NaN·tic at Cambra de Comerç de Barcelona

Experts defend free software in business management to gain freedom and reduce costs

More than 50 businessmen attend the round table "Free software in business environments" which has been held at the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce. The act has also served to present version 3.0 of Tryton, the latest generation free software ERP.

BARCELONA - All the experts who have participated in the round table organized by NaN tic have agreed that free software is a real and feasible alternative to traditional management software for the flexibility and freedom it offers companies, in addition, to representing significant economic savings as it is free software. This has been the main conclusion of the round table in which the manager of the Col·legi de Periodistes and user of an ERP in free software, Xavier Fuertes, the ICT director of the company Provisur and specialist in ERP implementation, Josep Mª Puigdollers, and the director of the UOC's Master's Degree in Free Software, Carles Garrigues.

Xavier Fuertes has admitted that "those of us who make decisions are always afraid of technological leaps, but there is nothing better than combating it by asking people like us who have already taken the step of transferring the management of our entity to software free, and with very satisfactory results ". For his part, Josep Ma Puigdollers has assured that “today free software for business management offers the same or more functionalities than the software of large companies, but we must make sure that behind it there is an implementer who understands and speaks your own language to optimize the full technological potential of the solution". Instead, Carles Garrigues, focused his speech on eliminating the stigmas of free software, commenting that "big companies like Google, Samsung or IBM invest a lot of money in free software, and 85% of the lines of Linux code have been contributed by the best employees of these companies in their working hours".

The technological director of the Wikimedia Foundation (the entity that manages Wikipedia), Quim Gil, from the United States has explained that “free software only has one drawback, and is that you cannot hide anything since customers can see and modify every last corner of the applied technology. This forces implementers and developers to be very honest and rigorous with their work”.

At the end of the day, Albert Cervera, one of the founders of NaN tic, presented the features and functionalities offered by Tryton, one of the free software ERPs on the market and which brought together its developers from all over the world this weekend in Barcelona. Cervera explained that, unlike other products, Tryton does not establish any visible or invisible obligation with the installation companies, and commented on the advantages of the companies that have recently opted for this solution.