Company Name: New Era Trading (www.new-eratrading.com)
Location: Bangkok (Thailand)
Industry: Sourcing company
Hosting: SaaS
Apps: CRM, Sales, Purchase, Invoice, Knowledge
In the early stages of their business, many owners often prioritize immediate concerns such as driving sales, ensuring timely deliveries, and managing various transactions. As a result, they may not place much emphasis on implementing systems or processes. Many businesses start to manage their operations by using email, which requires later entry into a system by manual input. Some businesses begin by using shared drives or Excel spreadsheets to store and organize their data.
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'New Era Trading' is similar, they are a sourcing company that is dedicated to working on requirements of the customers worldwide to deliver quality products within timelines promised. They can source any kind of products and commodities from Asia and mainly sells to European customers. But their reach is global, with a focus on on-time and a good deal for their customers.
They've used email, Excel and Google Drive to track everything for a long time, this way of working worked well initially and they've been able to set up a successful business. But as their market has grown and their operations have become more complex, they find themselves spending valuable time on administrative tasks instead of focusing on strategic growth. They wanted to avoid spending time filling out numerous Excel fields daily, and start seeking a solution that automates these tasks instead.
Of course, opting to implement an ERP system appears to be the best solution. An ERP system can combine the different business workflows into a single platform, and provide data insights which helps the decision-making process.
Why did they choose for Odoo?
Many ERP systems are available on the market, each with its own pros and cons. 'New Era Trading' carefully assessed which systems would best fit their business needs and engaged in discussions with various providers and considering how each could meet their specific requirements and support their growth. Their evaluation, assisted by an external ERP advisor, included options such as ERPNext, a custom developed ERP, Zoho and Odoo.
With multiple offices (head office in Bangkok, Thailand, and offices in India, Vietnam and China), New Era Trading was looking for something intuitive, easy to use and apply across different geographies. 'New Era Trading' decided to choose Odoo because the system continues to grow and expand its user base. With a large community and a strong global network of partners, which offers its users access to a wealth of resources. The platform also has many expert users and integrators, making it easy to find solutions and get support. With such a robust ecosystem, 'New Era Trading' recognized Odoo as a reliable and scalable choice for their needs.
"New Era Trading appreciates that Odoo centralises information. They trust Odoo in the same way they trust Google— when you input data into Google Drive, it stays there. The same goes for Odoo, but it offers even more flexibility."
Which business processes were implemented in Odoo?
At Taube Digital we always discuss our implementation approach before we agree to start a project with a new customer. Our key focus is balancing customer needs, budget, and minimal customization.
'New Era Trading' has a CRM process that's quite unique. The challenge was to automate the specific flow of data from contact creation to managing the opportunity life cycle, as well as the sourcing and sales process. The whole workflow from the initial opportunity creation till the project is closed takes a couple of months. Other ERP systems can't support these specific needs within the budget they had in mind. But with Odoo's effective functionalities and Taube Digital's Quickstart implementation methodology, it perfectly aligned and got the job done in no time.
Our implementation team can address complex issues and all the specific workflows and business situations of New Era Trading, using Odoo's standard features, even within the limitations of Odoo's SAAS hosting. And that is the primary reason why 'New Era Trading' selected Taube Digital from the different Odoo integrators available globally.
Why Taube Digital?
In addition to Taube Digital's approach and values, 'New Era Trading' also mentioned their experience working with our Project Manager. They mentioned that the Project Manager did a great job, communicating easily and offering helpful advice before they decided on the final setup. This included defining their needs and assigning tasks to the team.
The key point is that our team fully understands how to implement and manage Odoo to meet specific business requirements. This helps make the project initiation and execution pro-active, with a commitment to stay within the agreed timeline. 'New Era Trading' did not have to follow-up with Taube Digital at any point time!
Taube Digital's team also appreciates that the SPOC of 'New Era Trading' did a great job in providing clean data, clear communication of their needs and how that wanted that system to be automated. This clarity helped ensure the project’s success and effective implementation.
How did the users adapt to using Odoo?
Complex ERP systems often face resistance from users. Because the most often employees don't have specific knowledge in this technology. They may feel concerned when they hear that their company will start using an ERP system, which often leads to some degree of anxiety.
New Era Trading's staff also had to adapt to using Odoo, because of their long use of Excel and the fact that most staff members had no experience with other systems.
However, everyone agreed that Odoo is very user-friendly, most of the staff mentioned that Odoo is similar to using an iPhone, you just turn it on, and then you'll understand how to navigate and use each feature.
And because Odoo's communication is both presentable and centralized, and our implementation is based on standards, the customer knows that if they need answers to specific issues, they can find them on the Odoo eLearning platform. This also helps them save on support packages.
Impressions and benefits since using Odoo?
The founders of 'New Era Trading' are impressed with the many benefits and are happy to share their perspective on Odoo and Taube Digital.
They said "When you start looking for a system that fits your needs, begin with Odoo. It is simple, affordable, and matching with a range of business requirements. However, it's important to remember that it's crucial to understand what your business needs are and what your current processes are. This helps the implementation team work more efficiently and saves a lot of time. It was a pleasure working with Taube Digital. It's not easy to work with an integrator to make them understand your industry and your preferred way of working. But Taube digital did exactly that!"
"The success of the project didn’t come from one side, but from the effective collaboration between both parties."
Stephane De Deken - Project manager from Taube Digital for the New Era Trading project.