Implementing Odoo into small business or medium-sized enterprise environments admittedly don’t always go as smoothly as planned. Inexperienced software users oftentimes make mistakes when it comes to capitalizing on various elements of Odoo.
Top Mistakes When Implementing Odoo
According to a recent satisfaction survey on Odoo for small businesses, it was found that 3 percent were not satisfied with how the software was performing for their business.
Although we can spend all day long spreading the good news that 97 percent were satisfied to highly satisfied, it’s the 3 percent we thought it’d be interesting to explore.
These are some of the top mistakes small to medium sized enterprises are making when it comes to implementing Odoo.
Mistake #1 – A failure to communicate.
Odoo’s an amazing app for keeping the lines of communication open between project stakeholders, management, clients, and department heads.
That said, some business owners don’t use Odoo consistently and that leaves messages that go unanswered, progress reports which don’t get submitted, and data which isn’t entered in.
If you install Odoo, as a business owner, it’s up to you to ensure it has the data, documentation, and communication lines required to ensure you get what you want out of it.
Mistake #2 – There’s no plan.
Some business owners install Odoo and immediately expect change without knowing how to maximize what’s in the software.
For those who have seen success with Odoo, they know the scope of the project they’re intending to use it on, and they know how to segment their projects by task and responsibility.
It may come across as harsh but if you don’t have skilled project managers in place already, no software is going to suddenly make them better at their job. Therefore, a level of planning needs to happen that identifies how the software’s to be used.
Mistake #3 – There’s false promises made.
If you’re handling clients, they may end up disappointed when they do not see their needs being met in the way that you may have explained to them.
When using Odoo, sometimes business owners do not see the pick-up in efficiency or performance that they expect and thereby, they let their customers down.
Perhaps they have overpromised their customers on what they can deliver. It’s important not to overwork your assets or to set yourself up for failure. Explore the Odoo app and set reasonable expectations for what can be accomplished. As the saying goes, always under-promise and over-deliver.
Mistake #4 – Not assigning a chain of command.
When approving different aspects of a project, particularly between a business and their customer, it’s common to volley back and forth on edits, opinions, and suggestions.
If there’s no one decision maker who is guiding communication, it can get out of hand fast.
When this happens, it slows down your business greatly. You don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen. As soon as you’ve plugged everyone into Odoo, you need to make the chain of command clear and assign decision makers to help manage different components of your project.
Mistake #5 – Not knowing how to use it.
The best advice we can give after installing Odoo is to be creative and go exploring! Odoo’s customizable according to what you need it to do for you.
Learn how to use it and consider the different ways Odoo may be able to simplify your business processes.
Not every feature on Odoo will be tailor-made for your business. Get rid of what you aren’t using and organize what you are. The time and effort investment upfront in customizing Odoo can save a lot of time and confusion down the line.
You’ve made a great choice in choosing Odoo for your small to medium sized enterprise! That said, you’ve got to invest the time to establish decision makers, set reasonable expectations, open up the lines of communication, ensure there’s a plan for your project, and customizing the software to your business needs. Do these things and you won’t have any trouble getting maximum value from Odoo!