-date announcement coming in January!
In other exciting community news, we're happy to announce we reached our goal for the Feature Mob 2 collection of enhancements to xTuple ... and many of those new features are already in active development. In fact, a few squeaked into version 4.2, which is now available in general release - and version 4.3 (with many more) is already in beta. Download it today, and give it a spin!
Thank you, very much, to all of those who participated in Feature Mob 2 ... by now, you should have received some communication from our marketing team about your "thank you gifts" (hats, shirts, software, etc.). If you haven't yet, please reply to this email. And check here for Feature Mob 2 Updates. (Please be patient with us - the Veronica Mars movie, which I cited as our model for a crowd-funding effort many months ago, just now sent me my VM t-shirt - which is too thin for a man of my heft, by the way). These things take time. But the end result (hopefully in both cases) will be worth the wait!
A final note: xTupleCon confirmed our belief that one of the greatest things we have going for us as a company is the goodwill we realize from you, our customers. Frankly, we'd like to be much more diligent in returning the favor. So ... if you're not aware of our "Referral Rewards" program, then shame on us. The short version: Refer a friend to xTuple, and put a cool $500 in your pocket.
Thanks, as always, for your support of the world's #1 open source ERP.
Ned Lilly
President and CEO
IN THIS ISSUE
- xTupleCon Recap
- Referral Rewards
- Online Business
- U.S. Tax Breaks
- Customer Corner
- Partner Feature
FEATURED EVENTS
- New Webinar Series
- SIIA CODiE Awards
- Final 2013 Webinars
- 2014 Training
- 2014 Knowledge Series /Survey/
FROM xTUPLE BLOGS
- xTuple 4.2 released
- Measuring responsiveness of open source ERPs
- eCommerce Profitability with Drupal & xTuple Web Portal
- xTuple Ignited the Global Open Source Community in 2013
- Introducing the xTuple Web/Mobile Tutorial
- Bossie Awards 2013: xTuple named best open source application
Review xTuple at Proformative
Online resource network for senior-level finance & accounting professionals
Where's Stacey? (Don't tell Wally! This space has been commandeered!)
Contact Account Executive Stacey Pandeloglou
Learn more about xTuple for Wholesale Distribution (xWD).
Software Industry Association Seeks Judges for 2014 CODiE Awards
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) seeks judges for the 2014 SIIA CODiE™ Awards, in recognition of excellence in the software and information industries, in over 80 content, education, and software categories.
The SIIA CODiE Awards are judged in two phases: a first round review in which each product is assigned to judges for evaluation, and SIIA Member voting on the finalists selected in the first round. The ranks of first round CODiE Awards judges include industry executives and analysts, representatives of media outlets, bloggers, investors, and, for the education categories, educators and administrators. All it takes is a background that reflects an understanding of the broader market for a specific product type and a willingness to see the latest and greatest the industry has to offer. Here is a list of the 2013 SIIA CODiE winners.
xTuple is proud to be nominated as "Best Enterprise Mobile Application" for its innovative Mobile Web client. Apply to become a SIIA Judge.
xTuple and #xTupleCon13 honored for National Entrepreneur Day
In recognition of National Entrepreneur Day on November 16, the city of Norfolk, Virginia, published a tribute to local, innovative companies. See xTuple in the Norfolk Entrepreneur Collection.
Headquartered in downtown Norfolk, xTuple ignited the open source world in 2013 with its inaugural user conference - a standing-room only showcase of software advances and community achievements. The first "xTupleCon" drew over 120 attendees from every corner of the globe - customers, value-added resellers, technology partners, and users of the free and open source PostBooks.
xTuple, selected for InfoWorld's 2013 best open source business application, is management software to give growing companies control over operations and profitability. xTuple integrates all critical functional areas in one modular system: sales, accounting and operations - including customer and supplier management, inventory control, manufacturing and distribution - powerful tools to Grow Your World®. As a commercial open source company, xTuple works with a global community of tens of thousands of professional users who have the ability to tailor solutions with multi-platform support for Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile as well as flexible licensing and pricing options. Read more about xTupleCon13.
IMPORTANT - Online Business Survey
2014 can be the year you sell more online
"Whether your customers are retail or wholesale, consumer or industry... if you accept orders directly on your website (or need to!), you use an 'eCommerce' website for generating new business. Please help us identify ways to support your new sales growth through the Web, by taking three minutes or less to answer the following questions."
