Category: ERP

Odoo ERP Implementation for Sales and Revenue Optimization

Pandemic or no pandemic, businesses are facing intense competition in the market. To stay competitive, your organization must think strategically before every move. This is especially true when it comes to sales and marketing. Ask yourselves these questions: Are your projections based on assumptions rather than figures derived from an analytical perspective? Does it take an awfully long time to reconcile your finances at the end of the month? Are you struggling to keep up with a surge in order volumes, which leads to disgruntled and dissatisfied customers? Is your inventory a royal mess? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then your business needs an ERP system! With its vast suite comprising over 40 business productivity applications, Odoo ERP provides a smoother and simpler way to run your business.

The range of business apps offered by Odoo is highly comprehensive, fully-integrated, easy to use, and supports numerous different industries. Fingent, utilizing its partnership with Odoo ensures their clients are leveraging one or more apps from Odoo to boost their business efficiencies. 

This article will highlight the challenges you may be facing in sales and marketing, and help you see if Odoo ERP can be a solution. 

Challenges in Marketing and Sales

Sales and Marketing play a vital role in your business, whether you are a B2B or a B2C company. Here are some challenges that could be an indicator that something is amiss and that you need to take action asap. 

1. Different processes to handle different tasks

Is your company using different types of software to record, track, and process information? If so, it can result in inaccurate sales data. Not having the accurate and latest accounting information can have an impact on everything from market budgets to payrolls. 

The good news is that the Odoo ERP software can integrate these systems so that all business functions stay connected to a single database. This will ensure you get accurate, real-time data when required. This can also free up your staff so they can concentrate on helping the business grow even faster. 

2. Finance reconciliation is a laborious process

Perhaps your accounting team is spending hours cross-posting information, rekeying numbers, or reconciling data manually. Odoo ERP can make a big difference here. It can automate process transactions and generate audit trails and financial reports. This can greatly simplify period-end closings.

3. Reconciliation of data takes too long

Finding average sales margins or other metrics might be a daunting task for companies that have isolated systems or work on spreadsheets. Thankfully, the Odoo ERP solution can give a holistic view of your business operations so that your staff can get accurate information to accomplish their jobs more effectively. 

Read more: 5 signs which imply that your business needs Odoo ERP 

How Can Odoo ERP Assist Your Business Gain?

Odoo ERP provides more than 5000 modules. These can help you accomplish all your business tasks efficiently and successfully. Since it is an open-source ERP platform, it can fulfill all business requirements. Odoo is API-friendly. Hence, it is easy to implement and integrate with your other business applications and modules.

Odoo has a modular structure that allows for phased implementation. Implementing one module at a time helps your organization test the functionality of that module before implementing the rest. This saves a considerable amount of time and resources. Also, with Odoo development, you can avoid licensing costs. Understandably, this enables businesses to invest for future customizations. 

Fingent’s new plugin facilitates the scheduling of Zoom meetings from Odoo!

Check out our Odoo Zoom integration module launched in Odoo Apps Store. 

With Odoo you can:

• View complete details of sales order and sales management in real-time with the help of a single software application.
• Track the future profitability of your organization based on the analytics of current production and sales.
• Make quick and informed decisions with the help of sales reports. These reports help you forecast the product demand for the future.
• Decrease the time that takes to manage the sales process. 
• Manage the entire sales order lifecycle with the help of post-sales activities. 
• Minimize the delivery time.

Read more: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises 

In What Ways Can Odoo ERP Help?

Odoo ERP is a customizable platform. It enhances sales and marketing and thus drives growth. It can help in:

1. Managing Sales 

Odoo makes it easy to manage and categorize sales orders into a well-structured and hierarchical system. It allows you to create fresh orders as well as review existing ones.

2. Point of Sale or PoS 

Odoo can optimize the Point of Sale management that includes various processes like invoicing, cash registration, and inventory. 

3. Customer Relationship Management

The customer relationship module (CRM) of Odoo helps you manage business activities, cash opportunities, solve bug-related issues, and focus on leads. With the help of this module, you can automate most activities like streamlining communication. It also allows you to prioritize your work.

4. Easy Warehouse Management 

Odoo can support the management of multiple warehouses and stock locations. You can easily and quickly define inbound, outbound, and stock locations for each of those warehouses. 

Read more: How your online store can benefit from Odoo ERP integration

5. Purchase Management

Odoo ERP makes it convenient to monitor the quotations from the suppliers. You can effortlessly convert those quotations into purchase orders.

6. Enhance Manufacturing Process

Odoo helps you to streamline the manufacturing process and its management. It can simplify the process of planning and speed up the process of manufacturing. 

7. Generate More Leads 

Odoo website builder provides a wide range of preferential options. Most importantly, it provides useful features for sales and marketing that include drag-and-drop and call-to-action buttons. Also, a client’s proposal for a project is directly stored into the Odoo sales app which can be retrieved anytime.

8. Project Management

Odoo ERP makes project management simple yet more efficient. You can track the status of the project in real-time. Additionally, it allows you to categorize the project into sub-tasks and assign it to different employees. No longer do you have to worry about missed deadlines because Odoo’s calendar helps you to keep a track of those stringent deadlines. 

9. Automation 

Tasks such as sales order and invoice generation of Odoo ERP system allows you to automate manual tasks with zero or minimal errors. Such automation lets your staff focus on more important aspects of business growth.

Read more: Top 5 Open-source ERP Systems for Medical Equipment Suppliers 

The Bottom-line 

Integrating systems and maintaining them with security updates could seem like a herculean task if your business is working on multiple orders. It can become a complicated and costly endeavor to maintain outdated versions of business software. Fortunately, Odoo is being updated continuously for higher performance and improved scalability. It allows you to match the market’s competitive scenario by implementing end-to-end ERP. 

In more ways than one, the coronavirus pandemic has pushed us to live and perform without any excuses. We can perform well when we learn to live with technology. Odoo ERP can help your company make profits now and in the future. Fingent has hands-on expertise in the consulting, implementation, and customization of Odoo for clients globally. Give us a call and we will be happy to help you understand and implement this solution for your business. 

How SAP S/4HANA Helps CFOs to Overcome The Slump and Steer Business Forward!

Unpredictable times such as these call for an “anytime, anywhere” finance function, and CFOs are expected to take the lead in accelerating strategic growth across the enterprise. Therefore, suddenly the CFOs found their organizations in a firefighting mode: gauging risks, preserving cash, and rapidly revising all financial plans and forecasting for the next month, quarter, and year. At this point, most CFOs found technology to be a key driver for improving transparency and efficiency. SAP S/4HANA is ‘the’ technology that supports the evolution of the finance function today and into the future. 

However, this journey is not easy. Companies must develop a business case for SAP S/4HANA that will support their strategic vision. By leveraging the right finance technology innovations and partnering with a trusted SAP solutions provider, companies can maintain global regulatory compliance and engage in efficient finance processes. 

