In an era where data governance policies are ubiquitous, IT departments are on the front line. They are responsible for ensuring data quality within the enterprise: managing infrastructure, raising awareness in the business, and reporting to management. They have a wide variety of tasks, and their responsibilities will grow even further with the arrival of GDPR. How can you effectively manage a data management policy with schedules that are often overloaded. One aspect to the solution can be found in standardizing your IT systems. How? By integrating an agile, modern ERP solution like Odoo.”
Start with the basics
An ERP project is a major event for any business, even with the simplicity that is inherent in Odoo. It fundamentally changes the processes that are in place and employees' working habits.
Obviously, therefore, this is not a project to take be taken lightly. The problem is that, very frequently, there is a degree of hype when implementing new management applications: business leaders can want to do everything at once. Big mistake! Indeed, major changes can provoke negative reactions on the part of some employees, poor take-up rates would run completely counter to the desired standardization. Therefore, a gradual approach is the key to success.
In the first instance, we recommend that you only deploy Odoo modules that are essential to the customer life cycle: CRM, sales administration, customer accounting (invoicing and payment), logistics and procurement. This is already a major project that will lead to significantly smoother process and substantial productivity gains. In addition, employees will get used to working with the new ERP solution and you will be able to manage the change more effectively. Finally, by getting to grips with the ERP software, you will identify the working methods that need to be redesigned. Following the deployment of Odoo, you will be starting from a solid baseline.
Extend the scope of your ERP gradually
Once this first stage has been "accepted" by all stakeholders (lines of business, management, IT, and the integrator, etc.) you can confidently consider the next stage of the deployment. Other departments, such as HR, marketing, and communications will then be able to take full advantage of the features that Odoo supports. Modules (or apps as Odoo refers to them) dedicated to managing the website, blogging, recruiting, and managing employees, etc. are genuine sources of additional productivity for employees and the IT department alike.
Indeed, these modules allow you to go even further in standardizing your IT by centralizing the majority of internal business processes. Data passes through a single software application; this makes things flow better thanks to the drastic reduction in the number of interfaces required and duplication of effort becomes a distant memory. In other words, these are significant benefits for the IT department and the business that cannot be overlooked.
Eradicate Shadow IT
Odoo ERP is now the primary working tool for the vast majority of the business's employees. Nevertheless, a few applications and Excel files will survive in the shadows of the various department, whether this is due to resistance to change or because a highly specific feature has not been incorporated into Odoo, there are still reasons to sustain this shadow IT. This phenomenon - which is defined as the use of applications without the agreement of the IT department, and therefore without connecting them to the main IT system - is currently a problem for many companies . Happily, Odoo makes it both simple and possible to combat shadow IT very.
One of the specific characteristics of this ERP solution is its open source aspect, which means that, if none of the 10,000 applications meets a specific need it is entirely possible to undertake bespoke development. With the support of a good integrator, it is possible to connect almost any application and to meet 99% of the needs of the business. Employees will, therefore, no longer have any valid reasons to bypass the official processes. With Odoo, sprawling IT systems have never been further away!
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