To manage your business tasks, you have implemented the Odoo ERP solution. An intuitive, user-friendly, reliable, and cost‑effective ERP (compared to other ERP solutions such as SalesForce or Sage). On paper, Odoo meets all your business needs and you keep telling yourself what a great choice you’ve made. And we won’t argue with you! But are you sure your employees are actually using the software? Have they developed bad habits with SaaS applications that fall outside your information system? Are they even using Odoo to its full potential?
In other words, how can you “upgrade” the use of Odoo in your company and reduce shadow IT as much as possible? We’ll share some tips in this article.
Have You Considered How Your Company Actually Uses Odoo?
For several months, or even years now, Odoo ERP has been proudly displayed on your employees’ screens—or at least that’s what you think... Are you sure everyone is using Odoo as intended? Are you aware of any poor practices that have persisted or emerged since the new software was rolled out—shadow IT, for example?
Take the marketing department, for example: while reviewing the ERP’s email marketing module you notice there are only internal newsletters. Where are the ones for customers? You know they exist—you receive them too! It’s quite possible the marketing department chose to keep their old tool for customer communications for convenience. Why, you ask? Maybe they don’t want to deal with transferring design templates, email segments, and so on...
We’re with you — that’s a weak excuse, and it has more to do with resistance to change than with any real technical limitation. Unfortunately, chances are the marketing department isn’t the only one at fault here... So you know what you need to do: get a clear, detailed picture of how Odoo is actually being used across the different departments in your organization.
Has Odoo Been Properly Promoted in Your Company?
One of the main reasons for a lack of employee buy‑in is the lack of involvement and information at the start of the Odoo project. When rolling out new management software like Odoo, it’s essential to put together a kind of internal marketing plan. The idea is to present the project’s objectives to employees and, most importantly, the benefits it will bring. Communication needs to be present at every phase of the project. It’s a good idea to involve part of the future user base (your employees) closely in selecting and testing the software’s different features.
Deploying this internal “marketing” strategy for your Odoo project sets you up for optimal software use over the long term. And don’t worry — this approach works just as well for version upgrades, expanding the functional scope, and more. We’ve got you covered.
Were Your Company Training Sessions Enough?
An ERP system can sometimes be complex to use, at least in the early stages. Odoo is certainly very intuitive, but even bringing all of a company’s services together in a single tool can be challenging. For example, Everyone using an ERP needs to be aware that their user actions can affect the modules used by other departments.
During the deployment of Odoo at your company, your teams should have received training to fully understand the Odoo software (if this is not the case, contact us right away ). But the question is, did they work? Did these training sessions really help your employees fully understand all aspects of the management solution?
If not, your teams, who are already somewhat resistant to change, like the vast majority of employees, may not see Odoo for what it’s truly worth. These employees will not be able to use Odoo to its full potential. They will find Odoo to be a tedious tool that only complicates their current tasks. Having strong training with regular refreshers and engaging documentation available for your team year-round is therefore a key factor in your success.
Does Your Service Provider Give You Ideas for Improvement?
Beyond the technical aspect of the ERP deployment, a key role of your Odoo service provider is to provide effective support throughout every phase of the project. And we’re not talking about a basic “after-sales service” or a few tips sprinkled here and there. The service provider must be able to alert you if there is a gap between your goals and your teams’ willingness, closely track how Odoo is being used in your company, and suggest additional features to implement to meet new needs, etc. Of course, if you don’t know anyone capable of doing all this, You can contact Captivea.
Captivea Odoo Gold partner
Captivea is the best choice for Odoo integration partner. Captivea is a Certified Odoo Gold Partner.