Technology assists CFOs to control accounting and tax standards and engage with the business to jointly drive value. Having said that, technological trends that have been sitting in incubation mode have now emerged as real working models. This article discusses how SAP S/4HANA can leverage the CFO’s vision of becoming a value creation role model for the business.

Read more: How Fingent Helps CFOs Gain New Insights and Reliably Enable Key Decisions 

Typical challenges for the CFO’s vision

Most often, a CFO’s agenda is held back by their organization’s complex technology landscape. This often renders efficient closing and reporting impossible within expected timelines. Such cumbersome systems hamper the management of working capital while making it difficult for finance departments to obtain reliable figures for profit and loss or forecasted budgets. 

Perhaps you find yourself in this situation: At the end of the month, you find that you could not meet the deadline for the period closure. To make matters worse, mistakes made during the month must be rectified, data from different systems must be imported randomly into an Excel sheet. That is not all! All this information must be manipulated into a decent report. You take a breath that eventually it all worked well. However, the same thing happens the next month, and this pattern keeps repeating itself month after month. That stress peaks by the year-end. Amidst all this chaos, you are left with little time to proactively steer the company based on those figures. You may wonder, is all this financial data gathering purely an obligation just to satisfy auditors? 

Companies can gain much profit by keeping admin up-to-date and proactively adjusting the business based on current financial data. That is the biggest advantage SAP S/4HANA provides. It gives the reins of business into your control. 

Read more: How SAP S/4HANA transforms the end-to-end business process

Three focus areas where CFOs can gain more control with SAP S/4HANA

1. Control system landscape

As a CFO, you must deal with various financial systems and programs that contain your financial data. All financial data must be collected continuously and loaded into a reporting tool. Apart from this, data must also be entered into an Excel program. Such a fragmented landscape with a jumbled interface leads to errors, data duplication, and the probability of inconsistent data. This translates into enormous amounts of wasted money and time. Replacing this complex structure with an integrated system saves a lot of time and money. SAP S/4HANA provides CFOs a simplified landscape that leads to more control.

Read more about our Case Study: How Fingent successfully automated the integration between SAP SuccessFactors and SAP S/4HANA. Click here to download!

2. Control over processes

Fragmented processes lead to many errors and waste much time. However, once your system landscape is integrated, you will be able to optimize your processes. This will save time, which you can use to proactively manage the company with critical decision making based on your current financial data. This is where SAP S/4HANA finds value. It offers possibilities to automate and integrate processes. It allows you to add smart KPIs. This, in turn, helps you decide which areas need your attention and avoid those that are less important.

3. Control transactions

Entering data several times on different screens and in various steps leads to incomplete data. Most often, no valuable information can be retrieved from such a system. Nevertheless, S/4HANA can ensure that the transactions are carried out correctly. This will keep the data informative and up to date.

How S/4HANA can transform the landscape to help embrace a CFO’s vision

The challenges faced by CFOs and finance professionals today are complicated, but S/4HANA can simplify them. CFOs can seamlessly unify their information landscape to remove gaps and ease pain-points by leveraging the in-memory data and processing capabilities of SAP S/4HANA architecture, and cloud deployment scenarios.

Instead of grappling with disparate pieces, this approach enables CFOs and financial professionals to see a holistic real-time view that encompasses all operational data sets and analysis capabilities within a single unified architecture. 

What is the impact of SAP S/4HANA on CFOs?

SAP S/4HANA improves access to information, and the ability to manipulate that information. Additionally, it can dramatically improve the real-time analytics performance. Thus, with the help of SAP S/4HANA, CFOs have more power to show the management board what they can achieve. 

Empowered with SAP S/4HANA, CFOs know that they can respond impromptu to the management board’s questions. With that power, they can just tap for details and input from the live business. Usually, the management board fires off questions after the CFO delivers the company report. Such questions could be linked to newly acquired subsidiaries or similar activities. SAP S/4HANA gives CFOs instant access to all data and processes of the company. Thus, a CFO is now able to include outcomes of the newly acquired business. Also, SAP S/4HANA allows you to model the efficient integration of identical operations and product hierarchies. This allows CFOs to join key drivers in their simulation model with new business planning and get instant combined results. In turn, it will help board members to figure out the impact of global cash flows and financial position. 

CFOs can pull real-time cash and liquidity data of all business systems. With the analytics in SAP S/4HANA, they can advise the board confidently if the venture would be profitable. Evidently, CFOs do more than just crunching figures. They give the board a preview of what the business could look like after a merger or with an investment. To that end, SAP S/4HANA enables CFOs and financial professionals to predict potential market growth in addition to current operations. 

How can SAP S/4HANA help CFOs achieve their prime objectives in an agile manner?

1. Financial planning, data processing, and analysis

Proper financial planning is a strategic objective for organic business growth. However, proper financial planning depends on the availability of financial data for profitable growth. Financial planning must be aligned with the growth strategies of the organization. It must be analyzed to explore new products, channels, and markets.  With an embedded BPC solution for planning, SAP S/4HANA provides agility, flexibility, and accuracy in the planning process. Since it is available in the enterprise core system, no time is wasted in data loads and data reconciliation. It makes previous years actuals available for making plans. Financial data can be churned easily to simulate various growth strategies and help the organization make informed decisions. 

2. Support corporate growth

Businesses expect CFOs to support them in driving growth strategies, both organic and inorganic growth. Mergers, acquisitions, and decisions to expand business in various geographies play an important role in growth strategies. To that end, SAP S/4HANA provides real-time financial reporting that reduces the time-consuming reconciliation process. This results in a quick closing. Since it is supported by analytical dashboards with simulations, it can help CFOs make strategic decisions with accuracy and agility.

3. Gain a competitive advantage

CFOs want to keep an eye on regulatory changes and changing domestic and international economic conditions because it gives an opportunity to drive competitive advantage. They can do this with the support of SAP S/4HANA. Since it is an innovation platform it can help CFOs to reimagine and reinvent their processes. Thus, it can bring agility to their decision making.

SAP S/4HANA upholds agility and accuracy of financial information 

An ongoing concern for CFOs is the lack of agility in getting financial reporting.  Additionally, manual data reconciliation results in inaccurate data. However, SAP S/4HANA provides financial reports in real-time. Its universal journal feature brings in simplicity and flexibility. Since it allows you to store data in a single table, slicing and dicing the data is made easy. This makes reporting at multiple dimensions simple and real-time. 

Most CFOs realize that managing evolving technology such as SAP S/4HANA is not just about streamlining operations. It is also essential for managing fraud detection, regulation, and compliance. Compliance requirements have become stringent globally. SAP S/4HANA provides a comprehensive solution for fraud and risk management. 

