Marketing Plan

This Wiki is read-only for reference purposes to avoid broken links.

ADempiere and the community that supports it needs a clear marketing strategy and plan that will

• brand - ensure a distinct brand message is communicated to all stakeholders and customers,
• build - attract and foster a strong community of people and companies who contribute to and benefit from ADempiere,
• sell - attract customers and refer them to partner companies through established rules, processes and methods by which contributions to the community are rewarded, and
• support - develop a platform on which contributors can build and leverage strategic partnerships targeting enterprise sales

The goal of this plan is to clarify the message and methods that will be used to build ADempiere into an ERP-industry recognized brand while also building and supporting a vibrant community of contributors and developers. In implementing this plan, the current wiki at wiki.adempiere.net would be augmented by a more traditional dynamic website (adempiere.net) which can support the marketing efforts.

Another goal is to clarify and solve the issues surrounding advertising which have been so divisive in the last year. It is my hope that we can find a way to work together and support each others success in an open and positive manner. This is the main reason for my contribution here. MJMcKay 01:25, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

The ADempiere Brand

The ADempiere brand is not a logo, its the sum of every interaction anyone has ever had with ADempiere. All the good times and bad times, all the successes and failures and every exchange on the forums. The brand exists in peoples minds and despite our best efforts to control a message, we will not control their perceptions. The best we can do is give them every opportunity to hear the correct story and form the correct perceptions. Consistency is critical. Consistency of message and consistency over time. The brand message has to be evident at every touch point of interaction. The brand will become a summary of the organization and has to be based on something real, our core values and purpose for the message to be well received.

The foundation of the brand is in the community and the values we share. The following sections attempt to summarize the essence of the brand as we see it and want to communicate it to the world.

Who We Are

ADempiere is a great software application. But more than that, it is a bazaar - a voluntary open collaboration and the collective efforts of a community of people who share a common interest in Free Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning software. The ADempiere community is made up of various categories of people, and we are sure you must fit into at least one of them. There are contributors, developers, testers, writers, users, as well as businesses, authorities, experts, newbies and students. There is also a Community Council of elected trustees who are responsible for the community and project's well-being.

Who We Are Not

ADempiere is not a for-profit business. There is a non-profit (no ownership) Foundation dedicated to support of community interests, but no-one can profit from these. There are no sales of products or services. While contributions are accepted, the use of the funds is restricted to community projects.

ADempiere is not controlled by commercial interests. We take the freedom of the software seriously.

Core Purpose - Why do we exist

Each community has its own history and culture. This particular community has its roots within the Compiere SourceForge project back in 2003. We started as users and implementers of this great software project, and began to progress in leaps and bounds in our own capability to master it and even extend it for various end-users.

The community was generally grateful to Compiere's creator, Jorg Janke, and tolerated his business model of charging users for priority support, training and the user manual. Many of us contributed code, bug reports, fixes and recommendations on how this premiere Open Source ERP/CRM solution could continue to expand. And though Jorg Janke hardly responded to the forums' messages (even those that were directly aimed at him) the Compiere community enjoyed ample support and encouragement from other community seniors on a voluntary and vigilant basis.

Trouble set in soon after ComPiere Inc, USA, the commercial entity behind this project, purportedly obtained some USD6 million funding from an "angel" investor who soon joined its Board of Directors. Many among the paying partners of Compiere began to question new policy directions. A strong sense developed in the community that their comments and suggestions were not being listened to. This led to the Forking Debate, and eventually sparked off the Adempiere community.

Forkings are expected in Open Source, and for Compiere, this is probably the 4th or 5th fork, as stated by Jorg Janke, its creator in the private Partner's Forum.

But for this latest fork, we regard ourselves to be the Last Fork as we conduct ourselves from the onset in an open and unabated manner, as can be clearly seen here red1.org/forum thread. This thread is now referred and linked worldwide by many online news and regarded to as the Famous Forking Debate by the Compiere community.

The core purpose of the community, expressed in the forking debate and re-iterated over time in the forums, are as follows:

1. a stable, high-quality software application that can be provided to our customers
2. a place to contribute where the contributions will be valued and leveraged for mutual benefits
3. a place to be heard where ideas and requests will be respectfully considered and support will be provided

Vision - Where are we going?

ADempiere will be a major competitor and will compete in the marketplace with SAP and other large enterprise software applications. We will know we have arrived when we are routinely compared with SAP in the media and when companies in the $500 million revenue range and up are running on ADempiere.

Mission - What we do every day to get there?

Create the best free open-source software we can.

Work collaboratively in the community.

Contribute where the contributions will be most appreciated.

Share what we have developed and benefit from what others have shared.

Focus on quality, innovation and support.

Values - What we believe in; our principles

To fullfil towards completion, with respect and honor.

The name "Adempiere" is an Italian word related to "Compiere" (which means "to deliver or fulfill"), but also semantically reflects the core ideal of this community: "to fulfill towards completion, with respect and honor".

