What Makes Odoo Different from Other ERP Solutions?

Nowadays, the market offers multiple global ERP solutions allowing businesses to grow more rapidly and efficiently. The most popular ERP systems on the modern market are:

• Odoo
• Oracle NetSuite
• SAP S/4HANA
• SAP ERP
• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Oracle ERP Cloud
• Epicor ERP
• Sage Intacct
• Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
• SAP Business One
• Salesforce CRM
• Acumatica

All these ERPs are suitable for business operations, yet, there are many differences among them – their benefits and drawbacks vary, which may be crucial for particular companies. In the following article, we’re going to narrow down your choice a bit and tell you about  Odoo, the most effective ERP system in our humble opinion. 

About Odoo

Odoo ERP system was created by a Belgium company with a rich history.  In 2005, Fabien Pinckaers, the founder and current CEO of Odoo, developed his first software product called TinyERP. In three years, the name of the product was changed to OpenERP. 

The company began to grow, and in 2010, OpenERP consisted of more than 100 employees. In 2013, the company could boast 1549% growth over a five-year period, so no wonder the company won a Deloitte award for being the fastest-growing company in Belgium. In 2014, the company was officially renamed Odoo and in 2015, it was already listed as one of the 5000 fastest-growing private companies in Europe according to Inc. Magazine.

Since then, Odoo’s popularity started increasing gradually, and in 2019, the company extended up to a $90 million investment. In 2021, the Odoo modules were employed by more than 5 million customers worldwide. And there are plenty of reasons for that. 

With the Odoo ERP solution, companies can handle almost all operations including employee management, machine management, purchase management, sales operations, and others. Yet, the most outstanding Odoo feature is its modular system – the users can choose only the needed modules from a wide variety of them (more than 40 different modules available).

Why is Odoo much more reasonable than others?

Among the wide range of ERP tools, the most challenging task for any business is to choose the proper one that will benefit the company and make its processes more efficient and smoother. That’s why we kindly offer you to consider the main Odoo peculiarities and see for yourself if it’s the right ERP system for you.

Key Odoo Features

• Odoo apps help companies to automate almost all business processes.
• Apps are completely merged.
• Odoo will help you to automate and track every business operation.
• You will get a centralized solution available from anywhere in the world, via any device.
• Two versions are available: Odoo Enterprise and free, open-source Odoo Community.
• The company pays only for those modules it uses and employs (if we’re speaking about Odoo Enterprise modules). 
• Regardless of the version, the company can customize the modules according to its goals.

Odoo ERP is a Flexible Choice

As just mentioned,  Odoo has two versions, Enterprise and Community. The latter option is free, yet if you need some additional modules from the Enterprise edition, you can easily integrate them and pay just for these modules, not the whole system. And if, for some reason, you don’t need these modules anymore, you can just delete them or replace them with others. 

The Odoo Modular Configuration

Odoo offers diverse modules to enable users to pick the needed ones based on their needs. Besides, if the company has unique requirements, it can hire Odoo experts to modify the modules and integrate them into the system. It’s worth emphasizing that the new modules are also very easy to integrate with the system you already use. 

Overall, there are about 40 basic Odoo modules or Odoo apps, covering many business functions, from Manufacturing, Inventory, and Accounting to Sales, eCommerce and HR. As just mentioned, customers can select only the applications most relevant to their business. 

The key modules of Odoo ERP are: 

• CRM
• Rapid Implementation Process
• Sales
• Manufacturing
• E-Commerce
• Point of Sale
• Purchase

Database Cleanup

When it comes to updates, the data transfer from the previous version to the newer one is usually a quite complicated process. Luckily, the Odoo ERP system allows you to  seamlessly migrate from older versions without data leakage (the company saves all the data in the cloud). Besides, the Odoo ERP system offers well-qualified security support, which will surely help you with the upgrade process.  

Speaking about updates, Odoo comes with new versions every year to offer refined modules, improved features, and other cool things to its users. Odoo’s specialists do their best to keep up with the latest trends and, therefore, they usually add a couple of new modules to the system per year.  These modules integrate smoothly with other modules and have a very user-friendly interface to be easily understandable. 

Having said that, Odoo gives support to its clients only for the three latest versions. So, for example, if you are using Odoo Enterprise 11 and you haven’t upgraded it to the newer versions timely, your system will no longer be updated with improvements, bug fixes, or operational support. So, if you decide to migrate your older version of Odoo to a newer one, it is crucial to choose the right plan for the migration by answering the following questions:

• Do you have any custom or 3rd party modules in your Odoo?
• What is the server hosting solution you are using?
• What is the edition of your system? Enterprise or Community?
• What is the original & target version of your system?

The answers to these questions will help you select the right migration strategy and plan the tasks needed for it. No other ERP system offers such a possibility! 

Wrapping Up

Looking at everything mentioned above, we can conclude that one of the most influential factors behind the success of your business is the efficiency of your ERP system. And the efficiency of your ERP system depends on the reliability of your ERP partner. A good partner will ease implementation, customization, integration, and migration, and can offer some valuable solutions for the improvement of your system. For any questions regarding Odoo ERP, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re always ready to help.