Laser focus on your core competency

CFOs and finance professionals do not view themselves as bookkeepers. They are business outcome-focused leaders and business partners who are stewards of the company’s profit and resources. They are innovators and strategists. CFOs are those who can overcome economic uncertainty and use financial data for growth. Hence, they must be trusted advisors to the management board while overseeing the job of managing cost and profitability. In short, a CFO must be a multitasker! SAP S/4HANA provides the platform and tools for efficient multitasking. It supercharges a CFO’s vision of becoming a value creation role-model for the business.

As CFOs grapple with new disruptive business models, SAP S/4HANA Finance can help them in their decision-making process at a tactical and strategic level. Being an SAP Silver Partner, we are helping CFOs to gain new insights and reliably enable key decisions. 

Talk to an expert to understand how we can enhance your organization’s ability to pivot quickly and adapt to dynamic business scenarios. 

Fingent launches Odoo Zoom integration module in Odoo Apps Store

Are you managing your crucial business functions like ERP and CRM via Odoo and scheduling your online meetings via Zoom? 

Very often, you’d have faced this difficulty of logging into Zoom separately to join the meetings. Some of you would’ve even missed the appointments or run late to join, just because you got too busy to track your Zoom calendar. 

Spending your whole day on Odoo and switching to Zoom in between is annoying. Being an Official Partner of Odoo, Fingent has always catered to the needs of various customers and streamlined their operations thus saving their costs, time, and resources. Now you can easily schedule your Zoom meetings from Odoo using Fingent’s new plugin that integrates Odoo with Zoom, inclusive of updating Odoo based calendars. Participants can join the meeting using the meeting link and ID. Both the organizer and the participants need not require individual Zoom accounts as the meeting can be scheduled from within Odoo. 

Click here to check out our Odoo Zoom integration module launched in Odoo Apps Store. 

Features

• Easy flow between Odoo and Zoom
• Automatically syncs meetings scheduled via Odoo with Zoom
• Sets passwords to join the meeting
• Manages time-zone considerations
• Support for Zoom’s advanced meeting settings
• Multi-user and multi-company support

Want to integrate this custom business logic to extend and amplify the functionalities of your Odoo CRM/ ERP suite? Get in touch with us. 

Does your business require Odoo ERP? Look at these aspects and decide. 

Building a business is not an overnight endeavor. Spreadsheets and separate solutions may have worked years ago, but that is old news. In the current scenario, the business world is changing every second. It is important for businesses to make informed decisions quickly. Having up-to-date data can help businesses make these decisions that impact them for growth. However, as William Pollard said, “Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.” To achieve that, businesses need Odoo ERP, a centralized information structure. 

Read More: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises 

If you find that your business is experiencing difficulties in managing aspects such as finances, order volume, and customer satisfaction, then maybe it is time to invest in a workable ERP system.  Businesses must decide which ERP can solve the majority of their problems and empower their business to succeed in its growth strategy. Before we even get to that, you must know for sure if your business actually needs an ERP system or if you can do without it. This article points you to five distinct signs that show whether you need ERP software. If your business is facing any of these 5 problems, it may be a clear sign that it needs the efficiency introduced by Odoo ERP system. 

1. Accessing data related to your business is a horrendous task

Is it a time-consuming task to find out what your average sales margin is or the number of orders per day? Is your company totally dependent on separate systems and spreadsheets? Do you need to update them constantly and reconcile them manually? If your answer is YES to these questions, then this is a clear sign that you need an efficient ERP system to help you.

When your business experiences growth, you will notice that your employees need quick access to data at all times. You would not want your employees running around or calling each other across different departments until they find the information they are looking for. Also, business owners need a holistic view of business operations at any given point in time. Your sales representatives too should be able to view the full transaction history of your customers so that they can increase upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Odoo ERP system helps your entire staff get the necessary information more quickly and effectively. Odoo ERP system produces accurate and real-time data. This will save your staff the precious time that is otherwise used upon the duplication process. It can enable a seamless flow of information across all your departments.

Read more: Top 5 Open-source ERP Systems for Medical Equipment Suppliers

2. You have different software to manage different processes 

Do your accounting team and sales team use two different systems while your warehouse team uses the third solution to track shipping and receiving?  Do your employees feel that the job of processing orders is a tedious manual task? 

Multiple software can create problems such as inaccurate and insufficient data. Odoo ERP can integrate these systems for a smooth business functionality within a single database. It is a source that contains accurate real-time data and prevents information confusion. This in turn helps your employees make quick decisions while freeing up their time to work on high-value projects that promote business growth. 

3. Your accounting system is too complicated

Is your accounting department still relying on paper-based invoices and sales orders? Is your staff spending many hours manually entering information into various accounting systems? Has your financial reporting become a horrendous task? If so, you need the Odoo ERP system to make a significant impact and save you some valuable time. 

With the Odoo ERP system, you can have all your financials on a single database. This means you can save time in manually cross-posting information and reconciling data. Implementing Odoo ERP reduces frustrations and minimizes delays in delivering critical reports. 

Read more: Meeting the HR Requirements With Odoo 

4. You have a complex and time-consuming IT system

Is managing your IT system consuming a lot of time? Managing multiple systems can be complex, costly, and time-consuming. Trying to add additional software to an already ineffective system is as good as patching a hole in a bucket with a cotton ball. In contrast, adopting Odoo ERP system gives you the capability to respond effectively to changing business and IT requirements. The cloud-based edition of Odoo ERP offers customized solutions. It increases flexibility and efficiency within your business. It can give you an edge in managing your partners, customers, and suppliers. 

5. Your sales are suffering because of bad customer support

Are you finding that your inventory management has become more challenging as your business continues to grow? Are you running out of popular stock just when it is most in demand? Are your employees unable to locate products that your customers are requesting? These situations can undermine the trust of your customers in your reliability and customer service. No business can survive without retaining old customers in addition to acquiring new ones.

Odoo ERP allows your entire staff to access information in real-time. This enables your customer service representatives to answer customer queries without having to transfer them to another department. This also helps warehouse managers to replenish the stock before it completely runs out. It is a failproof way to stay ahead in business competition.

Read More: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP 

You Know You Need ERP. What Next?

If you see these signs in your business, you now know that you need an ERP system, so where do you go from there? You might want to know if it is worth the investment and how you can implement it. 

Firstly, remember there is no limit to the improvements brought into your business by a well-implemented Odoo ERP system. It can fix your existing problems and also enhance what is working well, which is the best driver of growth and innovation. The Odoo ERP system is a single powerhouse software that covers all your business requirements. It can improve business efficiency while providing the much-needed flexibility to run your business smoothly. As an integrated management system, Odoo ERP focuses on the main business processes often in real-time. It can collect, store, manage, and interpret data from all aspects of your business. Investing in Odoo ERP software can help businesses improve performance. It can assist with the automation of certain processes within the organization making it a worthwhile investment.

