Implementation of ODOO ERP For Business Applications: Dr. Sujata Rao, Mr. Kaushik Kudtarkar
Implementation of ODOO ERP For Business Applications: Dr. Sujata Rao, Mr. Kaushik Kudtarkar
Implementation of ODOO ERP For Business Applications: Dr. Sujata Rao, Mr. Kaushik Kudtarkar
Abstract: Every Small, medium-sized and large businesses entreprises require an in-house ERP software for
running its business smoothly . AFramework catering to the solutions for their business requirements. Also,
companies look for open-source ERPs which are free to use/modify and have lower costs with large scope for
development and customization. “ODOO”(formerly known as OpenERP) is one such open-source ERP software
framework most widely used by different companies across the globe. The organizations belonging to different
industry domains world-wide such as Information Technology, Manufacturing, Retail, Education, Health care,
Publishing, Travel, Transportation and Logistics, opt for the development and customization of “ODOO”ERP
applications. This paper analyses the optimum benefit of “ODOO” for the various Industry sectors. As
ODOO is very contemprory technology very few papers are available but there are many web articles
available to describe the need of this study done which are done for this paper.
Keywords: “ODOO” ERP, Open Source ERP, ERP for Business Application, ERP Business App, ERP for
SME
I. Introduction
1.1 ERP Defined
The term ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It refers to the systems and software packages
that organizations use to manage daily business operations, transactions and activities related toSales, CRM,
Purchases, Accounting and Finance, Manufacturing, Project management and other business modules. ERP
systems tie together and define a pool of business processes and enable the flow of data between them. ERP
systems collect shared transactional data of an organization from different possible sources and store, manage
and analyze, interpret this data related to multiple business activities. They help to eliminate data redundancy
and duplication and provide data integrity with a “single source of truth.”
ERP refers to business-management software which is a suite of integrated applications related to core
business processes all under one roof. It provides complete visibility to all the vital and significant processes
across various functional departments of an organization.It manages these business processes in real-time and
mediated by software and technology.
An ERP system‟s objective is to integrate back office processes related to different business modules
and enable necessary flow of information within an organization required to make data-driven business
decisions. ERP systems assist in improved internal and external business communication. These systems can be
customized and extended to provide Business intelligence functionalities that can provide high-level insights on
existing on-going business processes and hence can help to solve problems and identify potential areas of
improvements. Having a structured approach to build ERP systems in line with the business processes of a
company can help the company to setup standard and automated business processes and their effective
management. This will ensure that everyone is working with the same relevant data and executes the business
processes as per the same key performance indicators (KPIs).
achieve the organizational goals and objectives. Example: Toyota uses “ODOO” to solve their operational
challenges and simplify their workflows.
1.3.1 Overview
“ODOO” is a multitenant three-tier architecture. The application tier itself is written as a core, multiple
additional modules can be installed to create a particular configuration of “ODOO”.
The core of “ODOO” and its modules are written in Python (programming language). The functionality
of a module is exposed through XML-RPC (and/or NET-RPC depending on the server's configuration). Modules
typically make use of “ODOO‟s” ORM to persist their data in a relational database (PostgreSQL). Modules can
insert data in the database during installation by providing XML, CSV, or YML files.
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Implementation of ODOO ERP for Business Applications
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K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR)
Implementation of ODOO ERP for Business Applications
The user can install all the 3 modules related to Projects one-by-one. Hence, the Project module will be
installed and the user will be directed to the “ODOO” DB Home screen where he can see the Project module
icon.
b. On the Project form, the user can mention the name of the Project in the 'Project Name' field. Also, there exist
three checkboxes as follows:
i. Use Tasks – a checkbox field – the user can tick this to use the Tasks feature in the Project.
ii. Allow forecast – a checkbox field – the user can tick this to use the Forecasts feature.
iii. Use Issues – a checkbox field – the user can tick this to use the feature of tracking issues.
c. And click on Create → thus a new Project will be created and it will be seen on the Kanban view.
d. On the form view, the user can edit/add details of the Project like assigning the Project Manager, selecting the
Customer for whom the project is undertaken, selecting the Privacy option (where there are 3 options available
as – On Invitation only, visible by all employees, visible by following customers), selecting the Working Time
of the project for the Project Team members (like Standard 40 hours per week) etc.
