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“In enterprises, you don’t have to go 100 percent open source.” said ADempiere founder Redhuan D. Onn, aka Red1. “Eighty percent of the IT expenditure would go to the business software such as ERP, SCM, business intelligence, reporting tools, etc. This is where open source should be targeted at — where you can save the most.”

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Despite its Malaysian debut nearly a decade ago,open source
software (OSS) is still a gray area to many businesses in the country. The lack of software applications for business-critical environments has been cited as one of the reasons for the slow uptake.

However, this is about to change with theADempiere project — an enterprise application set to challenge the likes of SAP (NYSE: SAP) and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) .

What follows is an interview with the founder of the project, Redhuan D. Onn, better known as “Red1″ in the global OSS community.

Q: Please describe your current responsibilities — and what do you enjoy most at work?

A: Currently, I am the leader of the ADempiere project, which is a fully open source and integrated enterprise resource planning/customer relationship management/supply chain management (ERP/CRM/SCM) and accounting system.

My venture into software programming dated back some 27 years ago, where I was one of the few Cobol programmers in Malaysia. After Cobol became irrelevant, I ventured into lots of businesses from selling PCs to batik!

In 1996, I started to learn Java and went back to programming, as this is what I enjoy most. My OSS journey started in 2003 and since then it has become a “religion” to me, as there are many opportunities that are yet to be tapped in this sector.

Q: A few years ago, open source became the “talk of the town” in Malaysia, but, in reality, there is still not much uptake. The Malaysian government recently has also decided to take a neutral approach on software acquisition. Your comment on this?

A: For open source to be successful, we need to approach the industry bottom up, and not top down like what was done. We need to develop a lot of supporters at the bottom level, create local open source content, and educate the people.

The Malaysian government decided to go neutral because there is no local content and lack of support. There is still a gap, and we want to narrow it with the ADempiere project.

Q: What does it take to really put Malaysia on the global open source map?

A: Malaysia is seen as an active open source implementor, but we are just consumers, not contributors. We need to start building and contributing to the OSS community. It’s not just about contributing the source code, but giving feedback on how OSS is used here. The sharing of knowledge and experience is more important than the code itself. Basically, the OSS is free, and the way to support this industry is by contributing back to the community.

Q: It seems that you have hundreds of supporters worldwide in the open source community to support your project. How did you achieve this?

A: I started with writing OSS tutorials and [giving] away open source code secrets three years ago through my portal,Red1.org. During these years, I studied all the difficult open source software, cracked the secrets, and gave them away for free. This gives me the satisfaction and, in a way, built up my name.

On the Internet
, the way to create supporters is bottom up, but in the normal media it’s top down. I want Malaysians to know that there are many resources in open source which are still “undertapped.”

Q: What is so special about the ADempiere project?

A: It’s an industry-strength solution which is scalable, flexible and customizable for future growth. Despite being three months old, ADempiere is now used by the top three shippers and the biggest supermarket chain in the U.S.

The software has now reached the No. 3 spot inSourceForge.net, a repository of global OS projects which has over a million OS projects — software ranking based on downloads and hits. Four companies are now using it in Malaysia, and we are targeting 60 implementations in Malaysia by end of 2007.

The best thing is that ADempiere is free. Companies only need to pay the consultation fee and warranty. In short, companies can save 50 percent on cost compared to proprietary enterprise software, no vendor lock-in, and you can run on your existing platform such as Windows desktops or Oracle databases.

Q: What about support and project implementation?

A: ADempiere Business is the umbrella organization behind ADempiere, so you have a single point where you can request help in terms of implementation. Furthermore, there is a worldwide network of independent and experienced implementers inADempiere.org, where hundreds of people write the core methodology, how to implement, open the codes, etc.

Currently, there are 29 developers for the software from all over the world and more than 200 OSS experts signed up as contributors. In Malaysia, we have partnered with Open Source Systems Sdn Bhd to provide on-site support and implementation.

Q: What is the best way to implement open source in an enterprise environment?

A: In enterprises, you don’t have to go 100 percent open source. Eighty percent of the IT expenditure would go to the business software such as ERP, SCM, business intelligence, reporting tools, etc. This is where open source should be targeted at, where you can save the most.

Q: What is your hope for the local ICT (information and communication technology) industry?

A: I would like to see the local ICT industry further enriched with the best tools available. I also plan to set up ADempiere Institute in Malaysia for training people on OSS and develop local OSS technopreneurs, but this needs lots of support from the government.

Q: What is your philosophy?

A: One [needs] to know that information is free, people are not, and contributors are priceless.