How do you implement it? Fingent is an official partner of Odoo and has hands-on expertise in consulting, implementation, and customization of Odoo for clients all over. We can help you implement and customize Odoo ERP solutions for your business needs and answer any other questions you might have. Get in touch with us and let’s get the conversation started.  

Read more: A 3-day Odoo CRM implementation story!  

Choosing between SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign

Technology is constantly evolving to introduce better and more efficient ways of doing business. Manual and traditional spreadsheets are no longer the best way to do things. Most businesses are recognizing that technologies like ERP software are more robust when deployed over the cloud. This has got them looking for digital solutions to automate their processes. This is where SAP comes into the picture. 

Growing businesses looking to streamline their business process are turning to SAP, which offers several solutions including SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign. With an ever-increasing choice in the ERP market, you might wonder how you can choose from all the different offerings and what is the difference between SAP Business One and SAP Business ByDesign. This article will walk you through the differences between these solutions. It will also help business users and decision-makers choose the perfect ERP solution that fits their business needs. 

Read more: What is Business Process Expertise in SAP and Why You Need it 

Let us begin with an overview of both platforms.

Overview of SAP Business All-in-One Solution (B1)

SAP Business One has been around for many years and has been the go-to product for small businesses. It is an on-premise system built on SAP ERP application. It addresses the fundamental business software requirements of all types of industries. These solutions provide support for your business. With it, you can win a new customer, make innovative products, and reconcile your accounts. SAP Business One is proven and comprehensive with built-in industry best practices. 

Starting from production to distribution, SAP Business One (B1) promotes transparency at every step of the business. SAP B1 powers business growth by tapping into your personalized data to offer actionable insights. SAP Business One solution focuses on streamlining workflows and reducing costs. 

It helps integrate a spectrum of business processes into a single solution to optimize your business performance. SAP B1 offers modules for financial management, reporting, accounting, analytics, customer management, purchasing, inventory management, and industry-specific versioning. 

Overview of SAP Business ByDesign (ByD)

SAP Business ByDesign is cloud-based. It is designed for mid-market businesses and subsidiaries. It is perfect for those who wish to leverage the benefits of large-scale business management applications without the need for maintaining a larger IT infrastructure. SAP Business ByDesign unifies multiple business operations. It enables companies to incorporate business processes that can solve immediate problems and then add processes as required. 

SAP Business ByDesign (ByD) is delivered through a single user interface. It can deliver pre-configured software for business processes. Additionally, it can support best practices for managing customer relationships, human resources, financials, projects, procurements, and the supply chain. This cloud-based ERP solution is delivered on-demand. It is monitored, managed, and maintained by SAP experts in cloud-hosted data centers. As a result, businesses need not worry about the upgrade and maintenance of the solution. Also, this does not require an up-front capital cost. 

Read more: SAP Preconfigured Solutions Boost Efficiency Among Industries 

SAP Business One (B1) vs. SAP Business ByDesign (ByD)

While these two might seem like twin solutions, they have some important differentiating factors. Let us look at these factors so that you can determine which fits better for your business.

1. Customers 

SAP B1 typical customers include businesses that are from the manufacturing, distribution, basic retail, eCommerce, and service industries. 

SAP ByD customers range from manufacturers who create products or processes to professional service firms who are looking to automate their business processes in real-time. Other sectors include life sciences, financial services, and fintech. 

2. Size of the organization

SAP B1 is basically designed for small businesses. It has a minimum user limit. This solution is ideal for small to mid-sized organizations that need a step-up from a basic accounting solution. The sweet spot for SAP Business One is 5-50 users.

SAP ByD is best for upper mid-sized companies with a minimum number of 5 users. It suits businesses that are looking to scale as well as the enterprise subsidiaries. The sweet spot for SAP ByD is 20-1500 users or more. 

3. Features 

SAP B1 offers a lean set of modules that make up the core of ERP. It streamlines business processes end-to-end and is deployed on-site and runs on Windows OS. SAP B1 allows companies to add custom functionality. Users can manage sales, inventory, finances, production, and services. Companies can also use it for procurement, CRM, basic project systems, dashboards, embedded analytics, and basic multi-company functionality. 

Read more: Tackling healthcare data challenges with SAP Analytics

In addition to all the features of SAP B1, SAP ByD offers multi-level bills of material, which makes it easy to manage project systems and allows you to incorporate multiple companies under a single instance. SAP ByD also offers a mobile app, travel expense fields, timesheet integration, and a built-in workflow to assist your employees to stay on task.  SAP ByD streamlines business operations such as transactions, ordering, and logistics from end to end in real-time. It facilitates interactions between various departments and between enterprise branches. 

SAP ByD enables you to customize your package to include the features your company needs. It facilitates real-time interactions. That means you can check your inventory and orders whenever you need it. This solution can be implemented in a matter of a few weeks.

4. Budget

The implementation target budget of SAP B1 ranges between $40k (simple) to $200k (complex) with the total package costing up to $1,700 for limited users and $3,700 for professional users. Apart from the cost of implementation, companies will have to spend money on the software license, hardware, IT support, security, and infrastructure. A company’s deployment options determine if their hardware and support requirements should be assigned to a cloud solution provider. 

The implementation target budget of SAP ByD ranges between $50k (simple) to $200k (complex) with the average user cost at $80/mth/user. Apart from the implementation cost, clients are expected to pay for an annual subscription fee and any other optional technical support. 

5. Deployment 

SAP B1 is an on-premise application that is also available in the intranet cloud. However, it is not a complete SaaS application. Certain features such as Microsoft Outlook will work only through the Microsoft Outlook Integration add-On for SAP Business One. 

SAP ByD is completely cloud-based and so it can help companies connect every function across their business. 

6. Security 

Since SAP B1 is hosted on-premise data center, the client is responsible for security. Because the data does not have to travel via cloud, it may be less vulnerable to remote hacking. However, it is more susceptible to a physical attack or espionage on your premises. It is not as safe and secure as SAP’s data centers.

Since it is a Saas system, the responsibility of security rests on the vendor. SAP ByD is hosted in a highly secured data center. It has the best data security centers with excellent security measures including advanced encryption standards and bulletproofing. 

7. Implementation 

SAP B1 does not support multi-company implementation. It is not possible to have an entity-specific data or entity-specific chart of accounts. 

Whereas SAP ByD can maintain organizational structure, run subsidiaries and overseas branches with a single system. It is possible to have entity-specific charts of accounts. 

8. Integrations

SAP B1 can be integrated with anything. However, it requires expertise and additional cost to do so. For an intercompany functionality, you will need an add-on. This means users will have to switch databases when they access information from another legal entity. 

SAP ByD is a unique solution that offers over 200 pre-built integrations. It is a real multi-company solution. With intercompany capability built-in, SAP ByD can facilitate single-sign-on to offer visibility across various legal entities. 

