Tag: Odoo App Store
‘There is success through many advisers.’ This ancient proverb has proved not just true but very effective and powerful in this digital age. This is precisely what Open-Source Software (OSS) accomplishes. It allows for collaborative development where the community can modify and enhance the source code.
Open-source systems can help businesses adapt quickly to changing circumstances and facilitates controlled upgrades. Integration and maintenance become less of a hurdle. With the wide range of OSS possibilities, businesses are wise to tap into this huge potential for building a robust, secure, and yet, cost-effective infrastructure.
This blog will help you gain an in-depth understanding of how open-source can power your digital transformation journey!
How Open-Source Software Powers Digital Transformation
Vendors today provide various software solutions indispensable to a business’s software strategy. But finding the right software solution that caters closely to an organization’s needs has always been challenging! Meanwhile, OSS helps businesses build and maintain their IT ecosystem and enables sourcing highly creative developers with hard-to-locate skills. Engaging with domain experts and making their contribution to the OSS bank helps developers find satisfaction and boosts creativity. Judicious use of OSS can be of great benefit to any business.
Most IT leaders believe that OSS is either “very important” or “extremely important” to the enterprise software strategy. How do we know that? In 2021, developers downloaded over 2.2 trillion open-source packages. That is a 73% increase.
Read more: How to Ensure Safe Use of Open Source Libraries
Here are more reasons to justify this statement!
1. OSS Can Serve as A Ramp to The Future
Irrespective of whether you are a small business with limited resources or an established enterprise with an established IT ecosystem, open-source software’s ability to supply code that can be easily changed and customized to your specific needs is invaluable. Many businesses are turning to AI and blockchain to better understand customer needs and work towards fulfilling them. Open-source code can not only hasten the process but also ensure efficiency.
AI, ML, and AR/VR could feel like the proverbial butterfly always out of reach, and more so if your business does not have a well-established IT team. OSS can then serve as your ramp to the future. Your vendor or coder could build on the resources available to ramp up your IT capabilities and reach your desired situation.
2. OSS Can Be a Beacon for Talent
OSS provides coders and developers with access to code written by experts or extremely creative pioneers. This would be an immersive learning exercise. At the same time, experienced engineers could interact with others in their community, freshening their skills while keeping up with the latest in the IT industry. This exposure would, in turn, influence their recruiting and training activities.
The OSS is also a repository of “glueware.” It allows software engineers to create things outside their immediate area of expertise. While it requires ingenuity and skill to glue parts together to make a whole system, OSS provides not just the individual parts and the “glue” required to fix them. It is a new method of looking at the design, resulting in greater satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.
3. OSS Can Build Engineering Discipline
Open-source projects have very clear frameworks. There is structure and good practices such as separation of concerns, abstraction, and isolation. A business of any size would benefit from following the same discipline in setting up its systems.
Maintaining clear standards of operability ad interoperability is another advantage. Using OSS ensures that the same standards are followed. Businesses do not have to invent standards and frameworks but can build on the foundation provided by OSS.
4. OSS Can Improve Your “Ilities”
Scalability, availability, and reliability – are just a few of the many aspects that OSS can help improve. Utility to ensure efficiency and avoid duplicating work can also be added to the list. Developers or vendors would likely prefer importing sections from a tried and tested OSS repository than building from scratch.
Read more: Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning For Faster and Accurate Project Cost Estimation
Dimensions of Open-Source Software
OSS boosts the digital transformation of businesses. It is good for businesses that lack the resources to meet the needs of IT development. OSS can yield different variations by its modularity. Consider a few pros and cons of OSS:
- Price: The price is very low to zero. However, one must consider the need for support, customization, and hosting while considering the cost of using OSS.
- Source Code: Full access to the source code helps developers evaluate the quality of the software and customize it to the needs of the business.
- Functionality: While individual systems from the OSS may be limited, they can be easily ramped up to serve all business needs.
- Modularity: OSS is modular. Hence it prompts the engagement of several experts in building a specific IT system.
- Development: OSS code is developed worldwide by motivated developers from a wide range of roles and functions.
- Distribution: OSS code is distributed over the internet, which is fast, efficient, and cost-effective.
- Licensing: A range of OSS licenses specify how the code can be used, modified, or redistributed. However, certain restrictive licenses only support the limited use of the OSS code.
- Monetization: Offering support services to help integrate the system, train users, and fix bugs is one way to monetize OSS. Offering to work out the deployment of OSS systems and taking care of backups, upgrades, and downtime is another way to monetize OSS.
Is Customization A Smarter Choice With Open Source?
