Robust technological advancements have brought about a sea of change in the IT market. Almost every company is on a run to keep in pace with these updated trends. Their main motive is to stay in the competition, get high rankings on SERPs, and manage business operations with productivity and ease. Today, an ERP for small businesses has become a must to execute their daily tasks through a single, integrated suite of applications like the ERP system.The Odoo Enterprise Resource Planning system is one of the key tools in managing the core business functions of both small and medium-sized businesses. It does so through streamlining and automation. The modular structure of functioning takes care of every aspect – from order processing, production management, inventory and warehouse management, sales and purchase tracking, shipment tracking, managing finances, and more. It professionally supervises business resources and improves production, revenue, organises orders, sales, ROI, manufacturing capacity, employee management, etc. It also ensures that communication is maintained between all employees and across all departments.However one of the best things about using an ERP for small business is that all these functions and tasks are done via a single dashboard control with built-in analytics and data sharing options. This further encourages collaboration and harmony across all departments of the company.What are the numbers?With several affordable ERP solutions available now, small businesses are also using it for their rapid and progressive business growth. The data below speaks about it all -

Approximately 53% of small businesses today prefer an ERP solution along with CRM as their priority investments.

As per research, 65% of the SMEs are already taking ERP consultation services.

96% of the emerging small businesses excelling in their respective industry verticals are found to rely on some ERP solution.

Small businesses using an ERP software solution are able to make decisions in 36% less time now.

SMEs, which are currently working with reliable ERP service providers are found to save 21% time in performing business operations.
An ERP software solution is implemented and integrated into each and every department of a business no matter what their size and category are. Implementing and integrating an ERP software solution entails strategic and careful planning to minimise the risk of work failure and to make sure that each and every business goal is adequately met.But the process of successful ERP implementation needs the efforts and expertise of reliable ERP consultants. A successful ERP implementation is possible after a standardised integration blueprint along with the involvement of the ERP experts. Any business, no matter the small or medium level can get real-time ROI with the properly executed and strategic implementation of a feature-rich and popular ERP software solution like Odoo.Odoo: The Ideal Choice for Small Business Odoo is now the most preferred ERP solution for every small and medium level business. It comes with robust and intuitive features that SMEs can leverage for managing different business verticals like manufacturing, retailing, trading, and so on. Moreover, businesses do not have to pay any license fee, which makes it a cost-effective option for the SMEs as well.Odoo ERP is open-source and flexible and also customisable as per the business requirements and workflow. Its well-structured methodology delivers upgraded software solutions to match and meet business objectives so that the ultimate productivity level can be achieved. Moreover,small and medium level companies also need a powerful customer relationship management system and this is where Odoo comes to the rescue. With its in-built module, it upholds the capability of resolving the queries of the customers instantly tending to offer the maximum user satisfaction and user retention.You must integrate and implement the ERP into your business system to ensure efficiency and increased productivity. An ERP like Odoo allows you to reach the highest peak of success, paving more ways for futuristic growth and expansion. The smaller businesses take one step forward with the support of this application suite, hence the advantages of the Odoo ERP is indisputable.Odoo: The One-in-All solution So, what makes Odoo the best choice of ERP for an SME? The answer is its modularity, affordability, ease of use, flexibility, and accessibility. Your business, even if it is a small-level one, can deploy this ERP effortlessly.As open-source software, Odoo comes with a rarefied interface that gives you complete control over the business processes, therefore governing your business system and workflow. If you compare Odoo with the other ERP options available today, you can find that this is undoubtedly rich in features and functionalities.Here are the key reasons why Odoo is the best ERP for small business today.

A Comprehensive and Cohesive Application

All businesses run on the basis of a distinct set of operations like accounting, customer relationship management, sales and purchase orders tracking, human resource management, warehouse management, and more. While a majority of the organisations manage these by using multiple software applications, it becomes expensive and haphazard for the company instead.For the SME’s, being unable to afford this huge investment, they start relying on multiple vendors and software solutions to take care of these operations. But with the Odoo ERP software, these small businesses are now benefitted manifolds. With various features, functionalities, apps, and modules, it stands out as the best choice with everything under a single platform.Odoo comes with thousands of modules and a complete suite of applications to cover all business operations. This ERP encompasses different modules like inventory module, CRM module, accounting module, human resource module, manufacturing module, and more for almost all business processes. Odoo’s application store comprises thousands of apps catering to different operations of small and medium level businesses.

Extremely cost-effective

Investment or the cost factor is always a matter of concern for every small and medium-level company. Often, because of the restricted budget, the SME ignores the need for an ERP implementation. ERP software solutions like SAP, ERPNext, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics charge a huge amount of cost. But unlike these, Odoo streamlines the business process and fulfils almost every major business requirements at affordable prices.With Odoo ERP, you won’t have to pay any license fee. The installation charge is also very nominal. The community version is also very cost-effective. Overall, this ERP is the most affordable solution for every business today and is the perfect choice for the SMEs. It ensures maximum ROI, easy business management, and a smooth workflow.

Easy availability

Odoo is easily available and is free to download. This is again the reason to choose this ERP instead of the other models available in the market today. It is suitable for every business need, especially for the SMEs. Also, with Odoo, you can easily check the suitability and requirements of features and functionalities so that it can appropriately take care of all your vital business tasks.

Simple integration and implementation

Odoo is an API-friendly ERP software and is pretty simple to integrate and implement. Odoo reduces the probability of untimely behavioural changes that every small business goes through. In addition to this, Odoo ERP has a modular structure, which makes it a great choice for the SMEs. The small and medium-level businesses can begin with implementing the basic modules as per the requirements. Gradually they can progress with customising and including more modules for better performance results.