9. Industries

Manufacturing, trading, retail, distribution, eCommerce, and service industries are best suited for SAP B1.

SAP ByD fits companies that are involved in distribution, manufacturing, construction, software, IT, consulting, pharmaceuticals, chemical, medical and service industries. 

Read more: SAP Focused Industry Templates & Automation Solutions 

10. Financials 

SAP B1 does not allow multiple account charts for one company and neither does it allow linking them with accounting charts. This solution lets you create just one posting period for one company. It does not offer different methods of revenue recognition. Though this version has built-in analytics, not all options are available. In purchasing, SAP B1 provides a direct invoice after receiving goods from the vendor. However, since it does not save the information of that invoice, there is no way you can resolve any discrepancies that occur at a later period. 

SAP ByD allows multiple accounting charts for one company and you can link them with financial books and transactions. This solution lets you have different financial periods for different financial books. Additionally, you can generate financial reports based on these periods. SAP ByD supports different accrual methods for different sales documents. This version offers built-in analytics such as margin information from sales. In purchasing, SAP ByD provides an invoice receipt concept to confirm the invoice from the vendor. That invoice is then saved in the system before booking the final voice. This allows companies to resolve any discrepancies that arise at a later point. 

Read more: Business Continuity Planning with SAP 

What is the verdict?

SAP B1 and SAP ByD are two excellent and well thought out solutions. As discussed, they have a few differentiating factors that can help you choose between them. The best solution for you depends on the size, structure, and growth potential of your organization. A business with a simplified management structure and a more limited growth plan is better suited for the SAP B1 platform. However, a business that is on an accelerated growth plan with multiple operating subsidiaries would better suit SAP ByD. This is because it has the ability to expand quickly with greater functionality and capability. 

We enable e-invoicing integration for SAP users to stay compliant with GST India regulations. Click here to explore

Regardless of whichever solution you chose, ensure to test your ERP system before you go live. Even after you go live, you can continue to optimize the technology’s features. We offer customized SAP solutions ranging from core ERP to innovative and intelligent solutions such as SAP S/4 HANA, SAP Leonardo, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Customer Experience, and more. 

Fingent can help you make the right choice as well as implement it seamlessly for your business. Get in touch with us and let’s get the conversation started. 

Fingent Helps Ensure Hassle-free Filing of B2B e-Invoices for SAP Users in India

e-Invoicing is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception across industries and is being deemed mandatory by many governments as well. The Government of India has announced that starting from 1st October 2020, e-Invoicing will be mandatory for enterprises with a turnover of ₹500 crores while they submit their B2B invoices to the IRP and GST portal. 

Invoices that do not comply with the set requirements will be considered null and void.  All registered businesses under the notified class of taxpayers with an aggregate turnover of ₹500 crores and above must get ready and take advantage of solutions that facilitate the automatic issuance and receipt of electronic invoicing. 

In today’s fast-changing world, enterprises are under increasing pressure to adapt and perform. One way to deal with this challenge is to simplify processes for both buyers and suppliers. e-Invoicing is an excellent step in that direction. By making the transition from physical to digital invoicing, many companies are reaping the benefits of a more reliable, traceable, secure, and streamlined process. Fingent helps you accomplish the change in the simplest way. 

This article covers how SAP provides an automated solution for your business and how easy it is to file e-Invoices through your SAP ERP system. 

Without further ado, let us get into the details of e-Invoicing for B2B businesses.

What is the difference between a digital invoice and an e-Invoice?

Is there really a difference? Yes, there is! A digital invoice is either a Word or a PDF file of a paper invoice that is scanned. An e-Invoice on the other hand, is a data file that is transferred between computers. It contains structured data making it easier for a computer to comprehend and book automatically.

Why switch to e-Invoicing?

IRN has become mandatory on invoices and it is a requirement to avail the credit. False filing of credit with fake invoices has caused a considerable loss of revenue for the government. The e-Invoice system can provide a better taxpayer service resulting in an enormous reduction in evasion. e-Invoicing can also enhance the efficiency of tax administration by setting up enterprises on paper to generate invoices. 

An e-Invoice helps you detect and avoid false claims made through fake invoices. It restricts tampering with invoice value and other details. It can also simplify GST reporting. 

Here are some benefits of e-Invoicing:

• Convenient: Processing is digital and automated
• Fast: No waiting time for the paper to move from one desk to another
• Accurate: Minimized human error
• Cost-effective: Printing and postage cost is eliminated

Read more: Recession-proof Your Business with Digital Alternatives, Go Paperless! 

What is involved in e-Invoicing?

Having seen the benefits of e-Invoicing, let us get into the nitty gritty of e-Invoicing. Electronic invoicing or e-Invoicing is a system that is used to generate and authenticate an electronic document containing transaction information between the seller and the buyer. It is automatically sent over the internet and can be easily integrated into a customer SAP ERP or third-party system.

The IRP (Invoice Registration Portal) gives an identification number to these e-Invoices. The IRN (Invoice Reference Number) generated by IRP will then be used to transfer all the information to the e-Way bill portal and the GST portal. This system reduces human efforts and a lot of paperwork. These e-Invoices are specially simplified with web apps while still allowing for SAP systems to process them easily. 

The documents that are valid for e-Invoicing are invoices by a supplier, credit notes by a supplier, debit notes by a recipient. In the SAP system it is extremely easy to determine if the customer is eligible for e-Invoicing. Currently, the SAP solution is valid for B2B customers. If a customer has a registered GSTIN (goods and services tax identification number), the standard SAP solution determines if the customer is eligible for e-Invoicing or not. 

How to generate an e-Invoice under GST?

Here is a look at the steps involved in generating e-Invoices:

1. e-Invoices must be generated in the standard format prescribed by the GST network.
2. After generating the e-Invoice, it will be updated on the IRP and sent through an asynchronous call.
3. The IRP will then assign an IRN to the e-Invoice and digitally sign it.
4. Then, IRP will generate a unique QR code that contains vital information on the invoice.
5. Lastly, the e-Invoice is emailed to the recipient of the document. 

The e-Invoice process and its advantages

The e-Invoice system aims to avoid data mismatch errors by addressing various challenges and enabling better data reconciliation. The generation process allows for interoperability, thus minimizing data entry error. It allows you to track the e-Invoices prepared by suppliers in real-time. As the relevant data of the invoices are auto populated when filing different returns, it makes the tax return filing process much simpler and easier.

How SAP rose to the occasion

With most aspects of the business being digitized, the government process is not far behind. This approach towards digitization by the government has generated a need for electronic tax compliance. The e-Invoice system with regulatory obligations has become mandatory for businesses in most countries, including India. In order to cater to the need for a country-specific legal requirement integration, SAP developed its own SAP document compliance solution for S/4 HANA systems and SAP ECC for India users.