As a community, we value the bazaar over the cathedral. We understand and respect the power of unfettered open collaboration. We are smarter together than each of us is alone. Our openness and sharing is in recognition that collaboration adds more to the social good than proprietary competition. We all benefit when we all share and work together.

Adempiere seeks to demonstrate the best such a community can offer - in terms not only of world class open applications, but also selfless community support. We are voluntary and believe in sharing all information about our work, providing the latest source codes, tutorials, and forum support freely with no commercial hooks or developer lock-in.

The benefit people receive from their involvement in the community comes from the ability to contribute to a cause they feel is worthy, recognition for that involvement and monetary rewards from the savings in using ADempiere or in contracting services to others based on ADempiere. We recognize and respect that many in the community depend on the capabilities and quality of the software for their livelihood. Further, the community actively supports members to do so.

The rules / credo:

• Information is free - you have to know
• People aren't - you have to pay
• Contributors are priceless - you have to be

Values:

• openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally
• quality of contribution
• respect always
• straight talk - listen to understand and say what needs to be said

Position - How we differentiate

• A functional community - compared to other ERP systems, we have a functional community that provides support.
• We believe in free open source and offer the software, documentation and support without commercial interests, license fees, forced migration to new versions, expensive support contracts or other attempts to "lock-in" customers. This leaves more money on the table for our partners to provide service and enhance the software.
• Database independence (to a point)
• No productization - its messy but fast and flexible
• Built for implementors - rapid development, scripting, migration and production upgrades (pack in/out)
• Multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-currency, multi-schema

Positioning Statement - How we say we are different

The ADempiere Business Suite is an industrial strength open-source software solution that combines ERP, CRM and SCM support for business processes. ADempiere provides a framework for extending and customizing to meet business needs.

Built for Big - ADempiere is designed from the ground up to support complex multi-national businesses. Unlike other ERP systems where international support was added as an afterthought, ADempiere can easily handle complex multi-national business processes.

Character - How we act

This is about the tone and behavior we project. Do we have polish or wrinkles? Are customers greeted with "Good day Sir." or "Hey Dude!". Do we want business suave or hacker chic? Ties, t-shirts or pajamas.

Red1 has a great sense of humor in his writing that adds character to the brand. Personally, I can't duplicate this - I've learned the hard way that I'm not a comedian. Whatever we choose, the style will have to be consistent on all the high-level documents.

We also have to recognize the open nature of the bazaar - its noisy and messy with lots of activity and sometimes not very politically correct. We shouldn't hide it - its part of the character. The work we do is done in the open so communication can, at times, seem raw and unfiltered. Conflicts are visible but they are a necessary evil on the road to agreements. We try to keep them civil but this is not always possible or productive when passionate people are involved. Shouting at each other works in some cases. "Flame", public thrashings and humiliation are also visible and can at times be quite harsh. It isn't outlawed as it is one of the only mechanisms an open-source community has to enforce compliance with community norms. Be professional, contribute with quality and it won't happen to you.

Character statements:

• We are "noisy, transparent, community driven"ADempiere_Bazaar-_Pioneering_the_Collaboration_Economy

The Brand Master

Controlling the message. Red1 has been doing this for years now.

Brand Usage Rules

To protect the ADempiere brand and ensure it is properly used and communicated, the community has developed a set of Brand Usage Rules. These rules describe how community members may use the ADempiere brand.

Building an Eco-System

An illustration of ADempiere extended with best-of-breed applications. By ADAXA

The true power of an open source product is in its ability to create and enable an economic system (eco-system) for other value added services that can generate money. ADempiere is an excellent example of such a product. At the core the ADempiere application is free software but it is surrounded by a loosely coupled network of people and companies who contribute to the software by supporting and extending the software capabilities. These people and the companies they work for can sell consulting services based on the software by offering training courses, implementation advice and support, customization of the software and other services that are directly related to the capabilities of the application. Companies that join this group to implement ADempiere for their own use gain value in the efficiencies and capabilities of the software. Value is added again when these companies, either alone or in partnership, provide services in business process improvement and automation. Partnerships with other verticals in strategic consulting extend the offerings into the realm of strategic capabilities where alignment of IT capabilities with strategic goals is important. Each layer adds value to the eco-system.

The value of the eco-system comes from the economic interdependence of the people and companies involved. People and companies are willing to contribute vast amounts of time and skill, for free, because they receive so much in return from the the eco-system. Certainly, not all of the "value" is monetary. Being able to contribute to an important project and having the contribution recognized and respected is highly motivating to some people. But it is the ability to access a capability that can not be bought, would take years and billions of dollars of R&D to develop and can be leveraged for sales that is highly valued by companies. As the eco-system grows, so does the general knowledge base and the contributions back to the core software, which, in turn enriches everyone.

