On Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:14:05 +0100 Jim Price wrote: > On 27/07/10 19:24, Alan Lord (News) wrote: > > On 27/07/10 18:42, Jim Price wrote: > >> I couldn't make the Ubuntu in Business meeting a couple of weeks > >> ago, but is there a writeup of what happened there? Are there any > >> other good starting points to get an overview of what Ubuntu can > >> offer the small (but hopefully fast growing) business? > > > > For an SME I'd be thinking (server end first) about an alternative > > to Microsoft SBS, e.g. Email, Shared drives, Proxy, Content Filters > > etc. > > I'm not sure what I'm going to do about email yet. It is likely to > start sufficiently small that I'm thinking using their ISP email > would be a good place to start - when they get offices and an ISP. I > have the opportunity to avoid SMB to the clients for shared drives, > as it is all being done from scratch. I'm tempted to try an sshfs > implementation to take some of the burden away from making it secure. > Proxy and content filters are going to be straightforward to start > with, but as with all of this, I need to pick something scalable. One > of the biggest problems is likely to be starting with a very low > budget and an IT department of one (me). > > We (The Open Learning Centre) get asked quite a lot about "business > > applications" rather than Ubuntu itself. Ubuntu makes a great OS for > > running apps like: > > > > Virtually any Web/MySQL/PHP app, > > CRM, > > Doc Management, > > I hadn't considered doc management as a standalone thing. I'll have > to put a bit more thought into that. > > Asterisk (VOIP PBX) > > One of the other directors of the company is likely to try and do the > PBX side of things, and I strongly suspect that will be done using > proprietary products from one of his other companies. > > > Even ERP systems. > > I'm going to be pushing the idea that CRM and ERP are selling the > idea of big integrated solutions from one supplier, which you only > see as an advantage if you hit problems integrating or scaling your > existing packages. I'm hoping to avoid those problems in the first > place by using open source software and not getting locked into > anything proprietary which won't integrate well. I've always been > surprised that people have thought solving integration and lock-in > problems needs a single bigger product with a bigger lock-in than any > of the components replaced by it. > > > If the new company is a startup then Ubuntu would be a great choice > > on the desktop, but if there is already a legacy of Windows and > > familiarity with it, then this is a hard sell for a small firm > > where the cost benefits are not significant enough on their own. > > The issue with familiarity I'm expecting is going to be with the > employees, but I've transferred enough friends and relations to > Ubuntu that I don't really anticipate huge problems there. > > > A sometimes good route is to use cross-platform apps like > > OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Thunderbird/Lightning and run them on > > Windows for while. > > That is an approach I've used for people who already have windows, > but I'm hoping to keep windows completely off the desktop, and serve > any windows apps from somewhere I can keep control of them. > > > This makes a transition to Ubuntu slightly easier although TB > > packaging in Ubuntu is sub-optimal currently. > > In what way is TB sub-optimal? I've not hit serious problems with it > myself, and I use it a lot. The only thing I can think of which some > people have had issues with is Lightning integration with the various > versions of TB. > > > Hope this helps. > > It's all going to help at some point I suspect.
You could go down the Google Apps route - mail, document space with the ability to share between users (and have them work on the document simultaneously, which takes a bit of getting used to). There are plenty of CRM and ERP systems that integrate with the Google Apps "single sign-on" way of things. Since you can enable IMAP/SMTP support relatively easily, you don't have to use the GMail interface for mail - you can use whatever client you want, so having Ubuntu on the desktop would be relatively easy. Grant. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