Remember that OSS is another tool best suited for certain tasks and not so well suited for others. OSS might not be the best choice for your strategic activities or initiatives contrary to your cultural norms. Certain projects on OSS might have too high a level of uncertainty or too little support.
This does not mean that OSS should be put out of the picture. Do you need to adapt quickly to the fast-paced development in certain domains? Do you need greater effectiveness in attracting and retaining talent? Do you need a solution that requires utility, quality, and speed? OSS can help you in all these scenarios.
Read more: Odoo Migration: Why Is It Crucial and How to Do It Seamlessly!
How Can Fingent Help?
Fingent can leverage open-source technology to quickly develop your customized, dynamic business application. Our experts use PHP, AngularJS, jQuery, Magento, and several other open-source technologies to develop, implement and support a wide range of open-source technologies and resources. Our extensive experience working with open-source tools helps ensure that we can provide our clients with customized, innovative solutions quickly and efficiently without compromising on quality.
Intrigued to learn more about how we can help you develop and leverage the best business software solutions with open source. Connect with our experts now!
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software helps keep track of your product, sales, marketing, and other metrics and boosts organizational efficiency. However, finding the right one for your business can be a daunting task. While some are better suited for small companies or large companies, others may not even offer the services you are looking for. In this post, we compare two big-name ERPs- Odoo and Sage so you can decide which one is best suited for your business.
Read more: How Can Odoo Augment Your Company’s Project Management!
All About Sage?
Sage is one of the leading vendors of ERP software with clients across 160 countries. It offers solutions in Accounting, Human Resource Management, and Payments and Payroll. Its solutions include Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage X3, and Sage Intacct.
Sage’s top features include;
- Sage X3 offers a sales, purchasing, inventory, CRM, finance, and manufacturing module
- Sage 300 offers sales order management, finance, and inventory tools and integrated payments.
- Sage Intacct offers six modules such as billing, core financial, dashboard, and reporting, budgeting and planning, and platform to choose from. The sixth module is advanced functionality that you need to discuss with a representative.
- For business insights, paperless card processing, CRM, budgeting, and planning, opt for Sage 100 Essentials. It also offers several add-ons and third-party apps.
Who can use Sage?
Sage offers different programs depending on your business needs.
- Sage 100 can be used by small to medium-sized businesses.
- Medium to large businesses such as process manufacturing, food, and beverage industries can use Sage X3.
- Sage Intacct can be used by companies of all sizes especially healthcare, entertainment, non-profits, and more.
Sage Pricing
Sage offers customized pricing based on your specific business needs and so is subscription-based.
Challenges associated with Sage
While Sage 100 and 300 are not cloud services, Sage X3 and Sage Intacct both offer cloud services. However, Sage X3 uses on-premise hosting while Sage Intacct is browser-based. For Sage 100 and 300 cloud integration is available through Sage Partner Cloud.
Read more: 4 Ways Legacy Application Migration to Odoo ERP Benefits Your Business!
All About Odoo?
Odoo is a popular open-source ERP that boasts over seven million users. It is a newer ERP software system that is freely available for the management of business processes. Odoo is available in two versions- the Odoo community edition that has limited features and the ability to customize. The other one is the Odoo Enterprise which comes packed with features and customization ability.
Top Features of Odoo are;
- CRM
- Accounting
- Point of Sale (POS)
- Sales Management
- Warehouse Management
- Manufacturing
- Purchase Management
- Project Management
Odoo Pricing
The cost of Odoo depends on the number of users and the apps selected for your business requirements. Also, it is available with SaaS subscription pricing as the Enterprise edition or as the Odoo free Community version. While the Odoo community edition is free of charge, the Odoo Enterprise edition has a license fee.
Who can use Odoo?
Every company, small or big can leverage Odoo as you can choose among its 20 main modules to suit your business needs. It also allows you to add modules as your company and requirements grow. That said, there is no minimum number of users for the cloud base and can be used by both freelancers and solo operators easily.
The main highlight of Odoo is that it does not specialize in any particular industry. So, any company regardless of the industry can use Odoo for their management needs.
Challenges with Odoo ERP Implementation
- You may need to revamp your server and workstation to make sure they are compatible with the Odoo ERP app.
- Another big challenge is that the information formed through the traditional framework may not be compatible with the new Odoo ERP. However, this struggle can be prevented by careful project planning.
- With Odoo, there could be major changes in the business directs, models, and practices. The data entered by a user can be accessed by others in real-time.
- For successful Odoo implementation, you may have to implement new administrative practices and standards or update existing practices.
Which is Better: Sage or Odoo?