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Implementation of ODOO ERP for Business Applications
a. Whenever a new issue is created, it automatically gets a new sequence number in the format IS001. This helps
to uniquely identify every issue and also for easy reference of issues.
b. Configuration of Stages for issues which helps to indicate the current status of every issue → whether the
issue is still open or closed successfully.
For the Task: Setting up Approval Hierarchy for Sales users, as per the plan, it‟s Start and End Dates are 16th
Oct 2017 and 20th Oct 2017 respectively → hence the task is planned to be completed within 5 working days.
The Working Time Schedule of the Team member Mr. Ankush Kudtarkar is 40 Hours per Week with 8 working
hours per day.
Hence, the effective Hours is automatically calculated as 40 Hours (since the Project Team member works for 5
working days from 16th to 20th Oct with 8 hours per day).
Now, for the specified task, if the Planned Hours for the given duration is entered as 32 Hours, then the % Time
that will be utilized in the given duration for this task also gets calculated automatically → i.e. 80% of the
Time will be utilized for the completion of this Task.
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Implementation of ODOO ERP for Business Applications
An exploratory study was conducted which adopted two types of methodology. In this study, first type
of study was mainly carried on Secondary Data Survey, consisting of the data collected from previous research
studies and reports and the second type of study was on the Primary Field Survey- data collected from users of
“ODOO” ERP.
Effort was made by the researcher, as far as feasible, to take all related aspects in understanding “ODOO” ERP
and development of Project Management module using “ODOO” ERP.
The secondary data was collected from various published and unpublished sources like electronic resources,
documents, reports, magazines, journals, websites etc.
This research work, on the basis of primary field survey is classified as survey research or field
investigation because the researcher picked up the data from the dynamic real-world field conditions, so ensure
the findings to be realistic. The advantage of this kind of research was that the respondents gave the real live
information which they experience in the daily activities which has helped to find to the actual situation that
how the Projects module in “ODOO” can be efficiently used for Project Management with appropriate
developments, customizations and configurations as per the user requirements.
V. Analysis
The “ODOO” ERP survey was conducted amongst the “ODOO” users across different organizations.
The main motive of this survey was to find out the efficiency of “ODOO” ERP and Project Management module
in terms of its usability, performance, portability, scalability, robustness, efficiency and ease of use. The sample
size was 25. In the sample, there were 75% of male users and rest were females. Almost 60% of the users
belonged to the age group of 25 to 30 years.
5.1 Usability
Usability refers to the extent to which “ODOO” ERP and its modules like Sales, CRM, Purchase,
Project Management etc. can be used by its users for different business functions. It is measured in terms of
attributes like effectiveness, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Also, it focuses on whether the basic and
customized functionalities developed in different modules are easily understood and extensively used by the
users.
From the survey it was observed that almost 54% of the users use the Project Management module in
“ODOO”. Also, the results show that about 79% of users/developers feel that the basic Project module provided
by “ODOO” is not sufficient for Project Management, there is a need for extra developments or customizations
in the basic Project module in “ODOO”. About 56% of the users are developers who have developed
functionalities in the Project Management module in “ODOO”.
Thus the survey results depict that the Project Management module in “ODOO” is extensively used and
developed by “ODOO” users.
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Implementation of ODOO ERP for Business Applications
5.2 Performance
The Performance attribute specifies whether the basic and developed functionalities of Project
Management and other related modules in “ODOO” ERP work properly as per the user requirements; also
whether the data and field validations work correctly in case of incomplete or inconsistent data.
From the survey it was observed that 65% of the users agree that if proper developments,
customizations and configurations are done as per the project management and SDLC stages, then it can be used
as a fully efficient and cost-effective tool for Project Management.
Also, 67% of the users strongly agree that the Troubleshooting (Issue-solving) section in the Projects
module helps to continuously track, prioritize and solve the issues; also shows a clear status of issues whether
solved or not and no. of issues pending to be resolved; hence helps in increasing overall project efficiency.
56% of the users agree that the Reports generated using Project Management module in “ODOO” give a clear
picture of the status of the progress of Projects under implementation.
Thus the survey results depict that if the Project Management module in “ODOO” is developed properly then it
will work well in different stages of Project Management yielding better results.
