Open Source Accounting Software White Paper

December 17, 2008 – 11:14 pm

Accounting Software is often overlooked when discussing open source software but it is actually very well supported from finance software for micro businesses right through to ERP systems for large companies. Whether you are looking at Quickbooks or Microsoft Dynamics there is an equivalent in open source.

To better explain the benefits of open source accounting software Outserve has written a white paper. The white is available to download from our website here.

The white paper is also available on the document websites edocr and scribd which can be embedded as below.

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in Accounting/Finance, ERP, Open Source | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Google Maps – Add your business

December 3, 2008 – 1:35 pm


View Larger Map

Google Maps allows you to add your business details to Google Maps. As well as you address you can add a description, photo’s, web links to your site and even a video. This creates a mini page for your business which in the case of Outserve looks like this.

Once set up (and confirmed by post or phone) you can link to the map as we have done on our contact page or embed it like above. A very quick and easy way to maps on to any website while also getting your business details on to Google.

If you would like to add your business to Google Maps you can do this through the Google Local Business Center.

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in General | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Open Source Encryption Software

November 9, 2008 – 8:53 am

It appears that not a week goes by without a story in the newspaper about a laptop/hard drive/CD/USB stick containing sensitive and confidential data being lost or left in a train/taxi/car park. Events like this are inevitable as data becomes more and more portable. Of course we should continually work towards minimising these situations but one of the best practical steps a practice can take to protect data is to ensure that any ‘at risk’ confidential information is encrypted. The latest saw a USB RAM stick of confidential Government information found in a car park in Cannock, Staffordshire. Link to the news story here.

It was noted that the USB was encrypted so at least that was something but as detailed below many of the ‘proprietary’ encryption systems on USB sticks have been compromised.

At this stage it is worth defining what encryption is:

‘Encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm called a cipher. Once data has been encrypted then it can only be read by users who have the encryption key.’

Using software to encrypt data has been used for a long time by governments and large organisations. Today it is becoming common place, often being found on the better quality USB RAM sticks. The problem with a lot of the software supplied with such devices is that it is often ‘proprietary’ meaning that the source code of the software is in itself a secret. At first this may appear to be the best approach, after all does the code being a secret not make the solution more secure?

What has actually been proven time and time again is that security through obscurity is no security. Good security software’s source code should be available for all to see to ensure that it is secure. The science of encryption is well documented and any software implementation should be made available for checking. Many of the proprietary systems have been compromised by attacks and often it is a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ they will be compromised.

Truecrypt (www.truecrypt.org) is one of the best known and well trusted encryption software programs available today. Truecrypt, as recommended above, is free and open source, meaning that anybody can see the source code. Truecrypt will work on Windows, Apple Mac and Linux operating systems and can be setup to encrypt a whole drive, a single folder or a portable device like a USB Flash RAM stick.

The one possible downside of Truecrypt is that it requires a client install to read a an external drive like a USB or portable drive. If it is required to be able to use a portable devise on a machine that would not have Truecrypt installed then for Windows users there is FreeOTFE (www.freeotfe.org) which is free and open source encryption software that can also be installed on a USB stick and does not require a client install. FreeOTFE can also be used on a Microsoft PDA.

As well as other open source security software the latest version of Linux Ubuntu 8.10 comes with encryption built in making it even easier to keep you laptop data secure.

When dealing with confidential and sensitive data especially in a portable form Outserve recommends that data is encrypted preferably with the tools already mentioned.

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in Security | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Blog Action Day 15th October 2008

October 15, 2008 – 1:16 am

October 15th 2008 is Blog Action Day. I have posted a blog entry for Blog Action day here http://philipoakley.org/?p=140

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in Not For Profit/Charity, Open Source | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Can OpenOffice.org 3.0 change the world?

October 13, 2008 – 1:29 pm

openoffice_logo.jpg Every day it seams a new version of someones favourite software is released somegreatphotosoftware version 5.5.5 or thebestmusicplayer version 1,1,01. Little excitement is seen around the world except by the group fanboys and girls of that product waiting for the latest and greatest, checking the new features list for whistles and bells like children crossing off their Christmas present list (and equally frustrated when the one special present/feature is not delivered as expected).

But every now and again new versions of software come along that can affect many people and that can take a product mainstream. The best example of this was probably Windows 95 and both Word and Excel both had landmark versions that saw them over the ‘tipping point. (there are many reasons for the Word and Excel success including price and distribution but both products required to be at a level of maturity and usability for popular widespread adoption).

For many followers of software the upcoming release of OpenOffice.org 3.0 is possibly just such a release and there is a belief that this could be the tipping point for OpenOffice.org leading to worldwide adoption from schools and colleges to homes users and businesses of all sizes.

At this point it is worth explaining what OpenOffice.org is. Without a large marketing budget Openoffice.org is not the most well known. Openoffice.org (sometimes known as ooo the .org is always shown as someone else owns the trademark to ‘open office’) from Sun Microsystems is an open source equivalent suite of products to Microsoft Office or other office suites (yes there are few others still left). Where Microsoft has Word Openoffice.org has Writer where Microsoft has Excel OpenOffice.org has Calc. For many these two programs cover 95% of their software use but Openoffice.org also has equivalent presentation programs and a database. It does not include an email and calendering application although there are many alternatives to Outlook but does offer programs for drawing and mathematical formulae.