As mentioned above, Sage offers an impressive number of products but it is difficult to choose the right one for your needs. Also, as the pricing is quote-based, it becomes difficult to know how much you’ll be paying. That said, Sage is optimized for specific industries such as real estate and construction.
Odoo, on the other hand, is a great option for users looking to personalize the software themselves and want a more hands-on experience.
Read more: Odoo Migration: Why is it crucial and how to do it seamlessly!
Conclusion
Traditional practices are becoming obsolete as newer and more powerful solutions become available. So, selecting an adaptable software solution that can help in the long-term development and growth of your business is crucial.
If you’re looking to find the right ERP for your business or need help with optimization, we’re here to help. We provide the best ERP implementation services to improve your business efficiency. Connect with our experts today!
Businesses today need a reliable, effective, and user-friendly support system to tackle the rapidly evolving market changes. Odoo ERP offers features and easy-to-use models that enable businesses to simplify their processes, reduce costs and improve efficiency. It also offers free and paid versions with an outstanding integrated system providing businesses with reasonable flexibility and scalability. With these and many other unique capabilities, Odoo ERP is turning into a hot topic amongst top companies today! With the release of Odoo 15, expectations have risen even more! Businesses are strategizing ways in which they can deploy the improved capabilities of Odoo 15 to enhance their business growth. This blog will take you through what’s new in Odoo 15 and how you can leverage these enhanced features for your business.
What is Odoo 15?
The all-new Odoo 15 is likely to launch in October 2021. It will be released in the Odoo Experience Meet which will be conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevalent in many parts of the world. Odoo 15 is expected to feature advanced tools that can help improve business performance and efficiency. Odoo 15 is believed to be the ultimate business solution with its latest web-based integration and superior architecture.
Read more: 5 signs which imply that your business needs Odoo ERP
A Look Into the Expected Features of Odoo 15
1. New import screen
Odoo 15 is expected to extend the experience with its new importing screen feature. This new import screen feature includes a menu to handle cash rounding making it seamless for accounting and generating the invoices.
This feature is expected to be available in all the required modules and functional tabs.
2. Capable options in Pivot and Graph views
Odoo ERP software provides data representation with Pivot and Graph views. The Odoo 15 version will most likely allow you to edit and adjust the graph using Odoo studio. With this, you can extend the representation of the data to valuable insights for improved decision-making and analysis.
3. New HTML Editor
Odoo 15 is expected to include an attractive new HTML editor. While it will be similar to text editors, it will include HTML codes. So, many developers are using it to extend productivity.
4. Coupon and Promotion Program in POS
While the previous versions of the Coupon and Promotions were exclusively for Sale and eCommerce websites, the Odoo 15 coupons is created to support both eCommerce as well as POS.
The feature will be available in the POS settings. While under the product menu you will have the option to create Coupons and Promotions based on your business needs for later use. The cashier can click on the Enter Code button from the POS and apply the Coupons for Point of Sale Order which will be reflected in the customer’s invoice.
Considering the previous trends of Odoo releases, Odoo 15 will have an enhanced user experience that is sure to blow your mind.
5. New command and command editor
Odoo 15 will include the new command and command editor. It will help handle invoices in accounting configuration.
Read more: How Odoo ERP Simplifies Sales Management in Your Organization
6. CRM
The new feature in the CRM is expected to improve managing leads and well assigning salespersons.
Using this feature, leaders can allocate the desired team members to activity or lead in the Odoo 15 CRM module. This will augment the organization’s sales activity and the team members’ collaboration for the leads.
7. Project burn down chart
This feature will be introduced in the Project section. Here, you will find an easy reporting tool to view the actual chart of the project’s progress phase-wise.
Additionally, the chart will help identify the current trend and any delay for the project deliverable.
8. Share buttons
The share functionality will be included in the customize section of the eCommerce website platform.
Typically, the share button allows the products to be shared on different social media platforms through the website portal. Using the new functionality, you can share the details on the platform to finalize the product.
9. Purchase dashboard
The purchase dashboard gives an amazing perspective for the dashboard comprising all the purchase values and graphs. The dashboard provides the needed information about the tax and untaxed-based total. A click on the reporting tab of the Odoo 15 dashboard will seamlessly get you a detailed report.
10. Website gift card
This option allows you to sell the card on eCommerce. This functionality creates unique codes for the sale of Gift Cards. These unique codes are given to the customers either via email or physically.
Odoo apps or modules help create multiple unique codes for the purchase of a gift card. Odoo 15 is likely to upgrade these features.
Additional features
In addition to the above-mentioned features, Odoo 15 is likely to incorporate these features as well.
