Why Odoo anyway? Interview with Alexander Zehnter

Interview with Alexander Zehnter: Why Odoo is the right path for many companies

Alexander Zehnter, financial expert and former commercial manager at Severin Touristik, has developed into the Odoo expert in Germany in recent years. His expertise in lean ERP with Odoo is now in high demand. We at ruhr.agency Alexander Zehnter also asked questions. What are the biggest benefits of Odoo He told us in a detailed interview what you should consider when implementing Odoo and which features in the new version he is most looking forward to.

Hi Alexander, I'm glad you've found the time. Maybe we'll start with a simple question: What exactly makes Odoo so attractive and exciting for you?

Alexander Zehnter: On the one hand, you can quickly get into the topic of Odoo. From a business perspective, the question for us was why not simply choose one of the big players such as SAP or Microsoft. But we were put off by the fact that on the one hand they are very complex and on the other hand very expensive and not open source. We wanted to have and retain a great deal of knowledge in-house. Last but not least, it was also crucial that we wanted a cloud-based solution.

Does that mean you have acquired the knowledge about Odoo yourself?

Yes, we absolutely had to. Our company consisted of three companies, one was the tour operator based in Germany, two of which were based in Kenya and were hotels. When we decided on Odoo as our ERP, even against opposition from some skeptics, a local Odoo partner was asked to implement it. But when the project scope was not met at all after two months, we decided to tackle the matter ourselves and take it into our own hands.

And how did you acquire the knowledge yourself?

We simply picked out tutorials and videos and tackled the matter. Although you have to say that you reach your limits at certain points because you lack best practices. For example, when it comes to product categories or unit of measures. At this point, we realized that we needed outside support after all. But the advantage of Odoo is the large community and the many experts that exist. We then hired a freelancer and carried out the implementation together with him. So it was a make or buy decision and we chose Make. Of course, we've made pretty much all the mistakes you can make, but that's also why I'm sharing my knowledge so openly on LinkedIn now, because there are certainly people who are at the same point and need help.

Did you take on various roles during the introduction or what was your role specifically?

I was initially the commercial manager and therefore responsible for finances. Since the outdated software at our Kenyan hotels only ran locally and I was only on site four to five times a year, it was clear that the new software had to be cloud-based and, above all, had to include accounting. However, the original trigger was property management for managing room allotments. Odoo doesn't have such a feature. However, we already had cloud software for it and needed to find a way to make Odoo communicate with this software. Other factors included software for POS and warehouse management. If we had covered each of these use cases with our own software, we would have spent 20,000 euros per month on licenses. That's why we said that Odoo can cover 80 percent of these cases, such as POS, inventory management, purchasing and accounting, and that we pay the same money for five years with Odoo. That made the difference.

Why did you choose Odoo?

Because we didn't want to use separate software for each individual area. On the one hand, this is much more expensive and, on the other hand, there is a risk that the individual solutions will not be able to communicate with each other. At Odoo, we have coordinated everything in one.

How do you think Odoo could still benefit you in the next five years, especially with regard to the new version 17?

As a result of the change in the licensing model, any number of apps can now be used per user. In particular, I see the potential to introduce and use the HR app as well. Another major topic is marketing automation. What I can also imagine is an app for maintaining and repairing hotel facilities.

Would you say that Odoo is very flexible when it comes to adapting applications to individual needs?

Yes. (laughs) Basically, you can do anything in Odoo. Odoo is almost like a Swiss Army knife. However, when you add a lot, it becomes more and more complex and upgrading to a new version becomes more and more difficult.

And from your very personal point of view — which pain does Odoo solve in your area in particular?

In the beginning, I thought accounting at Odoo was the coolest thing. However, there are quick wins, such as the barcode for warehouse management. It's certainly already the standard in Europe, but it was just cool for Kenyan standards. Another quick win is Odoo Documents. Making individual digital invoices from many physically available documents at the push of a button was an enormous relief for local people.

What would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of cloud or on-premise?

With Odoo, you can basically choose whether you want to host the instance in the Odoo cloud or on premise in your own cloud. In the beginning, we hosted the whole thing on Google Cloud, but I can't recommend that. It requires a great deal of computing capacity and is therefore expensive. Then we switched to Odoo.SH, which is simply tailored for Odoo and made it much easier and cheaper.

