Odoo Experience 2019 ran from 2 to 4 October in Belgium, and Odoo version 13.0 was unveiled there. What follows are my notes from Fabien's keynote speech on day one, my own impressions included. It goes through the various new features and improvements apart from accounting, following the presentation, a bit at a time.
The website builder improved
The design is improved across the board — the forum, events and the rest.
The official themes go open source. I had the right to use some themes anyway, from backing the theme-building IndieGoGo campaign years ago, but this is welcome. What it does to the ecosystem around themes remains to be seen.
The building blocks are easier to work with. Having played with them a little, they do seem better.
A mega menu is added. Some users were buying a paid theme just for this, so having it as a standard feature helps.
SMS marketing
Sending an SMS to every attendee of an event, and the like.
Social marketing
The concept is to cover everything from the machinery for winning leads to following up after the sale.
Showing Twitter and Facebook feeds inside Odoo.
Posting to every channel at once from Odoo, push notifications included. For anyone whose marketing works that way this could be quite useful.
Live chat with visitors.
Improvements around leads
An 「Enrich」 button fetches the basic information about a lead, and AI apparently proposes a probability on its own. Whether it produces information you can use, I take with a pinch of salt.
Lead generation. Whether it works for the Japanese market is unclear.
A newly added map view.
A formula can now be entered in a numeric field.
Improvements around sales orders
The stock position — on hand and forecast — can be checked on the sales order itself. This could be quite useful.
A product configurator: select the product and it pops up.
Order quantities can be entered on a matrix of attribute values. The apparel industry asks for this often.
Field Service (a new app)
A new app in Odoo 13. It includes:
- for the office
- work scheduling
- arranging visits
- for a mobile app or tablet
- recording time
- recording the work
- recording the parts used, and quoting
- a report for the customer, and collecting a signature
Scheduling the work.
Tasks shown on a mobile device.
A map view as well.
Recording time.
The work record, with a signature box.
Recording the maintenance parts.
Work complete. A report can be sent to the customer.
Rental (a new app)
Entering an order; the price is proposed automatically.
The schedule screen. It looks quite readable.
Inventory and manufacturing
The master production schedule has apparently been improved. Is it a little more usable? I cannot say without trying it, but going by this UI I have my doubts.
The consumed quantity of a component can now be changed on a manufacturing order, they say.
The work order schedule. The gantt view is easier to read throughout, and a production line can be changed by dragging and dropping.
Recruitment and HR
The pitch is that referral hiring has a higher hit rate. Fair enough.
They have made a game of it. When Odoo builds something to draw employees in, it often works this kind of playfulness in. (And it often falls flat, like V11's rainbow man.)
A way of sharing a job posting: collect points, get a reward.
Emailing a candidate a link to a package simulator.
The salary simulator. It looks useful for a company whose HR arrangements are flexible.
The result of the payroll simulation.
Signing an employment contract online.
Onboarding activities scheduled automatically for a new employee.
Managing employees' skills.
eLearning
The Slides app is renamed, and a course can now be designed and sold. Useful if that is what you are after, but overkill when all you want is to put a deck up.
Designing a course.
Answering a quiz.
Shift management (the Planning app)
Managing the schedule visually, by dragging and dropping, and sending the schedule out to staff.
Assigning staff to the hours a shift has not filled.
Lunch
An app for a fairly niche need. It does not interest me personally and I have never used it, but it might serve when catering an event.
Time Off
Here too the UI looks a good deal better.
Approvals (a new app)
It looks like a general-purpose workflow feature. Whether it integrates with the other apps needs checking.
Related article: Odoo V13 released (2) - accounting improvements, and more
Photo by Jack Sloop on Unsplash
Odoo V13 released (1) - new features and improvements