- Business Intelligence Tools
- A newly designed eCommerce product page
- Formulas of BOM, %of final products, etc., to improve the process manufacturing.
Read more: Why Choose Fingent as Your Odoo ERP Partner
Conclusion
Odoo ERP implementation can help you manage your business seamlessly and with Odoo 15 you can enhance it further with customization. In general, Odoo 15 brings several opportunities to users and developers and helps them explore better opportunities.
At Fingent, we constantly indulge in building innovative modules for Odoo and other ERP platforms. The rising capabilities of Odoo are sure to unlock unique opportunities and we are preparing businesses to deploy the same.
If you think your business is ready to deploy the rising capabilities of Odoo, then connect with our experts today, and explore unlimited possibilities for your business!
Unlock the value of data analytics and business intelligence with Odoo ERP
From cloud computing to the Internet of Things, the fourth industrial revolution has brought about remarkable technological reforms in most business strategies across industries. Today, businesses strive to face competition with advanced software tools and cutting-edge technologies. Organizations are implementing data-driven methods to improve their product and service offerings and add value to their customers. Techniques like Business Intelligence and Data Analytics help companies survive the cut-throat competition, accelerate speed-to-market, retain customers, and innovate. Data analytics and BI unlock the door to several opportunities, enabling companies to expand, grow and stay relevant in the ever-changing technology landscape.
However, implementing Data Analytics and Business Intelligence features in your existing business model requires careful planning. Intelligent, digital core ERPs like Odoo have come up with specific tools and modules to simplify the entire implementation process and help businesses gain value.
Read more: How Odoo ERP Enhances Retail Operations Management
Let’s cut to the chase first. Before we see Odoo’s tailored BI and Analytics offerings, it would be good to get the basics right.
What is the difference between Business Intelligence and Data Analytics?
- Business Intelligence refers to the information required to augment business decision-making activities, while data analytics refers to changing the raw data into a meaningful format.
- Primarily, BI supports decision-making and helps companies grow. On the other hand, data analytics helps build a model, cleanse, predict and modify data based on business needs.
- Business Intelligence can be implemented using various BI tools. However, BI implementation is done only on historical data stored in data warehouses or data marts. Data analytics can be implemented using BI tools. However, the implementation will depend on the strategy designed by the organization.
- BI can be debugged only through the historical data supplied, while data analytics can be debugged through the proposed model to convert the data into a meaningful format.
Read more: How Data Warehousing Adds Value To Data Visualization & Reporting
A brief overview of Odoo ERP
At Fingent, we specialize in custom Odoo ERP implementation, Odoo ERP integration, Odoo ERP migration, upgrade, maintenance, and support. We help you tailor Odoo ERP features to match your specific business requirements. Odoo ERP customization helps enterprises solve complex business challenges, streamline operations and boost overall productivity. When you have all the required business data in one place, with personalized dashboards offering helpful insights, your decision-making and business strategy formulation become seamless. Being an Official Partner of Odoo, Fingent makes it a cakewalk for you.
Read more: Why Choose Fingent as Your Odoo ERP Partner
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.
Odoo offers over ten dedicated modules to effectively handle diverse business processes such as HRM, finance, CRM, manufacturing, accounting, inventory, and eCommerce. The most significant advantage of Odoo ERP is that you get a free and open-source community version under a general public license. This reduces the overall project cost significantly and so is exceptionally suited for small-to-medium enterprises.
Read more: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises
Odoo ERP: Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
Odoo ERP includes a comprehensive data visualization and analysis software interface that helps companies capitalize on their data sources. It has an in-depth dashboard interface and powerful Business Intelligence capabilities for data mining and secret meaning extraction.
Here the top five BI and Data Analytics features offered by Odoo ERP:
1. Integrated spreadsheets
Introduced by Odoo 14, this feature has been included to preserve the ease and comfort of users working in excel spreadsheets. Previously, users had to download the pivot view of every report initially for editing the excel spreadsheet.
This feature makes it easier to bind and store excel sheets in the ERP itself. While the integrated spreadsheets make it easy to review reports quickly, its dashboard pivot table link helps access live data.
Users can perform all possible acts and input formulas, add and delete columns, apply formatting, and do more like ordinary excel sheets.
2. Sales analysis
Odoo ERP offers an intuitive dashboard GUI that helps monitor sales data and keep sales records for future reference. To retrieve relevant data, all you need to do is apply different filters or divide it into various segments for easy access. You can use bar graphs, pie charts, and line graph analysis to get an organized view of your sales data.
Analyzing sales data helps you gain insights into the purchasing habits of your customers. Additionally, it allows you to refine the sales tactics to reach out and drive them down the sales funnel to the target audience.
