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xTuple, a provider of commercial open source business management software for growing companies, announced a “Feature Mob” that provides xTuple users with affordable multi-platform e-mail integration.

Feature Mob is modeled after popular social network activity and online coupon business models, company officials said. It leverages the “micro sponsorships” to quickly move ahead with adding e-mail functionality into xTuple.

The new e-mail functionality will be made available as part of its xTuple Connect add-in product, which works with all three versions of xTuple.

xTuple Connect is a powerful integration platform that automates connections between xTuple enterprise resource planning or “ERP” implementation and other software systems enabling real-time import and export from external systems, including Electronic Data Interchange or “EDI,” websites and CAD/PLM.

The e-mail functionality will integrate xTuple ERP with any IMAP mail server, and will include an optional e-mail client within the ERP system. Users will also be able to use their existing e-mail client if they prefer.

It can store all e-mail – incoming and outgoing – relevant to particular customers or other business activity in the ERP database. Entire history will be available and searchable within xTuple ERP.

This approach, according to company officials, preserves the flexibility for which xTuple is known: giving users the choice of e-mail clients and servers, and allowing them to continue to run on any combination of Windows, Mac or Linux.

Exclusive to Feature Mob participants, sponsors will receive the updated version of xTuple Connect – normally priced at $1,995 – with the new e-mail capabilities and the first year's maintenance at no additional cost, the company said.

As more sponsors join the project, the cost of participation will go down. So far, the company has 12 micro-sponsors, driving the cost from $950 per sponsor to $900, the company said. When the count reaches 21, the cost will drop another $50.

At the end, the company will refund the differences of the final cost-per-participant to all participants who paid an earlier, higher price.

“Better e-mail integration is probably the most requested feature to help our users grow revenues,” Ned Lilly, president and CEO of xTuple, said. “Building on our mission of offering advanced functionality for less, we’re making it easy and affordable for users of any edition of xTuple to have a seat at the table as we implement this major new feature.”

In September, xTuple announced it achieved continuous business growth due to the rapid expansion of its commercial customer base, TMCnet reported. The company recently signed 12 new commercial customers across multiple industries.