An essential xTuple doctrine is our commitment to “eating our own dog food,” using xTuple ERP within our own company to do our jobs better, and to ensure we understand the experience from a customer's point of view. It can be eye-opening, at times. In this way, we've come up with our own "wish list" of features we'd like to see in the software. Of course, nothing speeds up that process like actual demand from paying customers :)
The first of these is xml import and export. We rolled out xml import over a year ago as part of an integration with Yahoo! Stores. We've come around to using this function ourselves (we'll be importing orders from xChange, our online store), and we see for ourselves how useful this feature can be. We also see that we're missing something. Although we planned for the tool to import and export xml, we haven't yet completed the export component. Should we?
Second, our traditional customer has been a small to medium-sized manufacturing business, and xTuple ERP is well-tuned to companies that make and ship widgets. Like many service-based businesses, however, we ourselves sell less tangible things, such as software licenses and implementation services. We need time and expense tracking by project, in a way that's really integrated with billing and the rest of the accounting system. Your company may have a similar need. We're outlining these features now—contact us if you've got ideas, or would like to pitch in to see this move along more quickly.
What we're talking about is no different, of course, than what many of you are doing—using xTuple ERP every day and bringing back your ideas for how to make it more valuable to a broad base of users. You've been discussing your suggestions in the forums and submitting your feature requests in the issue tracker. And we listen. It all goes toward making better software in the transparent and community-centric way we like to do it.
So thanks, and please, keep it up. As eaters of our own dog food we benefit from your ideas as much as anyone.
BC Wilson
With the explosive movement of cloud strategies, BC was promoted to director of cloud services in 2014. Previously, he oversaw operations and hiring of managers for critical lines of business for the Product Management Group, driving return on investment (ROI) for all xTuple products and managed ongoing engineering and development of the xTuple Classic GUI product, including all customer-sponsored enhancements, as well as the xTuple Web Portal product. Prior to xTuple, BC was a senior product manager for Trader Electronic Media, where he directed the development of websites for the classified advertising market. He has also worked as a partner in a web design agency, and a content producer for the Road Runner and Starband broadband service providers. BC began his career as a writer and editor for the Ziff Davis computer magazines.
He holds a B.A. in Theology from Georgetown University, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Old Dominion University. In 2012, BC was appointed as a commissioner of Bicycle and Pedestrian Trails in Norfolk, Virginia.