Best of Open Source Enterprise Applications

As part of their Bossies awards, InfoWorld has chosen the best open source enterprise applications of 2008. Candidates included ERP, CRM, e-commerce, business intelligence, project management and portal software. How did PHP fare in the competition?

Among the ten winners, there are three projects that rely on PHP. The best open source solution for project management is dotProject, which makes use of Zend Framework and is completely supported by a group of enthusiastic volunteers. It includes an email-based trouble ticket system, file repository, user management and project listings, plus nice additions such as a calendar and a discussion forum. dotProject competed against strong cross-platform rivals, such as the GanttProject and OpenProj, but swept the board with its complete openness and collaborative approach.

The PHP-based Magento was the number one in e-commerce. It offers tools for customer management and catalogues, rules-based promotion tools, proactive alerts, and a robust selection of different language and currency options. Magento has been praised for the thorough documentation as well as for its simple installation and management. Interestingly, Magento, too, uses Zend Framework. It is also strictly PHP 5 only.

SugarCRM has kept its place as the most powerful open source CRM solution. We love its wide range of plug-ins and flexible interface, and are looking forward to trying its new PDA/smartphone support. The application is easy to use and quick to learn, thanks to its wizard-like approach.