Open source business management gets a boost

Open source professional services automation software, allocPSA, has had a new version release that improves usability and information management.

According to its creator, Melborune-based open source consultancy Cybersource, allocPSA is designed to assist services-based businesses to manage people, projects and billing.

With modules for project management, time and expense management, invoicing integration, issue tracking, and knowledge management, allocPSA aims to integrate all practice groups and functions within a professional services company into one application.

Version 1.4 of allocPSA has a number of new features, including a new Invoices module, an e-mail gateway to capture all correspondence between staff and clients, easier backup and restore of the whole allocPSA database, printer-friendly pages, improved support for SOAP services, and popup calendars.

The new release also has some 350 other bug fixes and enhancements.

Cybersource CEO Con Zymaris said allocPSA demonstrates that software designed and developed by Australians can have worldwide appeal, thanks in large part to the marketing and distribution methodologies made possible by open source software.

Zymaris told Computerworld allocPSA has some accounting functionality like cost centres and invoices, but it is designed to integrate, via data transfer, to existing accounting software.

"To date, over 6000 organizations have investigated or deployed allocPSA, and with each new release, we're getting closer to our goal of producing the best professional services software suite on the market," Zymaris said.

The allocPSA project is online at www.allocPSA.org and the software is available for free under the terms of the Affero General Public Licence.