Failed Odoo implementations are usually due to mistakes made early in the project.
The mistakes are expensive and painful, but predictable.
They are also avoidable.
How Mistakes Are Made
Here’s how a typical Odoo implementation failure plays out.
A new Odoo customer selects an implementation partner to assist them with their Odoo implementation.
The firm promises to install, configure, and activate the customer’s Odoo instance, ensuring the Odoo customer they can adapt Odoo to the customer’s work processes and meet expectations. They reference Odoo implementation best practices and claim to have the best approach for implementing Odoo. However, a well-analyzed and detailed project plan is never produced.
A fee is agreed upon, and the customer is allocated consulting hours. The firm begins investigating the customer’s requirements and configuring the system, utilizing the consulting hours bank. The hours start to deplete, but there is no progress towards specific milestones. Inevitably, negotiations begin regarding the completion of the current phase (analysis, design, etc.) and the expected phases (implementation, testing, etc.).
This cycle continues until the job is completed, the budget is exhausted, or the customer gets frustrated and terminates the engagement.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
From Tactics to Strategy
For growing businesses, an ERP implementation is a strategic opportunity to move to a unified platform that supports scale. These organizations cannot afford the tactical and piecemeal implementation approach described in the scenario above.
Instead, growing organizations should engage an experienced firm that has developed a structured and proven implementation framework. These frameworks apply enterprise-level maturity to Odoo implementations and recognize that the Odoo ERP platform will serve as the company’s strategic business operating system for years.
Novobi understands that careful and strategic analysis, design, and planning are the prerequisites for implementing critical business systems built on Odoo.
Our “Success Accelerator Framework” is a comprehensive approach to Odoo implementation that quickens your path to Odoo without unnecessary risk.
The Novobi Success Accelerator Framework
The Accelerator Framework begins with understanding the success horizon, which is usually a three- to five-year path to creating mission-critical systems.
These systems are designed to give the organization business value and a competitive advantage, accelerate growth, and deliver higher financial performance.
Once value creation systems are identified and prioritized, and a timeline is set, detailed analysis, architecture, and design begins.
This includes:
- Business Analysis: understand business priorities, milestones, and outcomes
- Functional Analysis: analyze workflows impacted by implementation
- Data Analysis: Analyze existing data and develop a management and migration plan
- Architecture Planning: Analyze current-state and design future-state architecture
- System Integrations and Design: Plan the technical integrations with adjacent business systems such as fulfillment, marketing, EDI, etc.
- Project Execution Plans and Schedules: Document project schedules and milestones
Additionally, Novobi coordinates stakeholder involvement, defines adoption and training plans, and establishes project management and governance guidelines.
This critical period of strategic thinking before implementation work begins ensures Novobi clients aren’t engaged in tactical installation and can confidently move forward with fewer mistakes and frustrations.
Is a Strategy-First Implementation Right for You?
Tactical-oriented Odoo customers who only need to support a handful of business workflows may think the Success Accelerator Framework is overkill and unnecessary.
Strategic-oriented Odoo customers will appreciate the thoughtful work that connects their vision of business growth and Odoo’s capabilities + Novobi’s process to accelerate success.
If your Odoo future vision involves business strategy, aggressive growth, mission-critical, and core business system implementation, consider Novobi as your partner.
Contact Novobi to learn more about our Success Accelerator Framework.
What our clients say
Dari Dadashi, CEO – MHD Enterprises
“We have attempted several times to implement an ERP using different software platforms and technology teams, but we were unable to launch our system until we worked with Novobi successfully.”
Patrick S. Mahaffey, President – GoodLife
“We had been stuck trying to implement Odoo for almost three years. We went through two previous consulting companies and spent untold internal IT hours on the project. Novobi came on board, and we were in production within a few months.”
Charlie Wettlaufer, President and CMO – Goodnature
“We came to Novobi to rescue us from a failed implementation with another Odoo Gold Partner. It only took one meeting with Novobi for us to realize we were a lot further from go live than the other Odoo Gold Partner led us to believe. It would have been a complete disaster if we had gone live with the other firm.”
DISCLAIMER: The information in this article reflects the views and opinions of Novobi, based on publicly available information, and is intended for informational purposes only. It is not legal or financial advice. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