Benefits of navigating e-Invoicing through SAP document compliance

• A Global platform: SAP e-documentation is a globally used platform to generate e-Invoices and real-time reporting. 
• Live status update: It offers a live status update for each e-Invoice.
• Health check: By validating transaction data, it ensures an error-free payload to the IRN and NIC portal.
• Three solutions in one platform: It consists of e-Way bill, e-Invoice, and SAP digital compliance service of India.

SAP document compliance can offer businesses real-time generation of e-Invoices, auto-generate part-A of the e-Way bill while creating an e-Invoice, smoothen reconciliation between the e-Way bill and IRN and make cancellation of IRN possible. 

How Fingent can help you stay compliant with GST India e-Invoicing

Being a Silver Partner of SAP, Fingent offers e-Invoicing integration for SAP ERP users in India. We provide:

• API integration to authenticate, generate, cancel, print, and track e-invoice as per the prescribed format
• Follow SAP billing transactions to generate e-invoices directly
• MIS Reporting, Reconciliation, Status, Alerts, and Dashboards
• Extensive configuration options and easy-to-manage customizations
• No conflict with any of the existing SAP functionalities 
• SLA-driven support under AMC 
• On-demand support to handle any statutory changes made by the Govt. 

Read our case study: Automated Integration between SAP SuccessFactors-Employee Central and SAP S/4HANA– How Fingent helped the customer gain real-time insights for improved decision-making

The right implementation of e-Invoicing has the potential to transform the transactional landscape of the Indian commercial economy into a transparent digital system. It is an opportunity to create an automated e-trail and the SAP solution is designed to help you make this smoother and keep a tight control over legal requirements and compliances. 

Future-proof your business by giving it the edge it needs with our customized SAP solutions, which will help you with your e-Invoicing as well as offer you a host of other competitive advantages. We at Fingent are experts at creating intelligent business solutions with SAP. Give us a call and let us get you started. 

A list of 5 popular open-source ERPs that support healthcare equipment suppliers

The global healthcare expenditure is anticipated to rise at a CAGR of 5% till 2023. The healthcare industry can, therefore, look at a bright future. Medical equipment suppliers have to deal with various challenges. They have to ensure that all products comply with the regulatory guidelines, are of high quality, and are entirely traceable. Robust ERP systems can help medical equipment suppliers to gather insights from data to make quick decisions. Let’s take a look at some of the open-source ERP systems out there that are suitable for SMEs.

1. Odoo ERP

Odoo is an open-source ERP platform that allows ease of deployment. This is specifically helpful for SMEs that do not have dedicated IT infrastructure. The flexibility helps integration of different business processes and systems. Odoo for medical equipment suppliers is a comprehensive ERP solution that helps manage financials and operations with ease. 

The core modules of Odoo like Accounting, Project Management, and Inventory Management make it suitable for medical equipment suppliers. Developers can create custom third-party apps to meet the specific needs of a medical equipment supplier. Odoo offers more than 10,000 apps to meet most business needs. Fingent is an official partner of Odoo with years of experience in implementing, customizing, and providing consultation for clients. As an Odoo development company, Fingent has catered to the needs of various customers and streamlined their operations. Our motto of increasing efficiency and ease-of-use has made us a popular choice among various organizations for Odoo implementation requirements. 

Read more: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises

2. ERPNext 

ERPNext is a contemporary ERP solution that allows you to focus on delivering medical equipment of high-quality by effortlessly managing your supply chains. It enables you to intelligently track orders, monitor stock levels, implement promotions, and minimize errors in inventory sourcing. You can leverage the numerous built-in integrations offered by ERPNext and start supplying in no time. With ERPNext, you can have real-time updates on the movement of equipment, control equipment transfers within different warehouses, and generate required reports quickly and easily. You can also create your customized software on-the-fly without any code. 

3. Epicor 

Medical equipment suppliers have to deal with difficult delivery timelines, complicated pricing arrangements, unique inventory, oversee seller agreements, and concessions. Epicor ERP solution enables you to carry out all your operations with ease. The Epicor Prophet 21 ERP is specifically designed for supply and distribution. This user-friendly ERP system can help suppliers maximize profits and scale without limits. Epicor allows you to integrate all your business applications with RESTful API. You can also automatically manage your warehouses with Epicor Prophet 21. This helps in the smooth running of all processes in your warehouse. This, in turn, improves precision enabling you to provide better services to your customers.   

Epicor Commerce Connect helps you to create and maintain an online presence which is the need of the hour. The increased visibility across the supply chain helps medical equipment suppliers even forecast demand. 

Read more: ERP or Digital Transformation: The Best Technology Solution For Your Enterprise

4. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 combines the best practices of Microsoft’s ERP, CRM, and BI solutions into a single product that is cloud-based. These features enable the system to scale and grow along with your business. Capabilities like Material Resource Planning and Vendor Self-Service Help minimize vendor lead times and inventory carrying costs. The fully automated warehouse management system (WMS) helps optimize your warehouse space, labor, and resources. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 gives medical device suppliers full visibility across the entire supply chain and the ability to track information and job at all touchpoints. This helps improve efficiency, reduce expenses, and promote smooth communication within different segments of the medical device industry supply chain. As a medical device supplier, you need to understand who has purchased the device from you and whether it has come back for service. You have to take information from different systems and combine those to give meaningful reporting. You also may have to rework your inventory according to changes in regulations. Microsoft Dynamics 365 allows you to be unique in the medical device industry because that’s what gives you the edge.

Read more: ERP E-commerce

5. Oracle NetSuite 

Oracle Netsuite is proven to be a very mature SaaS solution that brings in next-level integration and seamless nature to the table. Though NetSuite is ideal for SMEs who can leverage the relatively low-cost entry point, many enterprise-level companies are also considering Netsuite due to the scalability that it provides. Oracle NetSuite helps medical device suppliers to react to the diverse market and deal with different customer bases and different routes-to-market. NetSuite helps you reduce indirect costs and get through the maze of the regulatory framework by allowing modifications and customizations. You get one central source of information that helps simplify the complexities of the medical device business. The flexibility that Oracle NetSuite offers, helps the medical equipment industry to adapt to the changes in customer demand and provide them with what they want and when they want. 

Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP

Conclusion

Analyses of the medical equipment supplies and distribution industry show that companies that have demonstrated the ability to leverage cloud computing and ERP have increased their profitability and revenue. This was achieved as a result of seamless integration of all business processes which enabled real-time financial and operational visibility, better cost management structures, improved forecasting and revenue tracking, and the ability to access data from anywhere. 

A large number of medical equipment suppliers usually are small to medium-sized businesses, where the one-off system automation model proves to be inefficient. Cloud-based ERP systems eliminates the old standalone computer systems and replaces them with a single, unified software program. Thus, someone in Finance can easily look into the Warehouse software to check if an order is shipped. ERP cloud computing can help you see exactly where your business is, at any second of the day. You can see how much revenue you’ve earned for the day, how much inventory you have, how you are trending over previous days, months, and years. 

