DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ERP AND OPEN SOURCE

Some of the differences are as follows:
Pricing
Commercial ERP is an expensive package and suitable only for bigger corporations. The prices do vary significantly but according to the size of the company and volume of business. In any cases they have been found to be extremely costly irrespective of the quantum in which they are purchased. These packages are not subject to flexibility and molding. Their usage modalities are rarely liberal and cause troubles when they are modified. Hence the deployments also turn out to be costly and inconvenient due to the procedures involved, in the future. Another major allegation against the package is that they consist of lot of hidden costs.

The greatest advantage of Open source ERP application is that it is available at free of cost. This is a motivating factor to companies that shun the idea of ERP for the sake of price tags. Even the licenses are available along with the source code. This essentially makes sure that the procedures for training are very easy. In the case of commercial ERP vendors don't disclose the prices initially for it would make any sane person to refuse the order. He is later blamed for inflating the costs. This feature is unknown in open source ERP as everything is free.
Flexibility
This important feature was found absent in commercial ERP. It was a difficult task to make them suit the working pattern. Instead of modifying those in wake of the inherent difficulties companies had no other choice but to change their way of business. This was often a debacle even though it was argued that the best ERP were designed for the best business practices.

However when it comes to open source ERP everything was decided by the code .Therefore companies can do the necessary modifications in code and without much support from the vendor. Another advantage of open source is that it does not interfere with the regular schedule of the company during the implementation stage. However the open source ERP is devoid of this trouble as the regular business can go uninterrupted irrespective of ERP implementation or deployment or reengineering process or anything else to do with ERP is carried on a full fledged scale. This is a major difference between commercial and open source ERP applications.
Duration, Dependence and Results
The time allotted for implementing open source ERP is very less when compared with commercial ERP than open source. The innumerable number of complexions in commercial ERP calls for longer time span. It consumes a lot of time not only during implementation but in every stage of ERP process due to the nature of work involved.

When it comes to the question of relying on the vendor the open source ERP vendor enjoys a considerable edge than the commercial ERP. Since open source is a (self) built in process companies rely less on vendors and takes care of needs by themselves. The productivity is also high in open source ERP systems and the failure rates are very low.
Training
Lots of training is required for using commercial ERP. It calls for lots of investments in terms of time and money. There are lots of controversies regarding them. If they don't give the necessary impetus the results will be poor. Similarly the companies are largely debating the validity of training sessions designed and handled exclusively by the ERP vendor.

On the other hand Open Source ERP does not require much training. The source code is more than a training manual. The results are also bound to be effective because the user gets to learn through the process of self teaching. The company need not spend much on training and makes a minimal utilization of the resources. This is another way of reducing the level of dependence on the ERP vendor.
Security
Commercial ERP systems are less secure when compared with open source erp applications. They are by and large prone to the traps and pitfalls of hackers (no matter however tight is the segregation of the components).Even though open source ERP makes everything transparent and available in the public domain it bring into the notice of user whenever something goes wrong.
Conclusion
The differences between commercial and open source ERP applications show the Edge enjoyed by open source ERP players. However the fact remains that they are not recognized well in the market for fear of failure as customers are still prepared to pay for results. They can go a long way only if the awareness is high (which is encouraging in the current scenario).