Odoo is an open-source ERP solution that addresses common enterprise business challenges. It is scalable, user-friendly, and scalable, making it a great choice for businesses looking to achieve and maintain success.

Why does Odoo stand out in the ERP market?

As someone who has been working for and with a company whose software was created with an Enterprise (capital E) mindset, my response is "what took so long?".  When Fabien Pinckaers wrote the first version of Odoo 20 years ago, the fabric of Enterprise Software was changed forever.  With the advent of Odoo, companies had a robust, feature-rich, scalable option to the expensive, expansive and limiting offerings by other vendors.  Because of our open source model, the community has helped Odoo to grow and mature organically.  While other vendors have crippled innovation on other platforms, Odoo has encouraged and fostered it.  

Fabien Pinckaers, a Belgian businessman, began combining his passion for business and technology at a young age. He created and sold his first business management software for a company called "Les Transports Verts" at 13. During his university studies, he completed projects using various platforms, including Auction-in-Europe, Openstuff, and TinyERP (later Odoo). Odoo, a multinational company, has offices in over 100 countries and over two million users. Fabien has received numerous awards for his innovative work, including the "New Bill Gates is Belgian" award in 2009.

So, to all of the upstarts who will be entering into the Enterprise market, I recommend that you follow Odoo's philosophy.  Be open.  Foster a community.  Innovate ruthlessly.  Play well with others.  Create value while not being cheap.  

Enterprises are waiting for the next innovations.  Software creators need to make something worth buying.  Software vendors need to have a business model that makes buying from the traditional players less risky.  

Can Odoo system solve the pain points of enterprises?

Odoo solves common enterprise business challenges. Taking a business to the enterprise level introduces a vast array of difficult challenges.

Break out of silos

A McKinsey report has found that high-quality interactions within an organization lead to better innovation. The authors state, “Rewards for collaborating and for sharing knowledge…help the organization as a whole rise to the level of its best innovations.”

For example, while scientists for many years have typically worked independently in their labs, the emergence of the Internet has enabled better communication and collaboration. Diseases like SARS rapidly spread internationally while the scientists in each country worked in silos. Yet, as soon as they communicated and collaborated in finding solutions, it took only a few weeks to come up with one that worked.

To break out of silos: Try facilitating communication between potential silos, and reward resulting collaborative innovation efforts.

Boost department cohesion

The bigger the business, the harder it gets to keep everyone in close communication. This isn’t always a major problem — some departments can be functionally independent in almost all respects, after all — but when it is a problem, it’s a massive inconvenience that can result in a business essentially collapsing under its own unwieldy weight.

This issue gets worse when different departments use different software solutions, because if an employee from department A needs to temporarily consult with department B, they might struggle to understand how they do things. Using Odoo, you can ensure that each area of the business functions through one consistent interface design. Whenever collaborations need to occur, they can take place within the same ecosystem, avoiding a lot of confusion.

Odoo enhances support efficiency by providing a single, unified platform for customer support. This helps businesses to focus on their core competencies and avoid the need for multiple departments to manage their resources effectively.

Pass the baton

A common complaint in companies that struggle with changes is that during the change management process, when a project is passed to another department, the follow-through to implementation isn’t maintained.

This may require us to completely reevaluate the way we think about change management as a “race.” “Change management is more of a relay race than a marathon,” 

To pass the baton: Try setting up systems and structures that will ensure system modernization projects or legacy migration upgrade projects can be effectively handed over at appropriate times. This will help to ensure follow-through to implementation.

Software integration

Large-scale business needs to take advantage of integration capabilities that connect your software to third-party applications so they can share information with each other. Connecting data from one system to the next provides you with greater flexibility and capability while using your software. 

By adapting to changes and embracing broad approaches, businesses can avoid the pitfalls of myopia and achieve long-term success.

Unfortunately, embracing new technologies and platforms comes at a cost: they don’t always cooperate very well, if at all.Odoo, though, offers a way to get them all in line without needing them to directly interact. All an enterprise business needs to do is get every one of its chosen platforms integrated with Odoo itself, and it can then serve as a functional core, drawing from them as and when needed. Because it’s open-source and designed to be modular, it can be made to work with just about anything you care to mention, so you’re unlikely to find something that can’t be integrated.

Can Odoo system outwit, outplay, outlast the dominant ERP applications?

Now, let’s compare Odoo with its competitors.

SAP ERP: SAP ERP is one of the most popular ERP solutions in the market, primarily used by large enterprises. However, it comes with a hefty price tag and requires a team of IT professionals to implement and maintain it. In contrast, Odoo is more affordable and user-friendly, making it a better choice for small and medium-sized businesses.

Microsoft Dynamics: Microsoft Dynamics is another popular ERP solution that integrates well with other Microsoft products, such as Excel and Outlook. However, it lacks some of the features that Odoo provides, such as built-in eCommerce capabilities, which can be a significant disadvantage for businesses looking to sell products online.

NetSuite: NetSuite is a cloud-based ERP solution that offers a range of business applications, including CRM, accounting, and inventory management. However, its pricing model can be confusing, and its customer support is not as responsive as Odoo’s.

Pulling it together

At TIGO, we believe that Odoo is the perfect core system for a best-of-breed solution. By using Odoo's core modules as the base and integrating with specialized dedicated systems, we can leverage Odoo's generic features and adjust it to communicate with specialized systems such as advanced Point-Of-Sale (POS) systems, Electronic Proof of Delivery Systems (EPOD), Cloud Print, Localization and Translation Management Software, etc..

Odoo stands out among its competitors in the ERP market due to its open-source nature, modular approach, user-friendly interface, built-in eCommerce capabilities, a base (Odoo Studio) for LCNC platforms, and especially a large community. At TIGOSOFT, we have extensive experience in implementing Odoo for businesses of all sizes and industries. If you are looking for a reliable and cost-effective ERP solution for your business, contact us to learn how we can help.

This approach allows us to take advantage of the strengths of both Odoo and specialized systems, resulting in a highly customized solution that meets the specific needs of our clients so that they can achieve their business objectives more effectively.

Pham Tue Linh,
Business Analyst, TIGO Solutions