What is Odoo?
Odoo (formerly known as OpenERP) is a business application suite developed by Odoo S.A. in Belgium and is the world’s most popular open-source solution of its kind.
It offers a rich set of features and excels in usability, scalability, and maintainability, while delivering exceptional cost performance. Its coverage extends beyond the traditional scope of ERP packages to include CMS, e-commerce, event management, helpdesk, and much more.
Odoo has a community organization that helps share development and maintenance costs.
The Odoo Community Association (OCA) is the world’s largest OSS community in the domain of business application software. It promotes collaboration among community developers in the creation and maintenance of complementary Odoo functionalities.
Modules released under the OCA undergo strict style checks and code review processes to ensure consistent and reliable quality.
While Odoo is highly extensible, this flexibility also makes it easy to implement customizations that may undermine maintainability if not carefully managed.
By utilizing the resources of the OCA community and following its best practices, it is possible to reduce the risk of costly, hard-to-maintain customizations built in isolation.
Did you know?
About 60% of user requirements that cannot be covered by Odoo’s standard features
can be addressed with OCA modules.
Under the OCA, around 2,000 complementary Odoo features, created based on real user needs, are released with each Odoo version.
According to our experience at Quartile, approximately 60% of user requirements that cannot be fulfilled by Odoo’s standard features can be met using existing OCA modules.
By effectively leveraging OCA modules, it is possible to build an Odoo environment that is cost-efficient, fast to implement, and highly maintainable.
Implement Odoo
with a partner committed to open source
The essence of open source is its ability to ensure that information circulates freely in open forums. As Odoo is an open-source product, service providers who value user benefits and are highly skilled in Odoo naturally contribute to its improvement in open communities and actively share their expertise.
Service providers with an open-source orientation toward Odoo are distinguished by the following characteristics:
Share Information and Know-how
Service providers who participate in community activities are committed to sharing knowledge. Without this mindset, participation in the community is not possible.
Reduce Costs
Service providers who engage in community activities are also capable of effectively utilizing community resources. They do not exploit information asymmetry to overcharge users with excessive estimates.
No Vendor Lock-In
The use of proprietary features increases switching costs, thereby creating vendor lock-in regardless of the service provider’s intentions.
High Skill Level
By engaging in community activities and receiving feedback from top engineers at Odoo S.A. and within the community, service providers naturally enhance their skills.
Reliable Maintenance
By leveraging community resources when implementing Odoo, it becomes possible to rely on support from both the service provider’s in-house team and community members for functional improvements, maintenance, and version upgrades.
Low Legal Risk
By incorporating license compliance checks into continuous integration, the legal risks associated with the use of inappropriate open-source modules can be avoided.
The implementation of a core business system rarely ends with simply installing an off-the-shelf product. In particular, when using Odoo in Japan, customization is often unavoidable. By partnering with a service provider committed to open-source contributions, users can significantly enhance their chances of a successful Odoo implementation.
Open-Source Mindset
- Share Information & Know-how
- High Skill Level
- Lower Costs
- Reliable Maintenance
- No Vendor Lock-In
- Low Legal Risk
Proprietary Mindset
- Not sharing information & know-how
-
Low skill level
- Higher Costs
- Unreliable Maintenance
- Yes Vendor lock-in
- Legal Risk Requires Caution
Number of Odoo partner in Japan engaged in OSS activities
（as of July 2024）
Quartile
Odoo partners in Japan not engaged in OSS activities
（as of July 2024）
Choose Quartile for Proven OSS Contributions
Odoo’s Japanese Localization
Until Odoo S.A. hired a Japanese translator in 2023, we had led Odoo’s Japanese localization efforts for ten years. While our community activities have since shifted their focus to functional improvements, we continue to carry out Odoo translation work, though to a lesser extent.
Proposals for Improvements and Fixes to the Odoo Core
The Japanese accounting module incorporated into the Odoo core (which defines the chart of accounts and related master records) is based on work originally created by Quartile in 2015.
In addition, whenever defects or specification issues are found in the Odoo core, we submit fix proposals on GitHub, clarify the points of discussion, and engage in dialogue with Odoo S.A.
As of July 2024, Quartile is the only Odoo partner in Japan carrying out such activities.
Activities within the Odoo Community Association (OCA) (Feature Enhancements / Fix Proposals)
At Quartile, we first consider addressing user requirements with Odoo’s standard features. If that is not feasible, we explore solutions using OCA modules. When existing OCA modules do not fit well, we submit proposals for improvements or feature extensions to those modules, or propose entirely new OCA modules.
We also receive feedback from the community, which sometimes leads us to adjust the direction of implementation. Many OCA modules have been refined through such iterative processes.
Sharing Practical Information in Open Forums
We openly share practical information on the features and know-how of Odoo and OCA modules in forums accessible to everyone.
Quartile is committed to giving users the most value. Since 2013, we have worked openly to support and grow the Odoo open-source ecosystem, improving the Odoo core and helping to build and maintain OSS community features.
This approach ensures the quality of our services and has earned the trust of many clients. In the area of core business systems, where switching costs are high, we have also taken over and fixed many Odoo environments that did not work well under other proprietary-focused providers.
Number of Customers
who switched from Quartile’s services to another provide
Number of Customers
who switched from another provider’s services to Quartile’s
At Quartile, we offer a free Second Opinion service to help mitigate situations where users may be disadvantaged due to information asymmetry.
Please feel free to consult with us.
Odoo Version Upgrade Case
Genelec Japan Inc.
The version upgrade improved overall performance, usability, and productivity. Through the cleanup of custom code, maintainability was enhanced, and by gaining a deeper understanding of Odoo’s mechanisms, we expanded the range of issues we could resolve on our own. We also learned that customization should be kept to a minimum whenever possible.
Odoo Implementation Case
株式会社アシスト
While comparing and considering various ERP systems, we came across Odoo. With its wide range of modules and customization cases, and because the initial investment was far more affordable compared to other ERP systems, we decided to move forward with building our system using Odoo.
We provide comprehensive Odoo services, covering everything from implementation to operation and maintenance.
With our early experience in Odoo implementation in the Asian region, Kotaeru supports ERP deployment at the right cost. Compared to trial and error within your own company, we make Odoo implementation faster, more cost-effective, and more reliable.