| Type | AG |
|---|---|
| Industry | software industry |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Karlsruhe, Germany |
| Products | ERP-System, MRP, PPS-System, E-Business-applications |
| Revenue | 60 million € (2010) |
| Employees | 600(Group) |
| Website | www.abas-software.com |
abas Business Software is an Enterprise resource planning & e-business application for manufacturers in the Assemble-to-Order, Make-to-Order and Engineer-to-Order environment.[1] Manufacturer is ABAS Software AG, since 1980 based in Karlsruhe, Germany and interests in national and international companies that distribute the software.[2]
Contents |
Main product is abas Business Software, an ERP system for SME. abas Business Software includes the products abas ERP for production, abas Distribution for wholesale, distribution and service companies, and the eBusiness solution abas eB. The functionality includes purchasing and sales, production, materials management and financial accounting and much more. The system is used in mechanical and plant engineering, in the automotive industry and in trade and service companies. The system uses a Unicode character set to enable worldwide use and is operated in 28 languages.[3]
The Software uses a tiered software architecture. The foundation is an object-oriented database. The application tier is based on the database and contains the main functions. The presentation tier, or "Flexible User Interface (FOP)", comprises the third and final tier, which interfaces with the user. The "Individual User Interface", the "Standard Flexible User Interface" and the "abas Tools" belong to the presentation tier.[4]
Linux, other UNIX derivates and Windows are available as server operating systems. Windows or Linux (Wine) is used on the workstations.[5]
abas Business Software is based on its own object-oriented database (Abas Open Object Oriented Database).[5] The difference to relational databases is an increase in performance, since objects are read and saved as a whole. The log structure offers usual database features such as online backup, rollback and copying in running operation can be easily implemented. The following APIs are possible for the database access: a Java-based framework (AJO), a simple proprietary 4GL language (FO), APIs in C, C++, C#, VB, VBA as well as the standard interfaces ODBC and SQL.[1]
Individual fields and tables can be added to the standard software on database level.[2] Existing or individual screens can be adjusted and layouts can be designed using a graphical screen editor. On the event level, the business logic and dialog control can be adjusted or configured using event handlers. These can be optionally implemented in FO or Java. These adjustments remain during upgrades if the programming has been clean. Since 2008 Groovy is also being supported. FO programs can be written using the structogram editor EasyCODE, for example. The Java-based implementation is supported by an AJO workbench, which is integrated into the Eclipse (software) development environment.
A business portal, based on Liferay, is integrated into abas ERP using which the database can be accessed via portlets.[6] With the additional product abas eB, applications such as a webshop, a product catalog, the connection of the external sales force and a browser interface for abas ERP can be realized. SOAP services are available to exchange data with other business software.[7]
abas is released together with the open source product JasperReports. Direct print of documents is thus possible, but also the generation of reports in various file formats (e.g. PDF, Excel, XML). An open interface makes it possible to integrate additional reporting systems by third-party providers.[8]
HTML help is available for users, administrators and developers and the various Java interfaces are documented in the common Javadoc format.[1]