Highly modular

Odoo comes with thousands of modules, which can be operated and integrated according to the business requirements. It is easy to use these modules and implement the same for managing the business right from warehouse management to sales, orders, shipping, manufacturing, eCommerce, trading, finances, human resources, customer relationships, and more. And the best thing is that all these modules are fully customisable.

Open-source

Odoo is an open-source ERP software solution, which makes it easily accessible to all. Because of the open-source nature of the ERP, you can access the codes and modules any time as per your interest. This is again another significant advantage of using Odoo as the ERP for small business.

Streamlined UI

Navigation is quick and simple in the Odoo ERP because of the streamlined and robust laid out interface. As compared to the other ERP options, where the UI tends to be complex and cluttered, Odoo stands out as the best with a simple UI and allows easy execution of functions.

Maintains transparency

The transparency maintained by Odoo cuts down the need to export or re-enter data, resulting in fewer glitches, errors and leading to flawless business performance. It increases productivity, which is an important aspect of every small and medium level business. It also reduces the investment in human resources, thus automating every business operation at the same time.

Quick decision-making

Real-time data offered by an ERP like Odoo proves to be advantageous for business marketing and management, accounting, etc. It enables the business to make quick decisions on vital matters thereby reducing the overdue of deadlines.

Increase the overall productivity

One of the major reasons to choose Odoo ERP for a small or medium-level business is a huge increase in overall productivity. For every SME, this is a significant factor. An increase in productivity is the main objective of all growing ventures. And this is what Odoo guarantees to offer. With Odoo, transforming several features of the business and overcoming some major challenges faced during business growth, becomes easy.

Streamlined data

When an SME chooses to get ERP software like Odoo implemented into their business system, mainly because of the benefit of obtaining a streamlined data flow. For instance, the financial data of a business needed by the inventory department of the business can be a little tough to get hold of. But, with Odoo ERP software, it becomes easy since all the official data and info are available to every department and employees.

Improved communication and collaboration

Integrating an ERP for a small and medium level business can result in a vast change when it is all about communication and collaboration between different departments of work. Lack of collaboration and poor communication often results in unavailability and inaccessibility of data. Of course, no growing business would want this to happen. This is the reason why choosing an ERP software solution like Odoo becomes highly important.ConclusionSo, all these reasons make it essential for small and medium-level businesses to look for an expert and reliable Odoo consultant so that they can get the ERP implemented. A streamlined and smooth workflow with increased productivity and revenue is what every SME wants and Odoo ensures the same fitting for all companies. Whether you are running small manufacturing, trading, textile, eCommerce, retail, or other business, Odoo always fits your requirement and automates the processes, therefore resulting in faster and higher ROI.

#EANF#

New Hope for FinancingI believe all business is better performed in a positive environment. If you believe good things will happen, they do…if you whine… they won’t. I work hard each day to see the cup half full. It is one of the foundations of my consulting practice. However, over the past ten years, I have had to check my negative thermometer against a pet peeve – bank lethargy.For many years it has been apparent that small business would provide the basic employment growth in America. Therefore, I concluded that the larger business community had an obligation to nurture smaller businesses whenever possible. That phenomenon is now occurring in a big way. The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce has actually launched programs to have small business owners meet with large business management and share knowledge and opportunity. This is happening in large cities around the country.Large business has already made the economic decision to “outsource”. Yet, those large company managers are often limited in their ability to find suppliers, suppliers who may well be in their own business community. Many of the small business owners are not trained in the quality controls required by these larger companies or skilled in how to approach them.Well guess what! Our Small Business Community is not a third world country; it just needs exposure to the demands of Big Business. They always respond when nurtured.As this paradigm continues to grow, the next obstacle to face is getting the smaller business financed in a way that works. I won’t go into the raising of equity challenges business owners run in to, I just want to address the problems they have in borrowing money. Equipment loans have been covered for years by certain financing companies and often by banks. However, how does a small business borrow money to support large business contracts?You would think that’s where the banks come in. Yet so much of this lending is very commercial in nature and requires banks to have certain operations that have not existed for the thirty years that I have been doing this. For all of those years, if you wanted to borrow money to operate a growing business, you needed to own real estate to pledge against the loan.
Many banks are very adept at lending on real estate, and for years many have not been as concerned how the borrower actually used the loan proceeds as long as the real estate maintained its value above the loan amount.Times are changing… Finance entrepreneurs have been coming into many markets for the past ten years, and making operations capital available to business owners. These loans have been made against assets other than real estate…For example receivables and inventory, and often just operating capital.Over the past two years I have been working closely with Western banks that are truly “small business friendly”. My first efforts went towards changing some credit policies that were preventing the smaller business owner from separating their personal credit from their business credit. The problem often stunts the growth of small business (this has been covered in previous articles).What do I mean by truly small business friendly banks? All banks say they want to help the small business owner. However, in many cases that is just code for “I want your deposits, but don’t ask for a loan without real estate attached to the deal.”I am happy to report this is changing rapidly. Many banks are actually putting on additional operations that can do, what is called Trust Confirmations. These banks are then prepared to do asset, leased lending that could not be monitored without those additional bank operations.Supporting such operations can be an expensive step for banks and it is difficult for them to find the type of credit personnel who have the experience. Why? Because this type of expertise has been sparse in the Western United States.I can tell you that several banks are now sincerely reaching out to our small business community and setting the pace for others to follow.