One product, your configuration

This section explains how OSERP reaches your business, how it is kept up to date, and how it will be shaped to your business without becoming a separate product. It is written for business owners, administrators, partners and implementers.

1. What you are running

1. Your OSERP is your own installation. Your business runs on its own OSERP instance with its own database. Your records are never stored together with another business's records.
2. Every business runs the same product. The software itself (screens, rules, reports, accounting engine) is identical for every OSERP customer. When OSERP improves, every business receives the same improvement.
3. Your business is described by configuration, not by different software. Your workflows, approval rules, document stages, account mapping, print layouts, numbering, roles and settings are stored as your data inside your instance. They are what make OSERP behave the way your business works.

2. Why OSERP is built this way

1. Updates stay safe and fast. Because everyone runs the same software, every improvement and every fix is tested once and delivered to everyone. No business is left on an old, unmaintained version because it was "customised".
2. Your setup survives updates. An update changes the software, not your configuration. Your approval rules, layouts and settings are still there, unchanged, after every update.
3. No consultant is required. OSERP's principle is that configuration is done through the product itself, in plain screens and plain language, not by writing code for each customer.

3. The two layers, side by side

	The OSERP product	Your configuration
What it is	The software: screens, engines, reports	Your rules and settings, stored as data
Who changes it	The OSERP team, through releases	Your administrator (and, soon, OSERP Studio)
Same for every business?	Yes	No: it is yours alone
Changed by an update?	Yes, improved	No: it is kept as it is
Examples	The approval engine, the posting engine, the print designer	"Purchases over ₹1 lakh need the owner's approval", your invoice layout, your document numbering

4. What this means for you, day to day

1. You receive new features and fixes without asking for them and without paying for an upgrade project.
2. Your administrator keeps changing your configuration in the normal screens, at any time, without waiting for the OSERP team.
3. When OSERP Studio arrives (see OSERP Studio), deeper tailoring for your business will also be delivered as configuration, so it too survives every update.

5. Read next

1. How updates reach you: what happens when a new version of OSERP is released, step by step.
2. OSERP Studio: how OSERP will be tailored to one business without becoming a separate product.