To enable this eco-system, the ADempiere community will encourage the collaboration and partnerships of companies which make use of the software to sell value added services at ever higher levels. This will be done through:

• development of software that permits extension and integration of other best-of-breed software packages and tools that are useful in a broad business context
• marketing messages which go beyond the capabilities of the software and address the strategic advantages the software can provide
• marketing targeted at drawing in customers who need strategic capabilities
• creating a marketplace for services and support where community members can come together and partner to respond to requests for quotes from customers
• attracting and fostering a community of people and business from software developers to strategic thinkers

Marketing and Sales

wiki.adempiere.net is not "selling" anything but it is providing information, the main focus of which is to

• educate and coordinate the activities of developers and the core contributors of the project
• educate implementers and users about the software and how it is best used
• attract value-added resellers and partners to the eco-system
• inform potential customers about the software, its features and benefits

These groups make up the target markets.

Goals and Targets

• Attract developers, contributors and community members
• Provide support and help to users and implementors
• Foster partnerships and build the eco-system
• Attract and encourage customers
• Foster sales in the community

Where to Market

• Web sites
  • Adempiere.net
  • Adempiere.org
  • Source Forge
• Social Media
  • Community member blogs
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIN
  • Twitter

Building the Brand

• Stories, Blogs and Testimonials
• White Papers and marketing material
• Conversations - forums and the wiki
• multi-national multi-lingual

Search Engine Optimization

Goals:

• ADempiere.com in top ten for the following search terms:
  • ERP software - currently around #250. I lost count.
  • ...

• ADempiere.com page rank > 7/10

Partner Advertising

No advertising in the wiki.

Partner Advertising could be a set of web pages that advertise services from partners. These pages can be searched by customers looking for consulting support by location or type of service. Only community approved advertising would be included. The goal would be to use ADempiere.net to drive traffic to the partner site. The customer would choose based on the partner page info. Co-branding and reverse linking would increase the importance and relevance of ADempiere.net and make the whole approach more effective.

We need:

• Rules and prerequisites for becoming a community recognized "partner" able to add a partner page. May include:
  • Recognition as a citizen
  • Monetary contributions (membership)
  • A contribution history
  • A quality standard for the partner web site
  • Return links on the partner website
  • Customer recommendations, testimonials
• Rules that permit a partner page to be removed (i.e. the company is insolvent)
• A process for requests and recognition - who decides
• Possible levels of recognition - formula based perhaps or by vote - providing priority listings
• Support for co-branding where this is beneficial.
• Rules for paid advertising - at what point/amount does this override all the above?

Limitations and Constraints

Partner advertising limited to the above or the user pages in the wiki. Everything else needs to appear as the brand - in other words a true community contribution with no corporate flag waving. Recognition of the contributions does not require special mention - its evident in the logs and history.

Customer Interaction

While source forge is an excellent resource for community members and developers in particular, customers may not have SourceForge accounts and may not want to create one in order to request support. SourceForge may be too open for some potential customers as their request would be public.

The website will offer a means for the customers to contact the community and request support and help apart from Source Forge. Customers who review the ADempiere site will be directed to the partner pages where they can contact individual companies. In addition, a general request can be made which the website will forward to all partners and those interested can reply directly. The sophistication of this process can grow with time to include a potential on-line market place but, initially, the number of direct contact requests will likely be small and manageable.

The contact form will capture a reply e-mail address, some basic contact information about the request and the company and some screening questions about the potential opportunity intended to provide partners with a sense of the scope and potential of the request. Potential questions could include:

• the size of the company in revenue - give a range
• is an ERP system already in use
• number of ERP system users
• number of locations
• primary location where the support is required
• potential project size ($)
• potential project start date and duration
• is the request for quotes, consultation, implementation, customization or support

The questions will be kept to a minimum so as to not be onerous while still capturing useful information.

We may want to consider a community e-mail such as community@adempiere.net which could be passed to the partners as well.

The business that occurs in response to these requests is part of the ADempiere eco-system but outside the community. Partners would be responsible to reply to these customer requests in a professional manner as their own companies and would not represent the ADempiere community. The replies would be private and partnerships or competition between partners is to be expected. Their ability to capture the potential business would depend on the quality of the replies and the ensuing conversations.

For job postings, customers could be referred to a better forum for such requests. The ADempiere group on Linkedin for example. The ability for individuals to create resumés and connect with others is a great tool for this purpose. Here is an example:

• I´m looking for ERP Consultant ADempiere. 2 years experience. Minimum. To work on GUADALAJARA.
• Looking for a Senior Functional Manufacturing ERP specialist with an experience in Adempiere implementation for a project in China.
• Looking for Adempiere Techno Functional Consultant with 2 Years of Experience with full end to end implementation for the 6 months contract project in Oman.

Implementation

• ADempiere.net - add a cover web site to the wiki which will provide static reference info, blogs and other marketing material. Links will be provided into the wiki, source forge forums and to the software.
  • The site will be developed in a parallel location on the same server as the wiki, tested and approved by the community before it is launched live.
  • Translation will be required to provide a multi-national face
  • Community agreement on the extent of advertising that will be permitted and who can have a "partner" page.
  • Partner pages developed
• Go live after approval
• Start SEO activities - cross links from partners, blogs, and other sites
• Increase presence on facebook, linkedin, twitter
• Blogs - need some volunteers for this
• Developing the market place
  • Provide a means to "find a partner"
  • Provide a means to request quotations
  • Provide a job board