What do you think of Odoo in terms of mobile devices?

We ourselves used the barcode app in conjunction with mobile devices and it worked really well. Basically, however, we mainly used it on a PC.

Which integrations do you think are crucial for a transition to Lean ERP in the cloud?

As for the marketplace at Odoo, that's honestly a minor point of criticism. There is a marketplace with over 30,000 apps, but there is also a lot of crap. Users who expect a lot from the marketplace will quickly be disillusioned as many apps are not compatible with the latest version or have bugs. The big and popular apps all work, but the majority of apps just aren't good.

What considerations should a company make when it decides to switch to Odoo and migrate its data?

There are two considerations to consider: If accounting data is affected, then the time of migration must definitely be considered, for example when it comes to the input tax declaration. Since the accounting department always works with a time lag, it must also be ensured that the data is up-to-date. This means that you always need an accounting degree before you want to do the migration.

Secondly, it should also be noted that Odoo has its own fields for products or categories, for example. Here you have to be careful how you fill them. For example, we initially set up many products incorrectly and then had to archive them again.

What would you say are the three most important success factors when introducing Odoo?

First, top management must be convinced that the processes cannot continue to be carried out this way and that they are also inefficient. The need for an ERP must be clearly visible top-down. Implementing an ERP is not easy and always involves a lot of sweat and tears, and not everything will work out the way you imagine from the start. Expectations must also be managed accordingly. Second: Do as little customizing as possible. Many think that their industry and product are so special that they need a special industry solution. But that is not the case. Many basic processes are always the same. The consideration should therefore be: Does Odoo have to adapt to me or does Odoo already have solutions or processes out of the box that may be faster or better? So you should also see it as an opportunity to question your own processes.

The third important success factor is to start small. The good thing about Odoo is that it is modular. So you should start with your biggest pain and then gradually cover other areas. For example, we only introduced warehouse management six months after accounting.

So firstly management buy-in, secondly no customizing and thirdly a modular approach.

Thank you Alexander. It is very interesting to hear that customizing shouldn't matter from the customer's point of view for now. From our Odoo partner perspective, individual customization naturally plays an important role.

Yes, I can understand that. If the customer is happy with the adjustments and everything is going well, it is of course correct and important. But I can imagine that projects are often dragged out as a result. It's better to get things up and running quickly for once. This allows you to issue invoices or use the CRM. This ensures greater customer satisfaction. The individual adjustments can then still be made.

How well would you say Odoo can scale and adapt to changing requirements without getting into a big phase of development over and over again?

As already mentioned, this modular structure of Odoo is something that makes it very scalable. You can just start with CRM and then gradually add purchasing, accounting, and other things.

What is your position on data analysis and reporting in general? Do you think that Odoo has enough options for management to make data-based decisions? If so, what can you specifically recommend?

What I like is Odoo's accounting dashboard. It gives you a simple overview of account balances, incoming and outgoing invoices and how many invoices are still outstanding. As in other ERP systems, you can create your own dashboards in Odoo about, for example, revenue generated, customer analysis or benchmarking options. It's a long way to get to all these dashboards, but it's great when you have them.

From an entrepreneurial perspective: What return on investment can companies expect with the introduction of Odoo?

Of course, you can't say that in general terms. It also depends on how well the implementation goes. For us, the quick wins I mentioned, such as the barcode scanner, were a real ROI, with which we achieved around 80 to 90 percent efficiency improvements. For our German company, Odoo meant that we only needed half of the sales staff, who in turn generated higher sales. The entire sales processes, from sales order to invoicing, were all much faster and more efficient. The entire order-to-cash process was definitely 50 percent faster than before.

Have you noticed a difference in employee motivation since you introduced Odoo?

Yes, clearly. It must, of course, be exemplified by management. With such a big change in daily work, there is of course also a lot of resistance. It is absolutely crucial that employees start working with the new software quickly. When they see that it's relatively easy and results in more revenue with less effort, everyone is happy.

How did you use Odoo's support or community?

We tended to use Odoo support less. In particular, I used the community a lot. I can fully recommend them.

Which feature of the new version of Odoo are you most excited about or do you find the most important?

What's really cool, of course, is Odoo's new look. For hotels, the new PoS feature is important, which will in future display incoming orders for the kitchen on a screen.

Alexander, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.