OpenOffice.org.jpg

For the ‘iPhone generation’ this is not a release full of the latest whiz bang features and cutting edge innovation (c’mon this is office software) but the final product appears a more complete office suite that could have all the functionality for the majority of users. OpenOffice.org has been the office suite of choice for most Linux distributions for some time and a version for Windows has had a reasonable adoption but up until now there has not be a native Apple Mac version, yes you could install it with some messing around or you could even use a Mac modified version called NeoOffice. Now finally with the release of version 3.0 there is a full Mac version (intel only not power pc) and it should not go unnoticed that the most popular software purchased for Mac’s is Microsft Office. Until the recent release of iWork for the Mac there was no popular complete office suite apart from Microsoft Office. With so many new and young users of Mac’s OpenOffice.org have a real opportunity, after spending a lot their money on the hardware not everybody wants to spend more money on Microsoft Licenses.

The other compelling reason to look at OpenOffice.org is formats. OpenOffice.org 2.x could read and produce .doc, .xls and other proprietary Microsoft formats and this should be improved in in version 3.0 plus the addition of being able to read .docx, .xlsx and .pptx (which is more than Microsoft office 2003 user can do as standard) Openoffice 3 will not be able to produce in these ooxml formats but in my opinion that is a good thing. One of the greatest benefits of using open source software is also adopting open formats the default format forOpenOffice.org is ODF (OpenDocument Format) each program has its own ODF format Writer has .odt. Calc has .ods etc. With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 Microsoft’s own office suite will support ODF. This means that an OpenOffice.org user will be able to exchange documents, edits and updates with a Microsoft Office user all using an open standard format, this really is a great step forward. Of course there are many other products that support ODF, not just the two mentioned, from web applications such as Google Docs and Zoho to office suites including IBM Lotus Symphony and WordPerfect Office.

With full cross platform support, fully open source, really useful open formats supported by the major players and a Firefox-like extensions-ecosystem has OpenOffice.org’s time come? Only time will tell. I hope so.

Outserve helps its clients assess their approach to office software and office document formats. If you think your business could benefit from looking at free and open source software such as OpenOffice.org please contact us.

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in Office Software, Open Source | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Openbravo ERP release version 2.4

October 10, 2008 – 11:28 pm

openblogoblogs.jpg

Hot on the heels of Compiere’s recent new release the ever popular Openbravo has released version 2.4 promising improvements in the user interface. Openbravo is already a very pretty web based product but any improvements to usability of the web interface can only benefit users and help adoption. Keyboard operations and shortcuts have been introduced so now the product can be used mouseless if preferred.

All of the new features are listed at the Openbravo wiki here and overall it looks a good solid release, as ever increasing functionality with new reports and items such as purchase requests, which to to be fair you should expect in any ERP product.

A couple of new features caught my eye, the first was multi-accounting schemas – the ability to have more that one chart of accounts so you can report on the same data for multiple international requirements, currencies or management purposes will be very useful to many organisations.

The second noteworthy feature is the Heartbeat. This function, which will be on by default, will send a signal back to Openbravo with key information regarding installation and usage. Initially this sounds very un-open source but usage data like this is of great use to the whole Openbravo community and also the Heartbeat can be turned off. It should also be mentioned that nearly all modern software has functions similar to this heartbeat but usually there is no information provided to the user about the communication and no option to turn it off.

Another great aspect of Openbravo and open source software in general is listing all the bug fixes on the wiki.

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in ERP, Open Source | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

CiviCRM – Open Source Web Based Management for Non Profits and Associations

October 2, 2008 – 6:35 am

The use of the latest web technologies by American politicians is now reasonably common place with sites such as Facebook and the the use of Twitter in the Presidential Campaign http://election.twitter.com/ but probably not so well known was that back in 2004 Howard Dean pioneered political donations on the internet using open source software. The Howard Dean Presidential Nomination Campaign used the popular and open source Content Management System (CMS) Drupal to manage donations over the internet.

Drupal is well known to be very functional and customisable, and the development started by the Dean campaign went onto form CivicSpace a customised version of Drupal which included many specialised Drupal modules that can help nonprofits campaign, plan and manage events. As is the open source way many of the modules were contributed back to Drupal. CiviCRM took a lot of these modules and has been improving it at a rapid pace ever since.

logo_CiviCRM.pngCiviCRM is constituent relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based, open source, internationalised, and designed specifically to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups. CiviCRM gives you the tools to connect, communicate and activate your supporters and constituents.

CiviCRM is now an add on module for both Joomla and Drupal (both popular Content Management Systems) in addition to this, from the latest version 2, there is also a stand alone version. CiviCRM is modular and covers a lot of the areas that important to many non profits whether they are Charities or Associations. The core system covers the areas you would expect from CRM systems but with functionality and descriptions which are tailored for organisations that engage in advocacy, community and political organizing, and non-profit work. Information can be stored about individuals, organisations and households and the interactions with them, Currently the modules available are:

CiviContribute – Online Fundraising and Donor Management.

