OpenERP for Retail and Industrial Management book review
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I bought the book on Amazon. You might wonder why should I purchase the book when I can download the e-book which is free? Well, two reasons. The first reason is I do enjoy reading printed books. I don’t think reading books on tablets matches my experience reading a paper book. The other reason is convenience, I can take it anywhere and read it on subways, trains, whereever.
The book is written by Fabien Pinckaers, who started the OpenERP project. This is a very good reason for reading this book. You get to understand the system from the point of view of the person who developed the system. You get to know how the system is supposed to work, which saves you a lot of time.
The first chapter covers the Installation of OpenERP. Covers Windows and Linux. You can skip this chapter since you will find more updated information on the documentation section of the OpenERP website or the community forums.
The second chapter is a Guided Tour. You can skip the chapter but I suggest against it, since it not only covers the user interface and its usage, but also covers third-party add-ons with lots of functionality that are really handy. For instance, I got to know the product_expiry product which is really handy for products that have an expiration date.
The third chapter covers a real case. It is a very simple case, but helps you understand how the system works. Actually, it is the first thing you need to know when you are taking your first steps in OpenERP. The chapter guides you on the different steps of buying products from suppliers, stocking those products in the warehouse and selling them to your customers. It’s OpenERP 101.
The fourth chapter covers sales management. From sales quotations, packaging, alerts, invoicing, deliveries and price management (including rebates). Does not cover the financial management of sales, CRM nor analytical accounts. They are covered in the e-book version of the book.
The fifth chapter covers Purchasing. It’s a short and concise book on how to create purchase orders, quotations, receipt notes and invoices from suppliers. It is a good read before reading the next chapter.
Stock Management. Covers the product creating, and the warehouse management, involving the operations for entering and delivering products to/from your warehouses. Also covers the stock valuation and traceability, which is becoming critical in the logistics operation.
Manufacturing is the next chapter. Starts with the Bill of Materials and guides you from there. From BoM you create production orders, which are covered in detail, to the different routings available for the different products. This introduces you to WorkCenters and the different operations involved in the manufacture of your product. This might be the most important chapter in the book and has many examples of its operation.
The last three chapters; Process, System administration and configuration, and Methodology. If you work with OpenERP you should read these chapters, but you should complement it with further reading, for instance the memento presentations available on Slideshare.
Well, to finish this post, I highly recommend this book. And after reading the book you should read the e-book, which has additional chapters on CRM and Analytic Accounts (for example). It is not a definite guide, but it is an excellent first step on OpenERP.
Cheers!
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I actually noticed the book on amazon a few days ago. Thanks for the review – interesting.
My concern is that it doesnt cover version 6 which I am using – have you found that it doesnt match up with what you see on screen? Other than being paper based, does it have any content advantage over the ebook (I presume you are referring to http://doc.openerp.com/v6.0/book/?)
Thanks for the comment, and sorry for taking me so long to reply it but it was marked as spam. Two advantages of the paper based book over the e-book, the first one being that it is a good incentive for the author to write another book on the subject. The second one is convenience, I can take it anywhere and read it in quiet places without any internet connection (I am old school on this point, I love classic books).
The main reason for reading the book is, it outlines how OpenERP is supposed to work. And it gives you good ideas on how to implement it. This reality has not changed from version 5 to 6, and I think they will remain through version 7 and 8 (at least)
Hope this helps,
Thx for your review.
actually thanks for your blog! it’s quite useful (specially the chapters that were translated to spanish)
where can i get the e book of OpenERP for Retail and Industrial Management ?
in Amazon:
Open ERP for Retail and Industrial Management
then why did u mention in the 1st line that “You might wonder why should I purchase the book when I can download the e-book which is free? ” is it not freely available for download?
Because that’s the question I get from many people I know. I explained my rationale for buying the paper copy of the book. My advice, go for it. It is really handy and clients love it when you show OpenERP has a printed book (they don’t believe in manuals in PDF files). It portrais OpenERP as mature.