HeliumV

Helium V is an open-source ERP suite. It has been developed by Helium V IT-Solutions GmbH in Austria starting in 2005. The industry of initial focus has been electronic manufacturing. The targeted customers are small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). In this SME context, the evaluation of KPIs is of great importance, so this is very high on the developer's agenda.

Helium V
Developer(s)Helium V IT-Solutions GmbH
Repository
Written inJava
Operating systemLinux, Mac OS X, Windows
TypeERP, CRM, Accounting
LicenseAGPL, Commercial
Websitewww.heliumv.com

The software is available as open-source since October 2010.[1] It is an integral part of the Lisog open-source stack initiative.

Features

Helium V covers the whole process cycle of a company, providing modules for:

  • Quotation
  • Purchase
  • Production planning
  • Procurement
  • Capacity planning
  • Merchandise management (ERP)
  • Item master
  • Time tracking
  • Production
  • Delivery
  • Post calculation
  • Accounting
  • Payment management

In practice, the ERP shows a high degree of flexibility and customization opportunities, allowing solutions to be tailored to fit the needs of each company.[2][3]

Industries

As a result of constant development the ERP-suite has managed to cover all major industries:

  • Electrical
  • Electronics
  • Metal processing
  • Mechanical engineering
  • Plastics technology
  • Food
  • Advertising agencies
  • Services

Architecture

The system is based on a J2EE architecture. Therefore, it is written in Java, using JBoss as applications server and Postgres as default database. MS-SQL or Oracle are supported on special request. The GUI is written with the Java SWING toolkit. As a result, Helium V runs on any platform which supports Java (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows).

A key feature of the suite is its customizability: For example, the administrator can define the screens, tabs or elements visible for users. The time tracking functionality can already be accessed via an API; more APIs are planned and in development.

Helium V provides multilingual support through Unicode. Languages available as of today are German (Germany/Austria/Switzerland) and English.

Business model

The business model of Helium V is based on the dual licensing model. The open-source edition comes with no warranty or professional support; such services are provided by Helium V IT Systems GmbH (Austria) for the enterprise edition. The developer does, however, provide an open platform to nurture open source engagement.[4] Hence, community contributions are accepted and appreciated. The contributor has to sign a contribution agreement or provide the source code under a liberal open source license like the MIT license.

Integration

The Helium V development team is interested in a seamless integration with other (open source) components. The first official integration partner is agorum with the DMS system agorum core.[5]

Co-operations

The developers of Helium V are working closely together with academic institutions in order to improve the quality of the software.

The following universities are supporting the further development of Helium V at the moment:

See also

References
  1. Open Source announcement (German)
  2. "Helium V case study in Germany (German)". Archived from the original on 2010-03-16. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
  3. Helium V case study in Italy (German)
  4. Helium V Open Source Platform (German)
  5. Announcement of integration of agorum core into Helium V (German)
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