Odoo out-of-box solution vs Odoo Customization

Right from the beginning, Odoo is being favored by the businesses for its modularity and scalability. The integrated kind of business management makes the application well-fitting for any industry type. With no differentiation over terms of business size and complexity, Odoo is widely adopted by businessmen of different sized enterprises. Today there are more than 3 million users for Odoo proving its strength and capacity to excel in the business operations.

Today Odoo has grown into a complete business management tool with the best options out there for every business needs. From Tiny ERP, the application has transformed itself into an unbeatable strong competitor for other ERPs in the market.

There is a large workforce (community of Odoo developers) working behind the application constantly analyzing its operational excellency, adding new features and apps benefitting your business, fixing bugs, etc. Odoo makes sure that it incorporates new features and improve the current working architecture when it gears for the release of its new Enterprise version every year. Last October, the users witnessed to the business magic laid by Odoo 13. 

What makes Odoo the best and user-friendly business application?

    1. Comprehensive software handling ranges of business needs.

    2. User-friendly platform to enhance overall performances.

    3. Features and functionalities for any sized enterprises.

    4. Simple navigation designs for a user to easily reach out.

    5. Advanced search category with filters for quick search of data.

    6. Quicker response time and faster access to menus.

    7. Modular structure for complete and intrinsic management of different business functions.

    8. Flexibility in choosing modules( early or late) for the fulfillment of business needs.

    9. Easy and wide range of integration and customization possibilities.

    10. No vendor lock-in saving much of business expenses.

    11. Integrated management system facilitating enhanced collaboration.

    12. Faster Implementation and budget-friendly. 

With so many business benefits in the queue, when it comes to Odoo implementation, there is always uncertainty and confusion in minds whether to go for Odoo out-of-the-box or Odoo Customization. People often get confused and misguided with Odoo customization possibilities and using it as such. 

This blog helps you in understanding the benefits of using Odoo as out of box solution and using Odoo as custom-built. We will also analyze what can be the downsides for each choice. 

With no much ado, let’s go to the topic straight. 

Your choice over whether to use Odoo as out of box solution or use Odoo customization ultimately lies on your business processes. What type of business processes you have and how far can Odoo succeed in handling them efficiently gives you the answer for the aforesaid confusion. 

If your business process is working no different from a common industry model say a restaurant or shop, using Odoo as such can be the best combination for your business. The decision comes not only pocket-friendly to the user but also riches him with standard business processes.

Odoo, as we know, comes with a rich set of functionalities and features in its enterprise version. It can be more than sufficient to meet a fairly standard business industry. The pre-packaged software makes sure that the user meets all the business specifics adhering to standard business processes not exceeding the budget. The user without exceeding his budget plan can fulfill every need of his business. With zero customization he can reduce the business expense at the same time assures high standard working protocols. 

However, if your industry got certain specific functions or you need to add unique value to your business, Odoo out-of-box cannot be sufficient. There you need to make a decision of going towards a customized approach of Odoo. Building an Odoo custom solution can bring you a unique piece of software, that can precisely answer your specific and distinct business needs. 

There are a range of options available with Odoo Customization

Let’s dive deeper. 

Being open-source, Odoo has numerous business benefits to offer its client while comparing to other software applications in the market. This includes the interplay of thousands of developers constantly working on the application, Odoo’s immense strength to perform various kinds of integrations and customizations, easy implementation, a wide assortment of apps/plugins for intrinsic management of business needs and so on. The rundown of two choices of Odoo Community and Odoo Enterprise make it pocket-friendly for the businesses. When comparing to other applications in the market Odoo comes with relatively low recurring costs and low implementation cost. 

Moreover, Odoo’s Community Edition comes with no licensing fees benefitting SME’s larger. However, choosing the Odoo Community Edition has its own deficiencies especially with respect to features and support. 

The edition lacks many important features also customer support. However, if you are ready to compromise a bit on price, you get with the compelling, rich in the function, Odoo Enterprise. 

Odoo Enterprise comes with the full set of features that a modern and sophisticated business industry of today requires. Moreover, you get a good support plan for Enterprise Edition. 

Opting Odoo as out-of-box 

If your need is common, fairly standard, Odoo out-of-box can be righteous fit. It assures standard business processes at the same time price falls within budget.

Here are the benefits of choosing Odoo out- of- box 

Budget-friendly

For any business, price is a common factor. Therefore, people look for cheaper options to fulfill their needs. However, in many cases, the user has to either compromise on the price or the quality. While running behind cheaper options, often they have to compromise on the quality or content. Thus, there is always a juggle between quality and price when it comes to ERP implementation. However, with Odoo there is no question over the price vs quality or vise-versa. 

Odoo out-of-box comes right out of “off the shelf” with imminent feature listings that are ample for a standard business industry workflow. It will efficiently fulfill the unique business needs, also sometimes the specific business needs. Therefore, businesses need not spend any extra amount on customizations to answer business functions. Odoo out-of-box comes budget-friendly with a lower initial price point comparing to custom solutions.

Widely available

With no customization approach, Odoo out-of-box is easy to analyze and verify. Via looking at various case studies of similar Odoo implementations, one can quickly make a mind whether Odoo can answer your industry need or not. If your business falls into a common industry kind (like a café or a retail location), you'll have no issue executing Odoo out-of-box arrangement. You get with a lot of data explaining how it has effectively helped organizations like yours. However, with custom solutions, there is uncertainty as the application is specifically crafted for you. Only after the implementation, the result can be analyzed.