5.3 Portability
Portability refers to the ability of “ODOO” ERP Software Suite to work on different Operating
Systems (OS). As per the survey results, 62% users have used or installed “ODOO” on Linux (Ubuntu) OS,
while 20% of the users use “ODOO” on Red Hat Linux and remaining opted for Windows OS. This implies that
most of the users prefer installing “ODOO” on a Server with Linux (Ubuntu) OS. Also, “ODOO” uses Python
and XML (programming languages) scripting for functionality development and GUI respectively; and Postgres
database (with PostgreSQL DB Query Language). Thus, “ODOO” provides an open-source software framework
which is freely available, portable, redistributable and the code can be easily modified.
5.4 Scalability
Scalability refers to the ability of “ODOO” ERP software suite to handle increasing number of users;
also it refers to its capacity to store, process, and retrieve large amount of data. From the survey results, it is
observed that about 77% of the users feel that “ODOO” ERP is efficient in terms of increasing the number of
users. About 67% of the users agree that the reports generated using Project Management module in “ODOO”
give a clear picture of the status of the progress of Projects under implementation. Also 54% of the users believe
that the Project Management module is capable to be integrated with other modules like Accounting, HR
Timesheets etc.
VI. Conclusion
“ODOO” offers multiple business benefits and hence helps the organizations to grow their businesses
in an unprecedented manner. If a company‟s current ERP system lacks in the desired functionalities required to
support its business operations, then it‟s time for the company to switch over to effective ERP systems like
“ODOO”.ODOO provides a wealth of functionalities and features with numerous modules as per the business
requirements which can be easily deployed to meet the business needs. “ODOO” provides an active support
from its online community of developers and users and hence the stack of features and functionalities offered by
“ODOO” will always continue to increase as released by it in its newer versions.Since “ODOO” is highly
modular, one can find the business modules which are needed to support the operations of a business and can
benefit from its integrated solutions.
“ODOO” is based on an advanced and up-to-the-minute technology processes stack. These
technologies are being upgraded regularly from time to time and are capable of adapting to the latest business
market paradigms.
Using “ODOO” to develop a Project Management tool, it offers flexibility to develop
functionalities based on all stages of the SDLC and also assists appropriate configuration of all phases of Project
Management. The tool can generate regular Project status reports giving a gist of the progress of the Project; it
can assist in tracking the issues and solving them based on priorities set; it can also help to forecast the pain
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Implementation of ODOO ERP for Business Applications
points or risks and their impact on the Project progress, hence helping to develop strategies for prevention of
forthcoming problems and risk mitigation. Having done proper customizations and thoroughly tested, it will
help to keep track of everything, from big picture to the minute details of Project Management.
“ODOO” is open source is nature. It is free to download and easy to install. There is no licensing fee
associated with “ODOO”.There is a vast community allied to this ERP and management tool which assures
continued support. There is no specific group of people, technicians or developers that control the
customizations and developments done to the “ODOO” ERP system, the businesses can enjoy no lock-ins by a
particular vendor. The source code is freely re-distributable and customizable. This implies the businesses that
use “ODOO” can also apply their own patches for developing, customizing, enhancing its functionality and
fixing the issues or bugs in it.
“ODOO” delivers an imperative benefit of cost savings. Though, there is some initial cost incurred on
the effective implementation of “ODOO” which is compensated by better technology and higher functionality,
but there is also a wide range of tangible & intangible benefits continuously delivered by “ODOO” which makes
it a highly cost-effective solution. “ODOO” decreases the administrative costs, operating costs, inventory costs,
maintenance costs and obsolete inventory when implemented in the business significantly. These intangible
benefits help in significant cost savings for the business.
Not only “ODOO” is an easy-to-use software, but also it is highly flexible as it can be easily developed
and customized to meet the specific business requirements of an organization. It supports the continuous
innovation and scalability which is required by the organizations in order to lead the market in today‟s cutting
edge competitive scenario.
References
Online articles:
[1]. Wikipedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODOO
[2]. https:// www.slideshare.net/
[3]. http://www.ODOO.com
[4]. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki
[5]. https://project-management.com/ODOO-software-review
[6]. http://bloopark.de/en_US/blog/the-bloopark-times-english-2/post/ODOO-erp-continuous-integration-and-project-management-263
[7]. https://opensource.com/business/15/1/top-project-management-tools-2015
[8]. https://www.capterra.com/p/135618/ODOO/
[9]. http://lacommunitynews.com/2017/12/omnitechnical-to-provide-erp-implementation-and-software-customization-services-in-
partnership-with-ODOO/
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