The modern-day digitization has triggered businesses to enhance their industrial infrastructure and workflow to keep up with the competition. Technologies like machine learning, AI, IoT, etc., form the base of today’s business work.
Moreover, all these advanced technologies are supported by cutting-edge software that further eases the industrial processes, such as manufacturing, training, testing, development, etc. Enterprise resource planning, or ERP, is an important tool that every business needs today.
However, not every business, especially SMEs, can upgrade their technology and software needs quickly because of financial challenges. As the need for any ERP is inevitable, we have an excellent solution for you. Let’s read ahead and find out how Odoo can be your perfect business partner!
ERP And Its Need!
With customer satisfaction and personalized experience becoming the centerpiece for every business, the need for advanced tools like ERP is paramount. Why?
- Well, the first reason is that with the integration of never-ending capabilities like
- Accounting
- CRM
- E-commerce
- Inventory management
- Project management
And whatnot, ERP software can significantly boost efficiency and productivity. Moreover, it also allows task automation that further streamlines business operations.
2. The second reason is the market of ERP software, which is charging exponentially at a CAGR of 11.0% from 2023 to 2030. These numbers are pretty promising, keeping the market’s demand scenario in mind.
Highlighting The Challenges Faced by SMEs
Keeping the buzz of the use of advanced technology in mind, SMEs face several challenges. Here are some of those challenges!
- Adoption and Implementation of Technology
The primary challenge for SMEs is finances. As per statistics, 66% of small businesses face financial challenges, leading to slower to no technological adoptions.
This challenge is further amplified by the lack of a knowledgeable workforce to implement technologies like AI, IoT, Cloud Computing, and more.
- Supply Chain Management
Whether it is retail, logistics, manufacturing, or any other business, SMEs face supply chain management issues without the right tools.
Businesses with the right tools like ERP can seamlessly manage all the operations from a single dashboard while also automating processes like invoice generation, order placement, customer service, etc.
- Cash Flow Management
As per industry stats, around 82% of small businesses fail due to bad or poor cash flow management. In short, there are a bunch of aspects that play an indispensable role in overall cash flow management, which includes
- Inventory
- Overdue
- Billing and Invoicing
The collective analysis of these factors describes the cash flow. And for the SMEs, it can be tough. Why?
SMEs involve manual processes to keep track of the inventory, billing, invoicing, and business overdue. These manual processes are susceptible to errors, leading to inaccurate and improper cash flow.
Secondly, due to market demand fluctuation, inventory fluctuation is imperative, which directly impacts cash flow. For proper cash flow management, a solution to automate and integrate all these aspects is required.
- Customer Acquisition and Retention
Customer acquisition may be easy to some extent, but customer retention is an aspect that requires hard work. Building customer loyalty for an extended time requires excellent customer service and consistent effort.
You have to be available for the customers while keeping their needs fulfilled at all times, which requires resources and tools. SMEs often struggle with the resources and tools part.
- Market Competition
The market competition is one of the primary impediments for SMEs. As per the numbers, 19% of businesses fail because they can’t keep up with the market competition.
While large businesses have the required tools, resources, and talent, SMEs often struggle with these aspects. Therefore, they tend to fall behind the market competition.
Why Choose Odoo for SMEs?
When it comes down to the best ERP in the market, you would feel overwhelmed by the choices available. I have analyzed them briefly and found that Odoo is an overall winner.
Here are some critical factors that make it the best ERP for SMEs.
- A melting pot of every functionality
At the heart of Odoo lies its diverse versatility, featuring an exhaustive suite of tools designed to meet a plethora of business needs. Whether it’s invoicing, finance management, production oversight, or customer engagement, Odoo easily integrates all these functions and more under one platform.
Its integration with other tools enables each functionality. Some examples of these systems are Amazon, eBay, UPS, FedEx, QuickBooks, etc.
- Modularity
A cool feature of Odoo is modularity. It means that you don’t have to deal with modules that you don’t need. You can add them in the future as needed. It allows you to custom-build features unique to your industry.
- Cost-effective
Odoo ERP is a cost-effective solution. How?
The community version license of the software is free of cost. You only have to bear the cost of hosting, migration, and implementation. However, if you wish to spend more, there are two plans!
| Type of Odoo Plan | Cost |
| Standard Plan | $24.90/user/month |
| Custom Plan | $37.40/user/month |
- Insightful Analytics
As Odoo supports multiple integrations, you can integrate smart analytics with it and obtain insights into your marketing efforts. Thereby allowing you to improve and boost your sales numbers.
- Task Automation
There are several business tasks that are repetitive and mundane. However, these tasks must be implemented on a daily basis. Odoo ERP can help you automate these tasks to save time for the more important ones.
With Odoo, you can seamlessly automate tasks, such as
- Checking inventory level
- Invoice generation and sharing
- Auto-scheduling of follow-up activities
- Automated time tracking
- Payroll processing
And many more! With these tasks automated, you can seamlessly run your business even with limited manpower.
- Scalability
With modularity at its core, you can easily scale the solution as your business grows in the future.
- UI and Accessibility
Odoo welcomes users with a user-friendly and intuitive interface. It is easy to adapt to, which reduces the training time for the employees. Further, the dark mode of the user interface is also available.
If we talk about accessibility, the tool is cloud-based. Therefore, it is accessible from anywhere across the globe, even on mobile devices.
INTECH Capabilities
So far, it is well established that Odoo is a cutting-edge ERP solution best for SMEs. It clearly has all the necessary features that any business needs to upgrade its operations and scale in the future. Moreover, it is affordable if you are using the community version. But here is the catch!
Though you can get the solution free of cost, you will still need an experienced team of developers to migrate and implement it.
If you are looking for an adept team of professional developers, you can get in touch with INTECH for Odoo ERP implementation and migration services.