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The ERP system Odoo is now rapidly expanding worldwide. From its founding in Belgium in 2005 with only a few employees, the business has today grown to over 850 employees. The international coverage is surprising with licensed customers in 176 countries and just over 4 million registered users. Growing so fast in such a short time and achieving this international coverage is impressive. The success is attributed to Odoo being an Open Source system which has attracted a large number of partners and developers (+2,100 partners) to adopt the system and create their own extensions. Consequently, Odoo can offer functionality (including additional modules) that covers numerous processes for both small and large organisations.
The history began under the name TinyERP but was later changed to OpenERP and is now known as Odoo. The company and application have gained international recognition and won many awards as a fast-growing company.
The application, built on a Unix architecture, can be downloaded as a local Onpremise installation or as a cloud-based subscription. The system is based on around 50 fundamental apps (modules) where the user can start with the smallest and gradually add more and more apps over time. Additionally, there is an App-store offering over 20,000 extra apps with features developed by the extensive network of partners around the world. The application is translated into 25 languages. Using Odoo Studio, the user or their partner can create custom extensions to the application and also make them available to other users in their community.
The application is currently offered in two versions: Community Edition, which is Open Source, and Enterprise Edition which is a licensed version. Previously, small customers could use the system almost for free, but nowadays the licensed version is required to access parts of accounting that are usually needed to manage daily financial tasks. Prices are built per app starting from a very low level. For the user who selects several modules, the price rises to about 1,500 SEK per user per month, which places it in the same range as other ERP systems on the market.
Regarding functional breadth and depth, Odoo offers roughly the same breadth as Microsoft Business Central, SAP Business ByDesign, Sage X3, and SAP Business One. Compared with Swedish ERP systems, it lies just below Jeeves in functionality but above Monitor. However, these comparisons should be interpreted as a comparison of "total aggregated functionality" except for depth within individual modules such as manufacturing, logistics, CRM, and warehousing. Odoo offers more general functionality within each module than industry-specific features, but at the same time sufficiently good for smaller customers.
Odoo is not entirely new in Sweden. The system has existed in the Swedish market for a few years but has not been visible in the media. There are a few local partners, with Linserv and its approximately 20 employees having the most experience, and today there are around 15 customers in Sweden using the system. In Denmark, Odoo has advanced further with 4 partners and about 300 customers.
Odoo is an interesting addition to the Swedish market. For the customer who outgrows Fortnox or other smaller ERP systems, Odoo can be a suitable next step. You get far with functionality at a low cost and with limited effort. However, the greatest attention will probably come from customers who appreciate having access to the system's development environment and thereby gain the freedom to build their own extensions. But the system has enough support to work for both small and larger organisations and in relatively many industries.