Read more: A 3 day Odoo CRM implementation story!

Cloud-based ERP systems becoming the rage for medical equipment suppliers, it’s high time that you too invest in one, if not done already. Fingent helps you leverage the benefits of the open-source ERP systems mentioned above by understanding your unique business requirements. Because we know that this uniqueness is what gives you that competitive edge. Contact us to know more about how your business can benefit from ERP integration. 

How your online store can benefit from Odoo ERP integration

The share of global retail sales generated via e-commerce witnesses a steady rise year over year. Thanks to COVID-19! The 2020 digital commerce market saw many new entrants including the brick and mortar purists who were always hostile to investing in modernization. 

Looking at the current scenario, we can rest assured that the surge in online shopping activity will not take a back seat even after the economic crisis settles. The increasing convenience offered by multiple digital channels will lure customers to make more purchases online, be it daily necessities, medical supplies, precious gadgets, or other seasonal goods.

As of 2020, there are around 2 bn digital buyers in the world, which is roughly 25% of the global population. According to a study, 20 years down the line, 95% of all purchases are expected to be via e-commerce. Imagine the vast online buying population demanding access to details such as order histories, past invoices, product comparisons, ratings, reviews, descriptions, warranty, usage, and more such data! Is your e-business equipped to handle this?

Read more: Odoo CRM vs Salesforce CRM: How to make the right choice

Any business- small/ medium/ large– ambitious of growing its online presence should tap the right technology, and any e-commerce business that wants to deliver exceptional customer service requires powerful integration with an ERP system. You can consult with an Odoo ERP software development partner for customized needs. 

In this post, we look at the five advantages of integrating your e-commerce application/business with Odoo, one of the popular open-source ERPs loved by many leading brands. 

Why Odoo, among many?

1. A complete package with multiple functionalities

Odoo ERP is a holistic, full-fledged package that comes with the principal solutions needed for managing a business including sales, CRM, project management, financial management, inventory and warehouse management, manufacturing, logistics, HR, and more. With its 1000+ modules available both on cloud and on-premises, Odoo integration offers a complete software system that allows you to manage your entire e-store from a single location.

Be it your inventories, orders, customers, shipping, tracking, or any other dynamic function, Odoo ERP integration helps manage every task through a single solution, thus eliminating the need for maintaining disparate third-party wares for each module. The integration also supports multiple store management via a single software, maintaining a common inventory for all. 

2. Breaks data silos to improve visibility across your business

Siloed data is one of the major challenges that stand in the way of e-commerce companies. This will prevent you from getting a unified view of your operational and experience data essential to expedite your marketing strategy and growth. Post Odoo ERP integration, neither do you need to look into different departments for data, nor do you require to manually enter data into your system.

You can see in your e-commerce application all the key data like your shipping information, product information, inventory levels, customer feedback, etc. By de-compartmentalizing data from multiple systems, Odoo saves your time and labor considerably.  

Read more: What makes Odoo the best ERP solution for your business?

3. Flexible payment options

When it comes to adopting a digital payment option, the convenience of customers comes first. It’s important to adopt the payment type that’s both preferable to them as well as compatible with your system. Integrating Odoo ERP into your e-commerce application helps you gain flexibility with the payment method. It allows you to integrate payment gateways such as PayPal, Ogone, Adyen, Buckaroo, Authorize.net, Stipe, etc. You can customize payment through modules suitable for your store. 

4. Shipping integration

Odoo ERP can be integrated seamlessly with popular third-party shipping carriers such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS, ShippingEasy, and more through APIs. Odoo e-commerce module allows you to use add-on connectors to manage your shipping activities and track your orders from the ERP itself. This enables real-time tracking of data and order fulfillment. 

5. Realizes faster ROI and profitability

Getting faster returns is the key pain point of any business. Odoo ERP- eCommerce integration will help you realize faster ROI and profitability by performing a precise analysis of your sales and inventory via reports and automatic stock adjustments. The ERP allows you to stay organized with updated customer information by tracking orders and claims. Besides, your customers can view or download their invoices and track their order status, pending shipments, and deliveries. 

Read more: A 3-day Odoo CRM implementation story! 

Explore unlimited possibilities with Odoo

As technology advances, the need to simplify customer experience also moves to the next level. Implementing a smarter business process management solution while keeping your investments to the bare minimum will require you to bank you on the safe shores of an open-source ERP like Odoo. With its powerful inventory and sales management features and easy-to-integrate modules, Odoo makes the best contender for small and medium businesses to scale up in the e-commerce space.

Fingent is an Official Partner of Odoo with an ace team that offers consulting, development, and implementation services. Whether you want to integrate Odoo ERP with your existing e-commerce store or build an online store from scratch powered by Odoo integration, give us a call right away.       

A Head-to-head Comparison of Odoo CRM vs. Salesforce

The race for business success is tough. Mimicking your competitors in what is working for them might seem like a good idea, but it will get you nowhere in the long run. Success comes only when you find that perfect recipe that is unique to your organization and gets you a notch above everyone else. This is particularly true when it comes to your CRM software. You must choose the right software that fits your sales teams’ unique and complex needs perfectly.

The quest for that perfect CRM software requires analyzing various crucial factors. Making the right choice can radically impact the effectiveness of your daily operations and boost the productivity of your sales team. The factors you need to consider are vendor reliability, real total implementation cost, pros and cons, full list of features, and user reviews. In this article, we provide a comparison of Odoo CRM and Salesforce CRM against six key criteria. We hope this helps you in making an informed decision. 

Read more: Odoo CRM Vs SAP CRM: How to Choose Between Them

What is the Difference?

Salesforce is often described as “the world’s #1 CRM sales app.” It claims to put everything you need at your fingertips – accessible from anywhere.  It makes collaboration across your global organization easier and gets your deals done faster.

Odoo, on the other hand, is often described as “the open-source ERP and CRM.” It is a business management software that includes CRM, e-commerce, accounting, billing, warehouse, manufacturing, project management, and inventory management. 

So, here we’re comparing these two popular CRMs against these 6 criteria:

1. Marketing automation comparison  

One of the proven strategies to generate sales by any enterprise around the globe is being able to send messages to customers at exactly the right time. In this regard, both Odoo and Salesforce have great marketing automation features. 

• Salesforce allows you to send a customized email to your customer through web personalization. 
• Odoo kicks it up a notch, allowing you to design an entire workflow for your enterprise. You can automate your action depending on the customer’s reaction to your email which might include replying to your email or deleting it. 

2. Cost comparison 

The actual cost of CRM software includes the subscription fee, software license, software training, and customization cost, hardware, and the cost of other services such as support and maintenance. It is crucial that you account for all the costs involved to understand the system’s “total cost of ownership.” 

