As much of the world slowly returns to the post-holidays work schedule, you might be surprised at how much has been happening at xTuple in recent weeks.
We've just released xTuple 4.8, which is arguably the biggest release since 4.0 for us. There are major new enhancements in the Desktop, Mobile Web, and xTupleCommerce customer-facing website...
- We've got a whole new Quality Management System, which works with both Mobile Web and Desktop clients, built with the new Workflow subsystem, which is available to all three of the primary xTuple client interfaces.
- The Mobile Web interface adds support for mobile barcode scanning within various warehouse transactions, as well as mobile label printing. Warehouse workers can pick, ship, receive, and put away items with a wireless laser scanner.
- As part of this new development, the Mobile Web interface can now print any existing report in the Desktop client using OpenRPT.
Speaking of the Desktop client, we've heard loud and clear that you love it, and don't want it to go away. Maybe we've been a little too effusive about all the new web stuff, and gave some people the wrong idea! Don't worry, it's not going anywhere! There are a number of new features in 4.8 for Desktop, and even more planned for 4.9, already approaching beta status:
- We'll do a major plumbing upgrade with Qt 5.4, which features an impressive array of new features, including a completely overhauled set of Web technologies. Qt has come a long way, ironically doing better on mobile platforms like iOS and Android since breaking from Nokia - much more to come on that front!
- Major UX enhancements, including Configurable Shortcuts (Favorites) and Home Page, a robust system-wide Search, and connecting a powerful graphing engine to the Parameter Widget.
- Check out the roadmap page for more!
And, if you haven't seen the xTupleCommerce customer-facing website recently, you might want to schedule a demo with the xTuple sales team - the power of having your ERP and your online sales fully integrated in real time is extremely powerful. And we've added a number of new features, including Authorize.net integration, saved shopping carts, related products, the ability for customers to manage multiple accounts online, customer-specific pricing, and Dimensional Weight UPS freight quoting.
It's going to be a great year, and we can't wait to work with you! (By the way, if you haven't filled out our customer survey, we'd really appreciate your taking a few minutes and giving us an honest assessment of how we're doing!)
Thanks!
Ned Lilly
In October 2001, Ned co-founded xTuple, originally called OpenMFG, with the aim of bringing the worlds of open platform software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) together to solve the unmet needs of small- to mid-sized manufacturers. In 1999, he was a co-founder of Great Bridge, an early business built around the PostgreSQL database which is also the core technology for xTuple today. Great Bridge was incubated inside Landmark Communications, a mid-sized media company where Ned directed corporate venture investments, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and startup activity. Prior to Landmark, Ned worked for a regional technology group in Washington D.C. and had a brief first career in political media — television, radio and a non-partisan news wire. He holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.A. from George Washington University.