- Rick Murchake, xTuple Special Projects
Take the Survey
Learn more about xTuple eCommerce
xTupleR Staffer Feature
Linda Nichols
Software Engineer-Mobile
Celebrating her one year anniversary on the mobile team is a developer who, when asked "What do you like best about working at xTuple?" says, "the other xTuplers!"
Linda is devoted to the community, locally and globally, serving as a foster parent and volunteer for Portsmouth Humane Society. She launched into technology as a career due to early exposure to computers; it became apparent that technology was not only something she understood, but also really enjoyed.
JS "Hack & Talk" attendees will plug in laptops, setup a JavaScript environment, and do some "hacking," i.e. developer-speak for coding. The global CommunityJs site with the local group on the map may be found at http://CommunityJS.org and all are encouraged to participate.
Linda lives in the Ghent section of Norfolk and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Old Dominion University (2007) and a Master of Information Technology from Virginia Tech (2012).
You May Be Eligible for Tax Breaks
Important Update for the 2013 Tax Year: Write-off 100% of your business software needs
"You may be eligible to deduct 100% of the cost of xTuple software from your U.S. taxes this year. Section 179 of the IRS Code indicates that under certain conditions 'off- the- shelf computer software' is deductible up to $ 500,000 in the year you place the software in service."
- Tom Matthews, xTuple Authorized Consultant
Learn more about U.S. Tax Deductions
xTuple Partner Feature: CPC Consulting
xTuple Rookie Partner of the Year, Paul Rolfes, is President of CPC Consulting - a small software integration company. He was seeking a well-established ERP solution with accessible source code, and one that can be used across multiple platforms - Linux, Mac, Windows. He just thought it didn't exist.
Already at work on implementing his first new xTuple customers, Rolfes tells us: "What really brought our interest to xTuple was a) it has the source code, open source and b) the fact that it will run across all those different platforms - Mac, Linux and Windows - and now with the [Mobile Web] browser. Being able to actually get to a product via the browser and have it actually feed the same database that the in-house clients are going to see, that's important to us."
First ERP to work across multiple platforms says CPC Consulting
Direct video link
Learn more about xTuple's Partner Program
xTuple Customer Corner: Keystone Wood Specialties
Pennsylvania (USA)-based Keystone Wood Specialties manufactures entirely custom components for kitchen cabinetry, which leads to some unique business problems that need to be solved, particularly in the area of pricing.
According to Keystone's Bob Corrier, xTuple replaced a custom accounting system that was written in-house.
Corrier said Keystone has a "custom order entry system that is integrated through the API with PostBooks - to update customers and invoices especially - and we are looking in the future to integrate that more seamlessly with PostBooks. Open source was a big part of the [software purchase] decision."
xTuple's multi-platform flexibility was another important factor in the decision-making process. Keystone's PostBooks database is on Linux, and the clients are all running on Macs.
"I really like the extensibility and that I am finding that I can more closely integrate all of our custom work so that it looks exactly like its part of xTuple and will be seamlessly updated and will give me one point for all of my data filing. Its flexibility and the ability to finally to have all of our business data in one location rather than scattered all over in silos everywhere," added Corrier.
Keystone solves unique business problems with new ERP - xTuple PostBooks
Direct video link
View more xTuple Customer Success Stories
In-Class Training 2014 Planned for 2014
March 3-6, 2014: Power User Training || (also available for remote attendees) || Pre-Register for this 4-Day Class
Learn more about training: xTuple Knowledge Series
Training: FREE Webinars (final for 2013)
December 18: Business Management Software for Accounting
Webinars are held on Wednesdays at 1:15 p.m. Eastern Time (GMT-05:00-US & Canada) or Find Your Time Zone. Each earns you one (1) CPE credit.
Help Select New Webinar Topics for 2014: Take the Survey
Learn more about the xTuple Knowledge Series and view past events on xTuple's YouTube Channel.
Try xTuple ERP Enterprise Edition - the commercially-licensed offering with both Mobile Web and Desktop applications - all unlimited features hosted for 30 days. Enterprise in the Cloud [FREE TRIAL]
About xTuple
Grow Your World® with the world's #1 open source ERP — the award-winning provider of commercial open source business management software for small- to mid-sized companies. Connect with the company, including the developer and partner community, at xTuple.com.