Odoo is a open source enterprise resource planning system formerly known as OpenERP (for its acronym in English, Enterprise Resource Planning), the name change is due to the fact that since its version 8.0 Odoo evolves and goes beyond being an ERP system since very interesting and useful functionalities were added that work as applications or blogs, that is, without the need to be managed by an ERP (however it continues to allow its users to continue doing so).
That is why its owners decided to apply a Branding strategy and detach themselves a bit from the exclusivity of the acronym "ERP" since with this new version Odoo covers more fields, something that no other ERP system had achieved; becoming in this way "A Suite or set of applications" as they now define it.
In fact, they also affirm that the two “oes” in a row have always been related to very successful computer companies such as: Google, Facebook or Yahoo. What a great job of branding analysis the Odoo team did!
What tools does it offer us?
Now we go to the best part, Odoo is one of the best systems on the market to manage a company since its functionality is organized by business process modules (At this moment there are more than 500 modules that feed the base, and are programmed in language Python) which in turn are linked together by integrating all these processes and centralizing them in a single application to avoid duplication of data that causes errors in most ERPs.
In general it allows us:
-
Total control of stocks, warehouses and inventories.
-
Project and task management.
-
Management of sales and invoices.
-
Analytical accounting and work control.
-
Planning / execution of work orders.
-
Control of productive processes for manufacturing.
-
Marketing related to customers.
-
Treasury management: collections and payments.
-
Management of company personnel.
And this to name a few tools!
Technical characteristics
In general, the system architecture is client / server applicable in both Linux and Windows, in this way all users can work on the same data repository. With the new version Odoo went from using Launchpad (bzr) to Github achieving with this a great improvement in the download of code.
Another technical advantage is that the client has the possibility of using Odoo from any browser, either from a desktop computer, laptop or tablet, and from anywhere in the world. It also has a simplified web view, but with all the functions available in a full view, specifically adapted for smartphone screens. All you need is a good internet connection.
At the time of server-client data exchange, it can be done using XML, Net-RCP and JSON.
Advantages of the Odoo system
-
Competitiveness
-
Freedom of use and redistribution.
-
Technological independence.
-
Promotion of free competition.
-
Long-term support and compatibility.
-
Standard formats.
-
Safer systems.
-
Faster and more efficient bug fixes.
-
Simple and unified methods of software management.
-
Expanding system.
So if you are interested in organizing your business Odoo is a very good option for which you will have to pay much less thanks to its development in the world of free software.
For more information you can consult this link.
If you want to try it, here your repository on GitHub.