CiviEvent - Online event registration and participant tracking.

CiviMember – Online signup and membership management.

CivilMail – personolised email blasts and newsletters.

There are also other components that are coming out in new releases:

CiviPledge – Component to handle offline and self service pledges.

Picture 1.png

CiviGrant – Simple control of money given to constituents for expenses etc.

CiviContribute

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CiviContribute allows you to create unlimited web pages for collecting online contributions for different campaigns, projects etc. Financial information can be imported and exported from accounting software. CiviContribute can also produce widgets that can be embedded on any web page allowing any site or blog to collect money for a campaign. See the example below.

Picture 3.jpg

CiviEvent

event.jpgCiviEvent allows you to create as many pages as required for online paid for and free events with registration confirmations and receipts automatically generated. Information and be imported and exported to other systems and also users can export events as ical files and subscribe to public events with online applications (e.g. google calendar) via ical feeds.

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CiviMember

member.jpg
Civimember provides membership management allowing the creation of customised web pages for self service membership signup and renewal. CiviMember integrates to CiviContribute for payments and CiviMail for group mailings.

Picture 4.png

CiviMail

mail.pngCiviMail is a fully functional mass mailing component allowing you to target recipients by group with personalised messages with the ability to track click throughs, manage bounces and control unsubscribe requests.

Sites using CiviCRM

Completed by volunteers/in house staff with no paid consultancy

Drupal Association- http://association.drupal.org/donate

Open Source Matters Foundation (Joomla Association) – http://www.joomla.org/about-joomla/the-project/make-a-donation.html

Manhattan Country School http://www.manhattancountryschool.org/

Community Partners http://www.compartners.org/

Completed with paid consultants

Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/en/donate

Wikimedia foundation http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

Democrats Abroad http://www.conservationfund.org/

Conservation Fund http://www.conservationfund.org/

Bioneers http://www.bioneers.org/

More case studies and lots more detail of implementation are available on CiviCRM’s case study page here.

Additional Links
CiviCRM comes out on top in NTEN Survey.

Install requirements for Latest Version CiviCRM 2.1

Drupal 6 or Joomla 1.5 if not installing Standalone

Apache 2.0

PHP 5.2.x

MySQL 5.x with INNODB enabled

Although Linux is often recommended all components are cross platform and should work for Windows and Mac servers

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in CRM, Members/Associations, Not For Profit/Charity | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Joomla 1.5.7 upgrade

September 15, 2008 – 6:45 pm

joomla.png Joomla the ever popular CMS (Content Management System) has just released their latest version 1.5.7. As well as various bug fixes it also includes important security updates. Although this update is not as critical as the 1.5.6 update which fixed serious vulnerabilities, as with most web hosted software, we advise upgrading to the latest version as soon as possible.

jsst_logo_125x125.jpg This is the first release since the creation of the JSST the Joomla Security Strike Team which was formed in August after the high level security issue fixed by 1.5.6 and we think shows Joomla’s commitment to security.

Any upgrade no matter how small requires testing and Outserve would test all customers sites before upgrading to a live site. Even a security update can change the look and feel of a site in an unexpected way so it is always better to test thoroughly. Also adequate backups should be taken and stored safely before attempting any upgrade. Outserve’s own website runs on Joomla and has now been updated to 1.5.7.

Joomla are already talking about the next version 1.5.8 which we should see soon and at Outserve we are all looking forward to version 1.6 which should include some great enhancements including auto updating of extenions (similar to Wordpress).

Outserve would recommend any Joomla user still using versions before 1.5.6 upgrade as soon as possible.

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in Content Management, News, Security | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Welcome to the Outserve Blog

September 8, 2008 – 5:49 pm

EPSOutserve.jpgWelcome to the Outserve Limited’s blog. The main Outserve website is at http://www.outserve.co.uk click the link here if you would like a look. The Outserve website features the open source products and services offered by Outserve and also features any relevant news amd announcements. The Outserve blog is less formal and more of a discussion covering topics that are related to the work of Outserve but allowing comments and links to other material. We hope you like the the blog but please feel free to leave a comment or email comments@outserve.co.uk.

The Outserve blog runs on the latest version of Wordpress which is an open source content management system specifically designed to make blogging quick and easy although many people use Wordpress to run their whole website. With Wordpress it is as easy to create pages and static content as it is to create blogposts. The main Outserve website uses Joomla! (sorry the ! is part of the name) another open source content management system that we feel is better suited to managing our website. As with Wordpress, Joomla! can also be used solely or partially for a blog. As with nearly all software Outserve looks at solutions on an individual organisation basis and recommends what fits best taking into consideration invidual or organisations requirements.

If you would like any advise on Open Source Content Management systems please so not hesitate to contact us by clicking on the contact us link here.

Finally just for anyone who is interested I have put below part of the wikipedia entry describing blogs the complete entry can be seen here.

A blog (a contraction of the term “Web log”) is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual [1], with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.[2] With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.

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By Phil Oakley | Posted in Accouncements, News | Tagged | Comments (0)