Read more: How Odoo ERP Simplifies Sales Management in Your Organization
3. Employee performance tracking
The Odoo dashboards, along with your sales team’s performance, allow you to assess your CRM efforts quickly. This, combined with efficient resource utilization and task scheduling, can help you take adequate steps to improve your sales strategy.
4. Inventory analysis
The Odoo inventory module provides a comprehensive view of the inventory. It is equipped with all the important Business Intelligence tools and analytics features. This feature provides you with reports and insights into the inventory and warehouse data in real-time. Odoo inventory module enables you to monitor your stock movements, stock receipts, average delivery time, turnover of inventory, and valuation.
5. Lead nurturing
The Odoo CRM supports an exceptional and descriptive graphical view for monitoring and evaluating your lead data. You can then group your leads based on factors such as gender, age, location, business type, and several other segments. To retrieve the lead data easily, you can apply filters and set time ranges to compare the new leads with your old leads. Moreover, this enhances your CRM efforts and helps build a stronger relationship with your customers.
Read more: Odoo CRM vs. Salesforce CRM: How To Make The Right Choice
Become a data powerhouse
There’s no denying that BI and data analytics are helping businesses stay relevant and stay ahead of the competition by improving decision-making. BI tools help you analyze your customers’ preferences and buying habits. Powerful BI and analytics features offered by Odoo ERP help refine your marketing strategies at regular intervals.
Fingent top custom software development company, provides end-to-end Odoo ERP consulting and implementation services for businesses across different industries, enabling them to resolve complex business problems. We have the expertise to formulate strategies through Odoo ERP solutions to achieve optimal results.
If you have overwhelming volumes of business data that you want to explore and exploit with advanced BI and data analytics tools, we’re here to help you with the same. Give us a call and discover the best plans to make your business truly data-driven.
The Significance of Odoo Migration and How to Do It?
Odoo is an open-source ERP software that comprises an integrated suite of business modules such as eCommerce, accounting, warehouse management, project management, financial management, customer relationship management (CRM), manufacturing, and purchasing. These modules ensure seamless and efficient communication with each other to exchange information.
Read more: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises
Odoo ERP can be used by businesses of all sizes and is available in both cloud or on-premise versions. Odoo is open source and highly customizable, allowing developers to access the code and make changes in the module based on their business needs. Odoo ERP can be easily integrated with payment processors and external shipping systems such as UPS, eBay, FedEx, Amazon, and QuickBooks.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
So, if you are new and planning to implement Odoo ERP for your business, you should consider the most recent and latest version of Odoo, that is, Odoo 14.0.
However, if you are already leveraging Odoo and thinking of migrating to Odoo 14, you need to assimilate the situation before migrating.
Odoo migration involves two parts:
- Data migration
- Odoo apps migration
You can migrate both your company data and the apps used in the older version of your ERP. This migration process requires expertise and an experienced Odoo ERP partner to achieve it. Your older data must be optimized for the newer version smoothly and is best done by a professional Odoo ERP implementation partner like Fingent.
Why migrate to the latest version of Odoo ERP?
Undeniably, the latest versions of Odoo include improved features such as security, speed, and stability. Migrating to the latest version indicates that you are ready to update your system and move forward. Moving forward does not mean that you lose your old data and turn to new data. Migration ensures that all the previous data is kept intact while stepping into the new one.
The latest version, Odoo 14 got released in October 2020. As businesses are ever-changing, the new version comes with many added or deleted features as found optimal by Odoo. This is needed to ensure the ERP keeps running at its best performance and also delivers high performance. It is considered to be four times faster than Odoo 13. So, if you are looking for speed, then you can switch to Odoo 14.
Top features of Odoo 14
Some of the features of Odoo 14 are:
1. Improved user experience
Odoo is a great competitor to big names like Oracle, Dynamics, and SAP. Odoo 14 has added more shortcut keys to control the system faster, improving the system speed and more on-click features to help you save time. There are more widgets in the list view that allows you to send messages directly to your colleagues within a single click.
2. Automated CRM
CRM is a powerful tool that provides your company with a better insight and focuses more on clients and not on the data input. The insight helps you forecast sales or find information about the clients easily. In the absence of a CRM, the salespeople can randomly fill the customer’s information, making it difficult for other team members to follow up or get complete sales information.
As Odoo 14 CRM is automated, you can add and search for customer’s data accurately and quickly.
3. Outlook plugins
This feature automates the communication logging and allows you to communicate with the clients automatically in the CRM. It also helps sales managers track the communication of their subordinates.