Proven quality and support

Odoo out-of-box software is a proven product with a large clientele of global customers. The solution as such comes backed with support teams and software company’s quality assurance. With zero customizations, typically saying no touch by a third party, its quality is assured 100%. Therefore, the businesses need not worry over they will get or not the quality and standard business processes after paying a hefty price. 

Faster Deployment

With zero customization required, Odoo out-of-box is essentially ready to go application. All that remains aside is installing the application and configuring it. One can quickly avail or enjoy the benefits of Odoo soon to its implementation and configuration. Moreover, the businesses need not go for high-level technical expertise to make adjustments in the applications. Odoo out-of-the-box comes pre-packaged with established capabilities, eliminating advanced technical team to work on.

Downsides of Odoo out-of-box solution

When it comes to the limitations of Odoo out-of-box solutions, it is relatively very low compared to its immense business benefits. The major and only downside of using Odoo as out-of-box solutions is its functionality gap. 

As Odoo out-of-box software focuses enormous client base, its usefulness or in other terms Odoo’s functionalities remain generic/ nonexclusive. It caters to addressing the issues of the mass market rather than the specific business industry with specific business functions.

In that case, if your business organization is into practicing some unique business processes, Odoo out-of-box may not remain viable and a good solution to meet the desired business requirements. Odoo using as such without any customization can feel the loss of certain features that are essential to your work processes. At the same time, the software might incorporate a huge number of feature highlights that you will never utilize for your business, generating no use for your business or your process.  

Secondly, the licensing fees. Although the initial expense for Odoo out-of-box arrangement might sound lower than a custom solution, it normally incorporates yearly licensing fees and could require extra expenses for upgrades and support. You may discover that you're required to pay full licensing charges for countless users who just need a restricted measure or limited amount of functionality. 

At the point when you calculate the yearly cost, you may find that Odoo out-of-box is considerably more costly than you initially thought of.  However, customizing the application reduces your expense as you can limit the number of users based on your business needs.  

Odoo customization gives you immense possibilities to frame software that meets all your business specifics. However, the choice to go customized approach should only start at the point, where your Odoo out-of-box solution falls short. When you need a bit extra in your Odoo out-box-solution, you can confidently step ahead of customizing the application. However, it can be both expensive and flop, if you haven’t planned the ERP customization or organized your business needs prior to customizing it. 

Often people end up customizing the application in dreaming of an out-of-box business solution. They overbuild the application dreaming to create a custom component for every business need. Despite having the features in Odoo out-of-the-box solutions, the client desires to create custom components for every feature. This eventually leads to unnecessary complexities in the application such as difficulty in usage and hefty price in maintenance. Moreover, overbuilding the application hampers the standard workflow of the Odoo software, making the application more prone to failures and problems. 

Thus, it is advised that the client seeks the help of good Odoo consultants, for customizing their Odoo application. Consulting and getting the work done from a reliable source such as Odoo partners can save the client from undesirables like financial drains, incompatibility issues, erosion of standard business processes, etc.

Remember, an unplanned customization approach can never get with anticipated changes in the business processes, rather it takes you closer to the aftermaths of a bad ERP implementation. 

However, well done the Odoo customization, it can bring abundant cheers to the businesses. Have a look:

A good Odoo customization partner will let you know the above-mentioned challenges in Odoo customization and tips in the development approach to avoid them. Therefore team with professionals like Odoo partners who have a good set of Odoo developers possessing both Odoo technical knowledge and Odoo functional knowledge. Pairing with experienced, professional Odoo service partners can guarantee a safe yet efficient custom project in Odoo. 

If done properly the Odoo customization, your businesses can avail the following benefits. 

Enhanced Productivity

Since the application is explicitly crafted for your business and business procedures, Odoo customization can significantly improve work processes, increase accuracy in business operations and empower your group to communicate all the more productively with sellers and contractors.

A quick fix of needs

Rather than waiting for Odoo’s next release( that may or may not have the features)  to meet your business-specifics, one can get the features in your application via going for a customized approach. Odoo custom solution can bring you unique software that exactly matches your business requirements and needs. At the point when you need upgrades, you can work straightforwardly with the engineer to get what you need in the near future.

Cost-effective for the long term

No matter you pay a huge upfront cost for Odoo customization. In the long run, it will be balanced as you need not pay the licensing fees that come tied with Odoo out-of-the-box. Even if your application is a blend of out-of-the-box and custom software, you can bring down the licensing fees by limiting the number of users in the application. 

Also being built specifically for your business and intended for a longer run, the client need not go for replacement of the application. Customization serves you with a long-term solution making it cost-effective for the long term. However, this isn’t the case with out-of-the-box software.

Training that fits 

Normally the user training post-Odoo implementation remains general, not every relevant to the business. This often limits the user’s capability to explore the software and use it to the maxima to achieve the best result. 

However, with Odoo custom solution this isn’t the case. The training remains as specific as the software gets customized for your business and its processes. Thus, the training can be more result-oriented and finished in a lesser time period. 

Competitive Edge

Via bringing in action those business abilities that your rivalry software’ don’t possess, Odoo customization pushes you to front and make you stand out. Being specifically crafted to your business procedures, it helps you to enhance your customer experience and deliver more result. It thus places you in a superior position that assuredly boosts sales and gains greater market share.