Neural DSP is a Finnish company praised worldwide for manufacturing high-tech audio processing software and equipment. Their need for an ERP system arose when managing work manually started to get challenging. SprintIT helped introduce Odoo in a phased and controlled manner.
In just a few years this success story of a company became one of the top international names in its field, multiplied its turnover and now employs more than 100 people around the world. The product development of the devices is done in several different countries, the components mainly come from Finland and China, and the finished products assembled in Helsinki are sold almost entirely abroad.
As is typical for startups, Neural DSP's business was initially managed flexibly with numerous excel tables. However, as sales and production grew, manual management of work became challenging, time-consuming and prone to human error. The component shortage affecting the electronics industry also did not make things easier to manage, when there were delays in the deliveries of the parts.
The company started looking for an ERP system that would support the fast-growing international business in which retailers play an important role. The company ended up choosing Odoo software, which is cloud-based and has reasonable operating costs.
The right direction for the project found after a small misstep
Neural DSP started the ERP project independently by acquiring the software licences directly from Odoo with a support package priced by the hour. The company employed professionals from the world of music and sound reproduction, but none of them had experience with ERP projects.
"None of us had even seen ERP before and it seemed like we were hitting a bit of a wall when we tried to get ahead quickly on our own. After the first implementation, the production staff actually refused to use the system," says Neural DSP’s Production Manager Mikko Heinonen.
This story is not unusual at all. ERP projects are always quite demanding projects, for which it is good to set aside enough time from the key personnel's calendar.
In addition, Neural DSP was in a wild growth cycle and it was natural that the promotion of the ERP project was in danger of being left behind by other busy work.
As a solution, Neural DSP hired an external project manager and decided to continue the implementation with the help of a local partner. SprintIT was selected because they already had references and evidence of successful overall projects in the manufacturing industry.
Step by step with SprintIT
The cooperation with SprintIT started by taking a few steps back. First, we stopped for a moment at the in-house processes and defined Neural DSP's business needs and evaluated which Odoo functionalities are suitable as such for the company's needs. At the same time, the road map of the project took shape, i.e. a plan for which processes will be brought into Odoo immediately and which will be saved for the second phase.
The general goal of the project was to maintain Odoo's standard functionalities. In this way, project costs were kept under control and implementation was accelerated. In the long run, maintenance and future update processes will also be simpler.
Working in sprints minimises the risks related to the implementation of the new system and the change in operating methods. By doing this, it is easy to correct possible design errors when the functions are implemented one at a time.
Basic functions first
In the first phase, Neural DSP focused on standard Odoo applications supporting the production chain: sales, component procurement, manufacturing and inventory management.
With the help of these basic functions, they were able to immediately sell and invoice products, monitor the warehouse situation, record the components used in production and make purchases according to needs in Odoo. At the same time, Excel, which is familiar to users, was still used for quality control and serial number tracking. With such a phased introduction, risks were minimized.
As the basic functions went well in Odoo and the product had become familiar to users, they were ready to expand the use and give up Excel.
Typical requirements for the electronics industry are mass production serial number tracking and precise quality control. In high-tech products, the customer base is very demanding, so testing, production quality control and especially reporting of possible problems play a very important role. The production and quality control processes of Neural DSP were modelled in the Odoo ERP system, and the serial number tracking of products and components was completely transferred step by step to Odoo.
Basic functions first
Under the guidance of SprintIT's experienced Project Manager, the implementation of Odoo was smooth.
"SprintIT's Project Manager's general understanding of production line processes and the ability to apply our company's small nuances and specialties to them has been really valuable and useful for us in this project. We got the biggest help from SprintIT in the basic work related to processing and structuring the basic data”, Mikko Heinonen says.
The cooperation between Neural DSP and SprintIT was close at the beginning and there were meetings several times a week. Now the development needs are reviewed once a week - there is a lot of development ideas in a growing and developing company.
Nowadays, even the assembly line employees who were critical of Odoo at the beginning have accepted Odoo as their number one tool. Neural DSP now has several satisfied and skilled Odoo users. After implementation, SprintIT has also provided support in resolving exceptional situations, if necessary.
Follow in the footsteps of Neural DSP and choose Odoo!
Let's talk about the needs of your company.