THIS IS A TEST INSTANCE. ALL YOUR CHANGES WILL BE LOST!!!!
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1. The Nature of the Opportunity
The Open For Business OFBiz Project is part of a new trend in enterprise software that will change the nature of businesses and departments that create, maintain, use, and customize enterprise software. The Open Source Software (OSS) movement is changing organization and compensation patterns of software development for many types of software. Early on the primary focus of open source software was on infrastructure software such as operating systems like Linux or web servers like Apache.
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With an open source package the upfront costs may include packaging and other costs or may include only the cost of downloading the software. This leaves a larger budget for customization which will also be cheaper because the original package is open source, and in the case of OFBiz, meant to be customized. Hundreds of people will have provided feedback to the community about customization making it easier and cheaper to perform the needed changes.
The goal of the Open For Business OFBiz Project is to provide a framework on which enterprise applications can be easily built and to use that framework to build high quality best practices enterprise applications that can be easily customized as needed by those who adopt and use the software.
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Services organizations that get involved early with Open For Business OFBiz will have to assume some additional risk because much of the software planned for in OFBiz has not yet been written. These organizations will also enjoy additional rewards because their early involvement and experience with the software, giving them an advantage over other organizations who are just getting started with the technology.
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The greatest risks of the Open For Business OFBiz Project are related to the development of the software to the point where it will be useful to end user organizations. The cost of software development is generally very high, but that is not usually the reason that projects fail. The unpredictable nature of software development and the establishment of business processes can sometimes cause the cost of implementation to go beyond the resources available, or the resources that can be found by even the most creative means when the planned for resources are exhausted.
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3. Management's Ability to Carry Out Goals of the Project
The original founders of Open For BusinessOFBiz, David E. Jones and Andrew Zeneski, are software engineers and architects. They have experience with business software, but additional expertise in a number of fields such as accounting, procurement, sales, marketing, and so forth will be necessary to produce the best practices applications that are part of the goals of the Open For Business OFBiz Project. Additional skills may also be needed in coordinating and assuring the quality of the effort.
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Strategic relationships with the OFB Group and the Open For Business OFBiz Project are a vital part of continued success of the project. The goals of OFBiz can only be effectively achieved by working with those who are using the project in their day-to-day business activities.
These strategic relationships may exist in one of a number of different forms. The relationship may include OFB Group Certification as an Affiliated Services Organization, and inclusion in the list of Certified Affiliates on the ofbgroup.com website. This is the sole purpose of the OFB Group which is run by those who are running the Open For Business OFBiz Project.
The relationship may also include paying developers and organizers to push forward the goals of OFBiz. While there is a need for salaried developers to work on Open For BusinessOFBiz, the founders desire to work only as consultants so that their coordinating role in OFBiz will not be compromised by the goals and priorities of one of the many adopters of and contributors to OFBiz.
5. The Project's Market Niche or Basis of Competition in the Market
The Open For Business OFBiz Project competes and collaborates with other providers of enterprise software, both open and closed source providers. Where competition exists OFBiz hopes to be the best choice by providing an enterprise software framework and enterprise applications that are the most flexible, customization, complete, and easy to use available.
6. The Project's Exit Strategy or Equity Appreciation Strategy
The goal of the Open For Business OFBiz Project is to develop high quality open source enterprise software. The project itself does not exist to seek profit, but it does exist to assist those who adopt it or use it more efficiently seek profit. This includes end user organizations and services organizations.
Equity appreciation in the case of the Open For Business OFBiz Project is a simple matter of improving the software such that it more effectively enables the users and adopters of the software to profit in their businesses. This includes but is by no means limited to the reduction of the costs associated with procuring and customizing the software that enables them to run their business more effectively.
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The resolution of limited resources will be accomplished by fostering the collaboration of various end users and services organizations to accomplish the goals of the project. These end users and services organizations will be able to afford committing additional resources to the development of Open For Business OFBiz because of the efficiency improvements made possible by the software and the cost savings over the alternatives.
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The risks of the principals, in this case the founders of OFBiz, and the investors, in this case those who adopt or sponsor OFBiz, are very similar. Both hope to acquire software to use that will fill their needs as inexpensively as possible. Both risk the failure of the implementation of the software in spite of the resources contributed to it.