Cubit Adopts Open Source Model

Online, March 13, 2012 (Newswire.com) - In what is undoubtedly Africa's largest open source project, source code for the well-established and highly regarded Cubit Accounting platform has been released under GPL v3 as Accounting-123.com.

A key benefit of the move for existing Cubit customers is that the source code to their ERP system is now available should they wish to customise any part of the system to meet their unique business needs. And, since the comprehensive Accounting, Payroll and Business software platform was developed using PHP and runs on the BSD-licensed PostgreSQL, the skills to perform such customisation are freely available in the African ICT market as well as across the broader internet.

According to Andre Coetzee, founder and owner of Cubit, the primary reason for adopting the open source model is reach - both in terms of customers and developers. "Opening the source code up to the world under GPL v3 will attract contributors and customers from all over the world and put, what is essentially a South African product, on the world stage," he says.

Furthermore, Coetzee notes that several ISPs in Africa have expressed serious interest in hosting installations of Accounting-123.com, thereby broadening their offering by providing ERP services in the cloud. This makes it easily accessible from a desktop computer in the office, and via a smart phone, a tablet or a notebook computer while on the road.

He describes the move to open source as a call to action for the African ICT industry: "This release enables and empowers IT companies and programmers to avoid patent costs and provides the platform for anyone to become a major player in the ERP space. At the very least it enables massive savings from not having to purchase expensive, annually licensed software while at the same time boosting software development on the African continent.

"It also avails the African ICT sector of the opportunity to derive a revenue stream from clients located anywhere in the world," explains Coetzee.

Under the proprietary software model, many companies do not own their own business software and likewise do not have access to the source code for the software at the core of their businesses. That all changes with Accounting-123.com because any business now has the ability and right to own their software without having to fork out rapacious licensing fees per user, per seat or per hour to large multinational conglomerates.

Coetzee expects the project to be forked (split) frequently and anticipates that, eventually, there may be hundreds of different software brands, systems and products derived, from the Accounting-123.com core.

"The main problem with cross-border accounting software has always been the differing tax, legislative and accounting regimes adopted in different countries. This has, until now, inhibited the reach of a single open source accounting system over international borders.

"However, because Accounting-123.com was designed from the very start with a solid and readily customisable core, it provides developers in other countries with a stable, mature and working platform upon into which different regional and national requirements can be incorporated," explains Coetzee.

Accounting-123.com can be installed on Windows, Linux and MacOS, and then anyone from anywhere in the world can be allowed to access the system using a web browser.
Issued for and on behalf of Accounting-123.com

For more information please contact
Andre Coetzee at [email protected] or on +27 76 600 6613