• Salesforce CRM starts at $25 per user/month. They also offer a yearly plan. Apart from this, you will have to make additional payments for integrations that you will add to your software. 
• Odoo CRM too starts at $25 per user/month but offers a free plan which is helpful for startup companies. Although integrating paid apps incurs charges, the Odoo Community Edition is free. 

3. Integration comparison

Your software serviceability requires powerful integrations.

• Salesforce can integrate with a variety of apps making it suitable for all businesses. 
• Being an open-source software Odoo provides free apps that can be integrated into any kind of business. 

4. Contact management comparison

One of the key capabilities that businesses require is the ability to view and manage contacts. 

• Since Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM, it can obtain certain missing details of your contacts from other sources in the cloud. Also, it can analyze the interactions between the contacts over various social media platforms which can be a great help to your business in generating leads. 
• Odoo gives you complete access to the history of business interactions for each customer. This allows you to adjust your business strategies according to the purchasing habits of your customers. You can also synchronize Odoo with your Google Calendar so you can keep track of your meetings and additional follow-ups.

5. Dashboards and reports comparison

While dashboards assist you in presenting and viewing your business performance, reports help you audit sales and gauge work performance. Dashboards and reports help you make smart business decisions.

• Salesforce allows you to build a customized dashboard according to your business requirements. 
• Odoo offers free apps to create customized dashboards allowing you to create a variety of reports, balance sheets, tax reports, and bank reconciliation.

6. Vendor comparison 

• Salesforce is a global software company best known for its cloud-based CRM. In 2012, Fortune ranked Salesforce 27 in its 100 best companies to work for.  It was also listed in the New York Stock Exchange. 
• The Odoo community has 1,500 active members and has contributed over 4,500 modules. It has a network of certified partners established in over 100 countries. Odoo is one of the most frequently installed business suites with more than 1,500 downloads per day. 

Read more: A 3-day Odoo CRM implementation story!

Make An Informed Decision

While taking a decision, remember to compare the features of Salesforce and Odoo through the lens of usability, flexibility, and the unique needs of your employees and business. The highly modular and customizable solution provided by Odoo CRM is designed specifically for cost-effective and high-performance scalability and growth. 

Although Odoo is newer to the market when compared to Salesforce, this open-source CRM is used by certain popular names such as Hyundai, Toyota, and Alta Motors. There is no denying that Odoo has gained the trust of many users and is highly coveted by businesses of all sizes including SMEs/ SMBs. 

Read more: Meeting the HR Requirements With Odoo

Fingent is an Official Partner of Odoo and has hands-on expertise in the consulting, implementation, and customization of Odoo for clients across several industries. If you need further help in making your decision or want to get started with Odoo, give us a call right away. 

What makes Odoo the best ERP solution for your business?

As business leaders, you may find that you’re spending too much time running your company rather than growing it. You may easily get bogged down due to exhaustive paperwork, long spreadsheets, or have to assemble discrete software to actually work together. This is where the open-source Odoo ERP comes to your rescue. With its vast suite comprising over 40 business productivity applications, Odoo provides a smoother and simpler way to run your business. The range of business apps offered by Odoo is highly comprehensive, fully-integrated, easy to use, and supports numerous different industries. Fingent, utilizing its partnership with Odoo ensures their clients are leveraging one or more apps from Odoo to boost their business efficiencies. 

With Odoo, you can easily create your professional website, manage your relationship with customers, design and launch your own marketing strategies, and manage online payments through e-commerce. You also have Odoo apps to manage your warehouse, accounts, and invoicing behind the scenes. 

Whatever be your business needs, Odoo provides apps that work together seamlessly. Though a relatively young contender, Odoo comes packed with powerful ERP features and a user-friendly interface like any other market leaders such as SAP, Oracle, MS Dynamics, and so on. 

Read more: Odoo CRM Vs SAP CRM: How to Choose Between Them

Here are 5 distinguishing features of Odoo that make it a reliable ERP for any business.

1. Easy to set up and use

Odoo has a very clean, consistent, easy-to-use interface. It is also easy to set up and configure. You can effortlessly carry out an entire transaction all the way from a quotation to the sales order, invoice, and payment due to the consistency between the various applications within Odoo. It helps you to get started within no time.

2. Powerful communication tools

Odoo has powerful inbuilt communication tools. They use messaging systems to keep track of internal communications on either your sales orders, invoices, or purchasing. So if you have a question on your sales order, you can write a message to all the followers of the sales order at the bottom of the documents. Thus, you can attach notes and messages and communicate directly from within the document giving you a great audit trail. All the team members stay on the same page both literally and figuratively!

Read more: Meeting Your HR Requirements with Odoo

3. Integrated front-end and back-end tools

You can have a full-blown website builder with a single click. So, once you install the web platform, you can use it integrated with all the other Odoo applications. Odoo provides powerful e-commerce tools that integrate with your website and are completely tied-in to the web framework. Moreover, the shopping cart looks clean, is built-in to the e-commerce app, and is ready-to-go. Another interesting feature of Odoo is that even if a customer didn’t make it to checkout and has just added items to his cart, you can view it as a draft in Quotations instead of a full Sales Order.

4. Great mobile support

Though Odoo is completely web-based, it looks pretty good on mobile phones and tablets. You even get a mobile preview to check how your website is going to look like. So, unlike a lot of legacy accounting systems that are still trying to catch up, Odoo was founded as a three-tier mobile application platform and it has continued to improve.

5. Powerful enterprise and cloud solutions

Odoo has very powerful enterprise and cloud solutions. You can host it yourself or on Amazon, or on digital cloud. You can also use Odoo.com or Odoo’s own hosted solution. Thus, there are a lot of different ways to host it as Odoo is very cloud friendly. Fingent extends support for deploying Odoo on web servers like AWS and other secure environments.    

Other factors that make Odoo unique

Odoo is highly customizable, completely open-source, utilizes Industry Standard Libraries, and is written in Python. The backend database is PostgreSQL which is also open source. Another important aspect is that you can build custom Odoo Applications without modifying the source code. You can easily upgrade or extend without breaking things.

Read more: A 3-day Odoo CRM implementation story!

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that going digital is no longer an option, but a necessity. Choosing the right ERP that suits your business requirements and unlocks the returns on your investment can help you get there. The modular framework has given Odoo a wide functional scope. While using Odoo, enterprises do not need to resort to 3rd party platforms or use additional bridging software to build fully integrated websites. Thus, Odoo supports the uniqueness of each business. This ability to customize every aspect of your system gives you a competitive advantage. And all this can be done at minimal cost, compared to the other ERP systems available in the market. As enterprises have to look at the eventual ROI before implementing an ERP system, Odoo shines because of its functionality, scalability, and affordability. Fingent’s partnership with Odoo ensures your projects are tailored for easy adaptability. Get in touch with us to plan the next dependable Odoo application that will assist in your daily business operations.