4. To-do activities list
Odoo 14 helps salespeople focus on selling instead of data input. The to-do activities feature allows the salespeople to quickly check the to-do list, the next activity, and its priority with its impact every day. This feature comes with an improved follow-up section that helps salespeople send an email or SMS to the potential client directly from the CRM.
Points to consider before Odoo migration
1. Performance
Odoo 14 is designed to deliver more both in terms of performance and features. It includes additional features that can benefit new businesses. The new features ensure the business processes are carried out as smoothly as possible. However, you must make sure to understand the purposes and needs of your business before you avail of the updated version.
2. Deleting a few features
While the new version includes new features, some of the old features have been revoked by Odoo. So, it would help if you had an idea about what features will be lost in the newer update. This is where an Odoo ERP implementation partner like Fingent can help you. Our Odoo consultants can help you migrate to the latest version of Odoo without losing your crucial company data.
Read more: 6 Ways Odoo ERP Customization Can Benefit Your Business
3. Downtime
An update would mean that your business operations would be affected in the meantime. So, you must be prepared to overcome this downtime if you opt for migration. You can use the pilot version to run the platform with updates in the background. However, it is not possible in the live environment. You can discuss this in detail with the migration expert at Fingent.
4. Cost
The cost of the migration process may vary depending on your customized business requirements. Understanding the need for the latest update and knowing if the expense is the right investment for your company is essential. You can consult the software development experts at Fingent to get an estimate of the Odoo migration expenses for your business.
While migrating your old Odoo versions to newer and better ones is essential, it is a complex and tedious task. So, it is vital to have a good Odoo migration partner, which is why most businesses entrust us with Odoo ERP migration.
Read more: Why Choose Fingent as Your Odoo ERP Partner
Odoo migration: How to migrate to the newer version?
The Odoo migration process is done in two parts:
Part 1: Data migration
The company data present in the Odoo platform is of utmost importance and cannot be lost under any circumstances. This data requires some adaptation to work in sync with the new version. To make sure your data is suited for migration formulation, your information, such as charts, tables, contacts, etc., will be carried out.
Part 2: Odoo apps migration
The Odoo apps functional in the older version are used for specific needs and cannot be lost or compromised in the process of updating. Necessary changes to the existing applications or developing new ones will need to be done to meet the needs of your business.
The migration of applications and data will enhance the platform’s functionality without losing your company data.
To know more about Odoo migration and how we can help achieve it successfully, please contact us.
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. In this post, you will see how Odoo ERP implementation helps retail management.
Odoo ERP: A Highly Customizable Cloud-based Platform for Retailers!
The retail industry is one of the primary beneficiaries of digital transformation. In 2010, eCommerce accounted for only 5-6% of the aggregate retail sales in the US. The industry has witnessed phenomenal growth over the past decade with the development and adoption of retail technology, ERPs, eCommerce applications, custom retail solutions, and stiff market competition. At present, online retail sales in the US account for 21% of the total retail purchases. Isn’t that mind-blowing?
The paradigm shift from the traditional operating landscape to a digital world presents both opportunities and challenges. Many people look for products online, make buying decisions based on social media reviews, and order products to be delivered home. They even use the internet to search local shops, order online and collect from nearby stores (click & collect) or find retailers that offer discounts in their area. The message is clear: physical/ in-store retailing also needs to pace up with the change.
To overcome the challenges in managing physical and digital selling, retailers need to adopt a modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
Today, ERP is extensively used to simplify and automate customer relationship management, project management, accounting, compliance, inventory, and supply chain operations. ERP is a reliable investment for business owners as they can control and monitor their operations, get reports, and gain insights on consumer behavior and market situations.
Odoo ERP for Retail Management
ERP software allows integrating the core processes to run a company in one place, such as finance, manufacturing, HR, supply chain, inventory, procurement, tracking, transactions, etc. It also integrates all the data and related business processes of an organization.
Odoo ERP is a popular, open-source, cloud-based business management software that helps manage various business needs such as manufacturing, finance, inventory, point of sale (POS), eCommerce, purchase, logistics, etc. Odoo is an intelligent ERP system that allows retailers to integrate their whole data and all the processes associated with the retail industry. For retailers, Odoo is a perfect choice that increases profit and enhances productivity as it provides comprehensive solutions that can seamlessly integrate with eCommerce.
Read more: 5 signs which imply that your business needs Odoo ERP
How Odoo ERP Benefits Retail Management
Following are the significant benefits of using Odoo ERP in retail:
1. One-step checkout
In online shopping apps, the checkout stage tends to have several processes spread across different web pages. This can put off some customers who don’t want to spend their time navigating through each. Odoo eliminates these multiple processes by offering a one-step checkout that is fast, convenient, and intuitive. It has the potential to reduce checkout abandonment and thereby increase sales.
