I'm not certain if this is the proper forum to be asking this but here we go:
I work for a mid-sized residential remodeling company. This company is set-up with multiple departments and communication during production spikes is deficient due to departmental partitioning. I would like to approach this problem with a software solution. After a couple of hundred hours spent researching in an attempt to locate some-sort of solution for an integrated ERP I've got basically nothing, well, very little. Currently I'm debating going down an opensource road and customizing "modules" or building some software from scratch. Both options seem equally daunting. I'll try to be concise, listed below is the functionality I'm looking for. I have hopes someone out there can steer me in the right direction, maybe towards OpenERP?
In general I would like something which would consolidate all company data and have it accessible through one central GUI. Company department and clients would have access to varying degrees of this data. Currently this data is spread across Outlook, Quickbooks, Excel, MS Project, AtoCAD, etc... which makes overlooking some important notation or forgetting to share a construction detail problematic. As one might infer, cross platform communication of so many programs is not impossible, but highly impractical. Ideally both clients and employees would have accessibility to a desktop and/or mobile GUI with login, the login would determine which "modules" were accessible and by whom.
Key functionality of software solution to include: (though not limited to)
Accounting; vendor price books, P & L's, payroll, overhead, linked accounts, etc..
Project management; scheduling, punch-list's, in-progress photos, etc... (populated from quote/agreement module)
Employee; GPS tracking (during clocked-in hours), personal info, etc..
Quote/Agreement generation; Linked to vendor price books and locations, supplier catalogs, client and employee locations, linked to accounting module
Inventory management; Real-time tracking of in-house, in-transit and on-site materials
Data harvesting (SQL?); to compile trends, really just need open accessibility to collected data
Marketing campaigns; Track locations and marketers, keywords, to be used in data analysis
Website management; new clients to input information for collection, existing clients to login
Client information, communication, documentation consolidation (too many "ion's"); automated communication recording?
Customization; Must have flexibility to accommodate unknowns, macro building functionality would be great, custom report generation, automated agreements with material selection images, etc..
Email
User friendly; Ribbons and buttons for the average user, developer tools for the power user
5D BIM; This one is probably a pipe dream
The other option I was considering; SQL back-end coupled with a .NET front-end. This would require either building a massive database from scratch or attempting to somehow link a smaller database with the programs I listed earlier. Even if semi-coherent communication could be established an unannounced update or wanting to upgrade the linked software could result in widespread failures which seems almost certain.
I could go on, but this post is getting way too long. I appreciate any insight which can be offered.
Regards, Nate
