Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Compiere looks pretty sweet and its a business model that I personally really like. Its simple, make the main product free and open source and then charge for consulting/setup/maintenance/customization and add ons. This was the product is truly available to all to test and evaluate AND use as they wish (as opposed to ridiculous free trials of products that expire as soon as they are configured if you dont pay up). In addition official support and help is available if you need it.

Also Compiere sounds very full featured, it is "software designed to give small retailers, wholesalers, and service businesses most of the same ERP and CRM capabilities SAP and other large-scale ERP and CRM providers sell to big businesses." Thats a bold statement but some credibility is lent to it by the fact that the projects founder, Jorg Janke, worked for Oracle and SAP and was actually involved in early SAP development. This guy knows a thing or two about ERP.

The free version of Compiere has a lower case "p" and has a home on SourceForge. The commercial company is called ComPiere with the upper "P" and thats where training and support is provided.

For more see the linked NewsForge article and Compiere sites.    Compiere: Open source ERP and CRM for small business