2. Craft stunning product pages
For eCommerce websites, high-quality product pages are crucial to gain maximum traction. Long descriptions with dull-looking pages are outdated. Odoo ERP lets you build beautiful and stunning product pages with a simple drag and drop feature. You can also customize your online store’s look, layout, color, and theme with Odoo and make last-minute changes to meet the demands and expectations of your clients. You can also make changes and enhancements at regular intervals to add more features to your store. Make sure that your digital store is mobile responsive to be compatible with the changes and new features.
3. Payment module integration
Having different payment options can enhance the customer experience. With Odoo’s plugins and extensions, retailers can integrate and customize various modules like wallets, cryptocurrencies, credit and debit cards, and UPI. It also supports PayPal, PayUMoney, Buckaroo, Sips, Stripe, Ingenico, Adyen, and Authorize.net.
4. Sales, purchase, and finance management
Odoo offers non-retail and retail companies different sales management processes. Odoo has a Point of Sale (POS) module, which is integrated with the sales and inventory module. This module helps retailers track stock and commodities in real-time. The module also allows for the use of biometric devices to log in and out. It’s compatible with any hardware and doesn’t require installation. What’s more, the POS remains operational even when offline.
Read more: How Odoo ERP Simplifies Sales Management in Your Organization
5. Inventory management
It’s a known fact that inventory management in a volatile and dynamic consumer goods market is an arduous task for many retailers. With several issues such as excess inventory or out-of-stock scenarios, inefficient inventory management processes result in financial loss and lead many retailers to bankruptcy.
Odoo ERP offers inventory management as its integral feature, where it stores details of an organization’s entire inventory, including the individual product details. Odoo enables retail managers to keep track of crucial information such as:
- The present status of the inventory
- Items that will run out of stock
- Shelf life details of each product
- Notifications related to product expiry
- Ability to make demand forecasts based on past trends and customers’ online behavior and buying habits
Odoo ERP enables retailers to gain a competitive edge by modifying inventory to meet the fluctuating customer demands.
Read more: Fingent’s new plugin facilitates the scheduling of Zoom meetings from Odoo!
6. Manufacturing and production
Retailers who are also engaged in manufacturing and production can use Odoo’s module to help run functions. The Manufacturing module can assist in creating bills of materials (BoMs), managing semi-finished products, subcontracting manufacturing, etc. It can also help in configuring work centers and managing and configuring kits.
7. The Cloud Advantage
- Odoo solutions are cloud-based, allowing retailers to access their e-commerce stores from anywhere in the world.
- Odoo is flexible, customizable, and scalable, making it especially ideal for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
- Odoo is an affordable ERP solution with the maintenance fees included in the license fee.
In a nutshell, Odoo ERP serves as a high-performance retail management system where retailers can manage everything on a single system. It can bring tremendous benefits to the retailing industry. They can integrate Odoo’s various business apps such as Sales, Accounting, Customer relationship management (CRM), Inventory, etc., with Odoo e-commerce.
The Odoo App Store features nearly 10,000 apps that connect to the same database on Odoo’s own servers. A testament to Odoo’s popularity is in the numbers: it has more than 5 million users worldwide, from start-ups to large enterprises.
With a simple checkout process, robust customer portal (order tracking, advanced shipping rules, and return management), order review, and wish lists, Odoo ERP provides real-time information to users.
Read more: Why Choose Fingent as Your Odoo ERP Partner
Fingent has an ace team of Odoo developers 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.
How does Odoo ERP Customization Help Businesses?
In the current age of empowered consumerism, businesses should never underestimate the importance of customization in their strategy. Each company has its specific requirements, so customization has become increasingly significant to business growth in the past few years. As businesses wade through unprecedented times, customization emerges highly relevant in 2021. Enterprise systems like custom Odoo ERP solutions, in particular, witness an increasing market adoption.
Undeniably, customized ERP software can unlock tremendous opportunities for businesses to grow and expand. However, do you feel that committing to a software vendor could mean you are relinquishing control of your business or that it might not be financially viable? If yes, we invite you to read this article and put your fears to rest as you discover the importance of Odoo ERP, especially as we approach 2021.
Read more: How Odoo ERP Simplifies Sales Management in Your Organization
Does Your Business Need Odoo ERP Customization?
