You may already have clicked through the Odoo website and watched the promises scroll by. Everything is integrated, everything is simple, everything is fast. The truth is more nuanced and, paradoxically, more encouraging. Odoo is a serious, mature tool, and it is worth taking a few minutes to understand how it is organized before evaluating it.
One Application, Many Modules
- Odoo is a web application.
- You access it through a browser, from a computer, a tablet or a phone.
- There is nothing to install on users' workstations.
- You log in with a username and password, as with any modern application..
Once logged in, you land on a customizable dashboard. On the left, a menu organized by modules. Each module corresponds to a major function of the company: Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Accounting, Human Resources, Manufacturing, After-Sales Service, and so on. You activate the modules you need. You leave aside those that do not concern you.
- This modularity is an important point.
- You only pay for and learn what you use.
- A trading company will typically activate Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Invoicing, Accounting, and perhaps Website.
- A consulting firm will activate CRM, Project, Timesheets, Invoicing, Accounting, and Expenses.
- A manufacturer will add Manufacturing, Maintenance and Quality.
- The system grows with you..
A Single Database, Shared Across Modules
- The heart of Odoo is its single database.
- When you create a customer in the CRM module, that same customer exists in the Sales module, in the Accounting module, in the After-Sales module.
- You do not create the same record three times.
- You enter the information in one place, and it is available everywhere..
- This uniqueness of data is what distinguishes a true ERP from an assembly of communicating tools.
- With an ERP, there is no synchronization to orchestrate between systems.
- The record is the same.
- The stock is the same.
- The invoice is the same.
- You save time, you avoid errors, you get a unified view of your business..
Two Editions, Two Approaches
- Odoo comes in two main editions.
- The Community edition is free and open source.
- You can download it, install it on your servers, and use it without paying a license fee.
- It covers the essential functions: sales, purchasing, inventory, basic accounting, CRM, website..
The Enterprise edition is paid, per user and per month. It adds advanced modules that SMEs and mid-sized companies use in practice: full French accounting, payroll, manufacturing with AI, quality, maintenance, marketing automation, management control, business intelligence. It also includes official Odoo support and Odoo.sh hosting.
Our advice for French SMEs and mid-sized companies is generally to start with the Enterprise edition. The functional coverage is broader, support is included, and the cost of licenses compares favorably with competing solutions.
Three Hosting Options
You have three ways of hosting Odoo. The first is called Odoo Online. It is a shared plan hosted by Odoo: simple and inexpensive, but with limitations: you cannot customize the code, and the hosting is shared.
- The second is called Odoo.sh.
- It is Odoo's official cloud hosting, with the possibility of adding custom modules.
- It is the most common option for SMEs and mid-sized companies.
- Servers are in France or in Europe depending on your choice, backups are automatic, and updates are supported..
The third is called on-premise. You install Odoo on your own servers or with a hosting provider of your choice. It is the option for companies with strong requirements on data location, integration with their existing infrastructure, or full control of the system.
The Integrator, Your Local Point of Contact
- Odoo itself is powerful.
- But like any professional tool, it needs to be configured, set up, and sometimes adapted to your specific business.
- That is the role of the integrator.
- We translate how your business works into Odoo configuration.
- We train your teams.
- We support the go-live.
- We remain available afterwards for enhancements..
- A typical Odoo project for an SME runs in four phases.
- The functional audit phase identifies your current processes and targets the adjustments to be made.
- The configuration phase sets up Odoo according to your scope.
- The data migration phase brings over your history from your current system.
- The switchover and training phase guides your teams to the new tool..
To give an order of magnitude, a standard SME project is priced at between thirty and one hundred and twenty person-days of services depending on complexity, spread over three to nine months depending on scope.
First Concrete Steps
If you want to get a feel for it yourself, Odoo offers a fifteen-day free trial on its website. You create your instance, activate the modules that interest you, and explore. It is an excellent way to understand the tool's philosophy before any commercial discussion.
The next articles in this series go into the detail of each module, with concrete use cases. You will see the strengths, the points of attention, and the questions to ask yourself before getting started. Happy reading.