BLU SPHINX® OPEN-SOURCE BUSINESS PLATFORM



Starting point: The investigation of a widespread problem for SMBs

Large companies reap significant benefits by using customized ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems to increase efficiency, extract data insights, and improve performance. On the other hand, many Small and Midsize Businesses (SMB) struggle to grow to the their full potential due to inadequate ERPs and tools that don’t fit their processes, create a data mess, and are hard to adapt when things change. SMBs with complexity and growing volume suffer the most, despite spending the most among SMBs.

We conducted extensive market research and spoke with over 200 end-users, decision makers, and stakeholders at SMBs in the US across industries. Our goal was to gain a thorough understanding of their pain points caused by business software and to find the root cause of the problem. What we found is that the inadequacy of existing ERPs or similar software can be traced back to their lack of customizations or poorly done customizations. As a result, they are a poor fit for the complexity and unique way of doing business of many SMBs.


Our innovation: A new AI-based technology that reduces time and efforts to create custom business software

We developed a new AI technology and software library of "building blocks" for business software that substantially reduce time and efforts to create custom software functionalities. This technology leverages the academic research done by Thomas Dillig. In this platform, we use AI technology to automatically combine specified building blocks to create custom business functionalities.


Funded by the National Science Foundation and selected by NYU's accelerator

This effort was funded by Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Innovation-Corps (I-Corps) grants from the National Science Foundation. The BLU SPHINX® team is a graduate of the Endless Frontier Labs program from New York University.


Open-source GPL license

We are releasing this platform, including its AI technology and library of building blocks, under the open-source GPL license. This means it is free to use, but cannot be incorporated in a commercial closed-source product. Anyone can freely build on and use this platform, as long as they respect the open-source license conditions. There is no fees for the software. There is no restriction on the number of users. The software can be configured to run on any cloud provider or local infrastructure.

Download link coming soon.


How to use it

We have leveraged this platform in digital transformation projects. For instance, it has been in use for over 3 years at an award-winning small manufacturer. Read our client story...

We can help to implement a custom solution based on our open-source platform through our expert services: digital strategy; blueprint design; planning including developer selection; project management including development supervision.

Key features


These are some of the business functionalities that the BLUSPHINX® open-source business platform and its building blocks can support:

  • Operational accounting
  • Cost accounting
  • Quotes, work orders, invoices, returns
  • Payments
  • Customers, products, prices management
  • Supplier management
  • Inventory management, traceability
  • NIST 800-171/CMMC compliance
  • Real-time dashboards and reports
  • Data analytics, business intelligence
  • Planning, scheduling
  • Timesheets, vacation management

What it looks like

Product hierarchy

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Sales

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Top sales

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Product sales

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Prices

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Payments

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Supplier payments

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Stores

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Invoices

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Comparisons

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Timesheets

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CMMC dashboard

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File tracking details

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File permissions

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File access log

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Invoice functionalities


Timesheets


Payments to suppliers


Automatic data summaries and Excel exports


Instant comparison of sales data to previous periods


Real-time updates and collaborative editing