Hi, Am going to work in a small manufacturing unit with a T.O. of around 9cr. Currently they do have a few desktops(un-networked) with pirated copies(based on discussions i doubt they know the difference and i want to change that) of Windows XP installed. By their roadmap and current projects in hand they see a very easy jump into a sub 20cr and perhaps more, category. I propose to install opensource software in this company, mostly to avoid licensing issues as soon as they are spotted on MS's radar as they grow larger. It's business not ideology.
Requirements: Tally software Autocad/Studioworks or any other as good opensource/linux variant. Spreadsheet Email etc
These are the basic requirements and currently they dont even have a website mostly because their business is not web centric or even remotely close to it.
I know there are other engineering based software variants to autocad out there, but are they as good? and what about Tally. As far as i know they can definitely afford a licensed version of engineering/accounting software. But they really need to avoid software costs in the future.
People i assume are not very software oriented apart from basic usage. Please note that software has to be scalable as the business is going to grow! So i would also need some miniature BI tool(even if it's just a spread sheet in it's simplest form) if possible in the future.
What are the possible chinks in going ahead with this model of using opensource?
Regards, Sachin