xTuple’s company mission is at the core of everything we do.
Mission — xTuple helps companies successfully implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to grow their business profitably.
How can we help you, the xTuple customer, grow your business profitably?
- Give you the tools you need
- Make them simple to use
- Make them easy to install and administer
- Help you learn them and use them well
What can you expect from xTuple over the next few years?
- Continued growth and refinement of the xTuple ERP Desktop client
- Growth and maturation of our xTupleCommerce offering
- Refined focus for our Mobile Web client
- Improved administration tools
- A growing constellation of ERPlets *
What's an ERPlet?
*ERPlets are small, focused applications designed to address one small segment of ERP. Think “shop floor workbench” from our Manufacturing Edition, or processing shipping and receiving, counting inventory, working the sales counter. ERPlets are tools; our goal is to build those tools to run equally well on small tablets, laptops and desktop computers.
The underlying technology should fade into the background. Most people don’t care whether their tools are written in Objective-C, Java, Fortran, pencil, or a Harry Potter quill, as long as they can get their jobs done easily and effectively. Tablets are probably a good choice, pencils or quills? Not so good. Some ERP features, such as eCommerce, should be accessible through a Web browser, while others should not. Every feature should be accessible from a desktop computer for the back office.
End users shouldn’t notice the technology. Administrators, IT staff, xTuple Partners, and developers all care deeply — our choices affect our ability to help those end users. The technical plan is to use the best tool for each part of the product. Some parts will be rewritten, such as our shift from JavaScript in xtuple-server to bash in the xTuple Admin Utility. Many parts will retain their current form and simply grow as required. Others will be updated to use new capabilities in the existing tools, languages, and frameworks. And we’ll build our ERPlets.
Where is xTuple heading technically?
- HTML5 for xTupleCommerce and other Web applications
- PHP and Drupal for xTupleCommerce infrastructure
- JavaScript for xTupleCommerce and other Web applications, node.js middle-tier, Desktop client extensions and some database procedures
- Shell scripting for administration tools
- Qt 5 for Desktop development
- Native mobile apps (experimenting with Qt 5 but open to other frameworks)
- PostgreSQL with SQL, pl/pgSQL, plv8
This should sound familiar — this is the set of tools we’re using now. They have proven to be good tools. The change is one of focus — away from the technology and back to the user.
Gil Moskowitz
Gil joined xTuple in 2005 to develop the first version of multi-currency support in our products. He helped xTuple transition from its original closed source OpenMFG product to the commercial open source company we are today. Before coming to xTuple, Gil worked for several large and small software companies in a variety of roles, including Informix Software, where he managed the database backup/restore utility group. He always advocates for, and delivers, high-quality products through improvements to the software development process. Ask about his other jobs next time you see him — ! He has a B.A. in Biology from Reed College and an M.S. in Computer Science from Old Dominion University.