PDSVISION multiplied its turnover and integrated its Nordic processes within a few years. To support this growth, the Odoo ERP system was introduced to streamline business processes. Thanks to Odoo, despite the growth in business and requirements, the administration has been kept lean.
A scalable system was needed to support rapid growth
PDSVISION is a multinational business digitalisation solutions company whose main customers are companies that develop and manufacture physical products. PDSVISION's solutions enable them to build powerful digital product management CAD, PLM, IoT and AR solutions. Since its inception, the company has focused on growth, with sales at the heart of its operations.
Five years ago, PDSVISION was already running a turnover of 10 million in the Nordic region, but they did not have an actual ERP system. There were a few stand-alone software packages. One was used to record working hours, another to manage support tickets and a third for invoicing.
As the accounting was in separate software, reconciling sales reports and accounting was laborious and challenging, and the accounting could not be reconciled. Better processes and more scalable solutions were also needed to manage software and maintenance contracts.
The main challenge was the lack of access and visibility of customer information. This led to fragmentation and inefficiencies. The need for a single, all-encompassing system that could scale to multiple countries and operate efficiently during periods of rapid growth was apparent.
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Odoo makes Nordic processes uniform
PDSVISION is an international company that needs to be able to manage sales and projects seamlessly across countries. The customer may be in Norway, the salesperson in Sweden and the project manager in Finland. To manage such a palette efficiently and smoothly, you need similar processes in each country and one common ERP system.
With the introduction of Odoo, PDSVISION was able to harmonize its processes across countries. Odoo is now deployed in five countries. Consultants, vendors, support staff and administration in all Nordic countries, and soon also in the UK, use Odoo.
Virtually everything except payroll is currently handled in Odoo: PDSVISION customer relationship management (CRM), sales, contract and project management, purchasing, helpdesk support requests, accounting, timesheets, absence reports and expense reports. Even customer training is managed in Odoo. The Events module is used to manage courses.
"If we hadn't gone to Odoo, we would have a lot of inefficiencies and would lose billing due to manual, file-based ways of working," says VP of Operations, Perttu Korpela.
"In terms of growth and scalability, the fact that we can now share knowledge and resources between countries is a huge advantage for us. We have one Nordic sales team working closely together. We share knowledge and expertise easily."
Perttu Korpela speaking at the Odoo Roadshow in March 2024
Tailoring needs reveal the partner's capabilities
PDSVISION offers its customers different contract models. International business requires compliance with the laws of different countries. In addition, a new private equity owner brought with them a whole new set of requirements. These were the three main reasons why the standard Odoo had to be developed to meet PDSVISION's own specific needs.
The two types of contracting models: hourly and contract billing (Subscriptions) required the development of Odoo's basic functions, especially in terms of financial management. SprintIT developed for PDSVISION a financial management model for the periodicity of revenue and expenditure according to the contract period. Now auditors can also obtain the information they need directly from Odoo.
"When a private equity investor became an owner, the reporting requirements for us rose to a new level. We would not have been able to meet the new Nordic reporting requirements without additional recruitment if we had not had Odo." Korpela concludes.
The easy customizability of Odoo reports and the fact that all countries work according to the same processes in one system allows for smooth reporting without massive manual excel jumping.
Choosing the right partner is key to success
When asked what Perttu's tips are for someone starting an ERP project, he advises to focus on choosing the right partner.
"At the beginning of the project, focus on partners, not on comparing system demos. ERP is such an important business system that it makes a huge difference who delivers it to you. You can do many things with different technologies, but the right partner is the key to success."
PDSVISION initially had two separate Odoo partners. Sweden was responsible for the overall development. Finland was responsible for the implementation and development of the financial management system localized for Finland.
As the project progressed, SprintIT's expertise and willingness to cooperate in financial management development projects was so convincing that PDSVISION decided to centralize and transfer all Odoo system development work to Finland and SprintIT. Including the Swedish financial management.
"Because customization of Odoo is so easy, we did an awful lot of it before. Our first partner implemented everything we asked for without question."
"SprintIT, on the other hand, does listen carefully to our needs, but not all our wishes were necessarily implemented right away. They have made us think twice about whether there is a real need for further development. There is always a genuine discussion with SprintIT. They are an advisor to us, giving us hand-on guidance where necessary."
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