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Industry network chooses open source

By Iain Scott, ITWeb group consulting editor
Johannesburg, 26 Jan 2005

A cross-industry supply chain development initiative, based entirely on open source software, was launched yesterday.

Three years in the making, the Lumus Project is essentially a network of buyers and suppliers aimed at developing a shared assessment and development standard across the market.

The project is supported by government as well as various industry participants including Ernst & Young, Pfizer and Sasol.

Lumus Project leader Herman Potgieter says on the one hand buyers are being exposed to increasing numbers of suppliers, while on the other, a single supplier might serve various corporations.

As a result, that one supplier is often "assessed to death" by buyers looking for suppliers to match their criteria.

Among other things, the Lumus Project allows a shared service that means a supplier is assessed only once in terms of a balanced scorecard.

The project also allows suppliers to identify gaps in their companies, for example in black economic empowerment credentials, and develop themselves to the point where they are able to meet the required standards.

Companies thus also have an incentive to keep their information up to date.

At present, the project has 10 000 member companies, but the target is 30 000.

The project`s chief technical officer, Wayne Philip, says Lumus is a Web application based on an open source infrastructure.

"Open source environments are more standards driven and easier to engineer. Plus you`re dealing with technologists on the upper end of the scale.

"The open source environments have also become very mature and are phenomenally stable," he adds.

Design of the infrastructure began in April last year and the network was completed in November.

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