Every business has its requirements, and just because one methodology worked for a particular company, it cannot be a yardstick for all enterprises. Hence, it’s crucial to customize your business software to address your specific needs. The foremost reason for having customized Odoo ERP software is that it can address your specific business requirements. It is essential for businesses to wisely use this capability and customize their Odoo ERP software for an organized workforce and a highly streamlined workflow.
Read more: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises
Consider a few reasons:
1. Process Extension
The productivity of any business depends on its work process and business forms. Each association has an alternative work process that may require customization to be more effective. To that end, business leaders may have to stretch out procedures to build new functionalities. In such situations, customizing Odoo ERP can improve collaborations within the work process.
2. Increase application lifespan
Applications are building blocks of any business process because they provide vital features and functionality while simplifying the business process. Given that, businesses cannot afford to lose applications at a critical moment. Companies thus need customized ERP solutions to increase the lifespan of business applications.
3. Establish Unique Identity
Every business has specific objectives to accomplish, which sets them apart in the market. Online marketing activities and data reports of a business mirror its unique identity. Customization of Odoo ERP software can empower businesses to establish their unique identity despite challenging situations.
4. Mobility
With the changes brought about by the pandemic, the need for mobile ERP solutions has taken precedence. Odoo ERP customization can help organizations achieve the desired mobility.
5. Additional features
COVID-19 has redefined the way businesses function that necessitates improvements and upgrades in the business process for 2021. However, it would help if you streamlined each upgrade with the existing process. You can achieve this by incorporating additional features to improve the performance of the whole organization. Odoo ERP customization will help you include other features tailored for your specific business needs.
Read more: Fingent’s new plugin facilitates the scheduling of Zoom meetings from Odoo!
6. Increased adaptation
The pandemic has made it evident that an unprecedented event can take you completely by surprise and change the face of your business. Quick adaptation is necessary for businesses if they are to survive and thrive. However, it can be challenging to find new ways that align with your existing business process. Business systems that are not flexible to adaption can collapse, bringing a thriving business to a grinding halt. Odoo ERP customization enables companies to achieve flexibility, empowering them to adapt quickly as the need arises.
Benefits of Odoo ERP Customization
Odoo ERP customization offers businesses increased flexibility and better control resulting in increased sales and improved customer relations. Here are four main benefits of customized Odoo ERP software:
1. Flexible
Flexibility and better control over mission-critical business functions are two of the main benefits of Odoo ERP customization. The extent of that flexibility depends on the type of customization done by the ERP development company. Since Fingent is an official partner of Odoo, our team is fully trained in Odoo ERP development. Our projects are tailored for easy adaptability.
2. Comprehensive
Odoo ERP covers a wide range of business needs, such as financial management, warehouse management, CRM, and human resource management. It can integrate almost all aspects of a business to improve overall efficiency.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
3. Offers support and allows upgrades
Customized ERP applications give you complete control over their features. It also allows you to upgrade the applications when required. At Fingent, we offer user-friendly applications that help businesses achieve their daily organization and management goals.
4. Development time
Development time might concern enterprises that need to deploy a customized ERP solution within a given time frame. The development timeline varies from project to project, depending on the requirements and expectations of an organization. However, it is a profitable investment considering the long-term benefits.
5. Cost-effective
There is a misunderstanding that customization of the Odoo ERP system costs a fortune or might complicate the software system’s entire delivery. This has held back some businesses from investing in it. While it is true that customized ERP solutions require to be developed from scratch and tend to be more expensive than off-the-shelf systems, you must consider that the benefits and long-term savings far outweigh the cost.
The development cost of customization depends on various factors such as the type of application, the number of features, and the time required for the development. However, Odoo offers a basic ERP system with a low-cost license fee. Hence, developing a simple enterprise application with basic features can be cost-effective in the long run. Organizations can maximize the budget on the customization of the platform.
6. Security
Odoo ERP is known to be secure by design. Being an open-source platform, Odoo is under constant scrutiny by its users. This ensures that it continually improves on bugs as soon as users report them.
Easy Adaptability with Complete Control – Grab It Now
Customization of the Odoo ERP system provides you with the functionality that your business requires. It eliminates any unnecessary features that could confuse a customer and allows you to customize the source code to suit your business needs and features. Customization can also reduce entry duplication and removes redundant fields, which enhances the efficiency of your employees. It can address your current business requirements while providing you with the opportunity to continually improve and refine your business processes as 2021 approaches with new challenges.
If you are worried that the implementation might be difficult, we want to assure you that it isn’t. Fingent’s Odoo implementation projects are tailored for easy adaptability and user-friendliness while ensuring that you have complete control over your processes. Contact us, top custom software development company and discover how we can collaborate to bring value to your business.
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.
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.