​Why is an approach to integrating ERP systems with ready-made modules worldwide more successful than a customized solution? And it doesn't matter what solution we're talking about - Odoo ERP, SAP, Microsoft Dynamic NAV, or another. Of course, every entrepreneur will say that his business processes are unique, but are they all completely? No matter how companies talk about it, routine activities work efficiently worldwide with a modular solution.

In the past, ERP systems were only designed for large companies to maintain their business processes, but today ERP systems are in demand everywhere, in medium and small businesses. For example, a 2019 survey by Panorama Consulting Solutions found that 88% of organizations believe that implementing ERP helped them succeed, compared to 93% of companies implementing ERP projects after 2020.

Introducing ready-made functionality, such as the Odoo ERP system, is a whole story. When it comes to integrating an ERP system, it must be considered that the company will have to adapt to the system because digitalization brings changes. Still, this time we will talk about the three core business processes in every company. Let's look at how often they are practiced and how they can be optimized using the Odoo ERP platform.

ERP system serves as the cornerstone of integrated business processes, enabling seamless communication across various departments and functions. The ERP system offers a unified platform that consolidates data and insights from finance and human resources to manufacturing and supply chains. By centralizing information, businesses can eliminate silos, enhance collaboration, and make informed decisions backed by real-time data analytics.

Although we live in the 21st century, robots are already on every company's doorstep. Still, we cannot imagine doing business without a human being, and the employee remains an integral part of the company's value. Human resource management is an essential process in a company that controls the relationship between the company and the employee. To quote Richard Branson, "Take care of your employees, and they will take care of your business. It's as simple as that."

How is an employee's time recorded? Is it done at all? In different types of business, you have to come across an outdated module in which one of the employees keeps records by entering the hours worked by each employee on paper. In this way, the administration of the activity is a time-consuming and inefficient process. There may be situations where the hours worked are not recorded for one of the employees, creating an unpleasant situation. Still, only the human factor is to blame.

The digitalization of business optimizes such situations and removes everything in the field. Odoo ERP offers several applications for human resource management that help improve this core business process by making operations more straightforward, convenient, and efficient. Let's also mention that everything is recorded, which is not insignificant when it is possible to watch three-month-old activities in a few minutes, or pop-up messages that remind you to confirm activity. Human resource management applications include employee contracts, lunches, salaries, skills management, visits, recruitment, expenses, etc. Thanks to these applications, the employee's daily life and the evaluation of work results become easier.

Timesheet very easily controls this process by starting the work, pressing the "START" button, and, at the end of the work or performing a specific task, pressing the "STOP" button. As a result, we know how long it takes to complete a particular task, and if we understand which activities take too long, we plan how they can be optimized or removed from the workflow.

Employee attendance control. Ability to track each employee individually and browse the time they arrive and leave the workplace.

Apply for vacation without leaving the workplace. We create a request and wait for the manager to approve. Everything happens electronically, and the application itself will not go away, but the confirmation activity will be a reminder to help you not forget it.

Why do we need all these electronic tools? Because every app makes each employee's day-to-day life more convenient, they can complete a few steps and achieve better results in less time. Statistics appear for the employer, which, when analyzed, show what is being done optimally and what is not.

A company needs to sell its product or service to exist and function fully. The sales management process is the creation of sales staff, coordination of sales activities, and implementation of sales methods that allow the company to achieve sales goals. If this process is not maximally optimized, various gaps appear that affect the achievement of goals.

Have you ever wondered how effective the sales department is? What does that mean? We need KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to answer this question and see if we are moving in the right direction. In the absence of such, we cannot dictate the pace of achievement.

As everywhere, we can find outdated models in this process, such as registering new customers in an Excel document. Let's list only the obvious complications: a lost record that was not entered manually, each sales specialist has its local register, the difficulty of working with large amounts of data, creating several separate files for a certain period, etc.

We only looked at registration steps, but what about managing a new customer in the sales funnel? Here we encounter forgetting what was said when a meeting was scheduled, and a customer had to be called, etc. Let's get back to creating documents. When preparing a sales quotation, how long does it take to customize a draft offer document for a customer to send via email - 30 minutes, 1 hour? It's not productive.

The video showed you one way to handle and manage a new customer. We turn an incoming application from a client into an option. The CRM module then guides the customer in the KanBan view, qualifying it by stage until it reaches the "WON" stage.

Each customer's card shows all the actions taken - letters sent, sales offers, activities performed, planned activities, etc. It helps us keep track of what is being done to the customer and not repeat the completed steps.

Odoo ERP system has a built-in sales option that can be used to create a sales quotation. Create a document template once, and it will be available to the entire team. Customer data is retrieved from the database, but the quotation itself is generated in a few clicks by inserting the required items, goods, or services, and the amount is calculated automatically. We send the created offer to the customer right from the card. The customer opens and goes to your website, gets acquainted with it, and under the offer itself, you can ask clarifying questions, and communication continues. But if they are all satisfied and pay right on the offer page. It increases the likelihood that the customer will pay for the offer received.

In the CRM module, we can create sales teams and analyze the individual performance of each sales specialist, the number of new customers processed, the number of transactions won, and the financial value of the transactions. Of course, we will also mention the analysis of the work done. We can extract statistics in different sections and periods. We analyze how many new customers are in the "WON" stage, and how many are not.

We monitor the results in real-time and make appropriate decisions on time, directing resources to address current challenges as needed.

We are used to everything being digitized. Accounting today is managed electronically on a computer rather than on paper. Ideal when the accounting system is integrated with Open Banking technologies. It is direct integration with banks and financial institutions, such as the SRS. It provides the ability to automate reporting in a single system.

It is known that many small businesses do not use budget planning and immerse themselves in their daily routine, working with what there is at the moment without comparing the current situation with what is planned. Once a month, the manager submits documents to the accountant - invoices, bills, checks, etc. When processing all these accumulated documents, it turns out that the company worked for a month with a negative result. The response time to this situation can be up to 2 months. Not at all effective.

The company's size doesn't matter. Achieving results requires a lot of focus on every detail. Let's imagine that a small company dared to integrate an ERP system with a minimal number of modules, and one of them is accounting. The Odoo accounting module has been integrated with the accounting service provider's system, and both the company manager and the accountant have access to the data. What does that mean for him? Digitizing every step he can follow, understanding the situation in real-time for the company as a whole or a specific product or service. Reducing the circulation of paper documents and following modern trends - paperless.

Nowadays, it can be said that everyone compiles electronic invoices, so electronic storage and processing increases productivity many times over. Maintaining documents on the app and having access to your accountant helps you process documents much faster, in small pieces.

The accounting application has a simple information panel that allows you to switch to the current execution of tasks and see the status of essential accounting journals (including bank accounts and issued and planned invoices) on one screen.

It takes a few seconds to generate a real-time balance report, even when you're out of the office with the Odoo mobile app. Of course, for the data to be up-to-date, all the company's processes must be digitized, recorded in monetary terms. As a result, the company's management does not need to wait a few weeks to understand the current situation.

The magic of the Odoo ERP system is that it is a modular system. Each business process has its own functionality provided by Odoo applications. You can even start with 1 module to use Odoo, and additional applications are connected according to the scalability and needs of the business. It means that only what is used is paid for.