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 that your staff are actually using the software? Have they developed bad habits with SaaS applications outside the scope of the IS? Are they even using Odoo to its fullest?
In other words, how can you "upgrade" the use of Odoo in your company and minimise shadow IT as much as possible? We’ll share some tips with you in this article.
Have You Taken Into Account How Your Company Actually Uses Odoo?
For several months, or even years now, the Odoo ERP has been proudly sitting on your employees’ screens, or at least that’s what you think... Are you sure that everyone is using Odoo as intended? Are you aware of any bad practices that have persisted or newly appeared since the new software was implemented – shadow IT, anyone?
Let’s take the marketing department as an example: while reviewing the ERP’s email marketing module you realise that there are only internal newsletters... Where are the ones for customers? You know they exist because you receive them too! Well, it’s quite possible that the marketing department preferred to keep their old tool to communicate with customers for practical reasons. What reasons, you may ask? Perhaps they don’t want to deal with transferring graphic templates, email segments, and so on...
We agree with you, this is a poor excuse, and it’s more about resistance to change than any real technical limitation. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance the marketing department isn’t the only one guilty of this... So you know what to do: get a clear, detailed picture of how Odoo is actually being used across the different departments in your organisation.
Has Odoo Been Well Marketed in Your Company?
One of the main reasons for a lack of employee buy-in is poor involvement and communication at the start of the Odoo project. When rolling out new management software like Odoo, it’s crucial to put in place an internal marketing plan. The aim is to present the project objectives to staff and, more importantly, the benefits it will bring. Communication needs to happen at every phase of the project. It’s also recommended that some of the future users (employees) are closely involved in choosing and testing the software’s different features.
Rolling out this “marketing” strategy for your Odoo project helps ensure optimal use of the software in the long run. And don’t worry, this approach works just as well for version upgrades, expanding the functional scope, and so on. We’ve got you covered.
Were the Company Training Sessions Sufficient?
An ERP system can sometimes be complex to use, at least in the early stages. Odoo is certainly very intuitive, but even integrating all of a company's services in one single tool can be a challenge. For example, Everyone using an ERP must be aware that their user actions can have an effect on the modules of other departments.
During the deployment of Odoo at your company, your teams should have been trained to fully understand the Odoo software (if this is not the case, call us immediately ). But the question is, did they work? Did these training sessions really allow your employees to actually understand all the facets of the management solution?
If this is not the case, 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 just complicates their current tasks. Having good training with regular refreshers and engaging documentation available for your team year-round is therefore an important key to success.
Does Your Service Provider Give You Ideas for Improvement?
Beyond the technical part of the ERP deployment, a key function of your Odoo service provider is to provide efficient support during all phases of the project. And we are 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’ buy-in, closely track how Odoo is being used in your company, and suggest additional features to be implemented to meet new needs, etc. Of course, if you don't know anyone capable of doing all of 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.