You can customize Odoo for your Qatari business in the following ways:
- Understanding Your Business Requirements
- Identifying Which Modules Can Be Configured
- Choosing Which Odoo Modules To Customize
- Integrating With Other Systems
- Modifying The UI As Per Requirements
- Automating Everyday Processes
- Running Customization Tests
- Carrying Out Regular Maintenance Checks
Doing so will let you enjoy multiple benefits, such as bilingual language support and being configured for existing VAT and GCC laws, the Wage Protection System, and other relevant regulations.
Odoo is an ERP system that is used by businesses across the world to ensure a smooth workflow. These businesses prefer it due to its suite of modules for different business functions, easy customization, and configuration capabilities.
Apart from that, using Odoo in Qatar helps Qatari businesses ensure compliance with the existing labor laws, like Law No. 14 of 2004 on the promulgation of the Labour Law.
This law declares that an employee must not work more than eight hours per day or forty-eight hours per week. So, businesses can use the HRM module in the Odoo ERP to stay compliant with this labour law, among others.
It also helps businesses automate various operations like payroll management and HR database management.
For instance, Odoo helps:
- Retail businesses in Qatar manage inventories across different warehouse locations, and understand the progress of their operations through detailed analytics reports.
- Construction businesses in Qatar to log the progress of their operations by tracking employees’ attendance and also handle work orders.
- Logistics businesses in Qatar to manage their product or goods inventories and handle their workforce.
So if you, too, wish to utilize the Odoo ERP system in Qatar, but don’t know how, continue reading to learn the steps below.
How Can You Customize Odoo For Your Business in Qatar?
You can customize Odoo for your business in Qatar in the following manner:
Understanding Your Business’s Unique Requirements
Firstly, you need to understand the business you’re in very carefully. You can do that by studying the workflow of your company, and identify the various pain points in your industry. Say you work in the retail industry.
In such an instance, you will need to study how your company processes orders placed by consumers online.
During your analysis, you must consider various pain points such as:
- Difficulties faced by customers in placing orders
- Delays in processing orders
- Poor inventory management
- Issues faced during the checkout process
Apart from that, you must take into consideration the other factors, like tax laws, such as Chapter II, of Section II, of the Law No. (24) of 2018, Promulgating The Income Tax Law, which governs the tax exemptions section.
By doing so, you’ll be able to ensure that you modulate your organization’s finances accordingly and enjoy tax exemption benefits.
You should also take into consideration the requirements for Arabic language support.
Identifying Which Modules Should Be Customized
The Odoo ERP system comes with various preset modules like inventory management, accounting, finance, manufacturing, and HR. So, you should aim to first see which of these modules you can modify.
This will, however, depend on the business you’re in. For example, if you’re in the:
- eCommerce industry, you can modify the logistics module.
- Banking industry, you can modify the accounting and finance modules.
- Sales industry, you can modify the sales module.
Creating Custom Modules
In case the existing modules don’t serve your needs, you will need to develop custom modules. For example, as a retail company, you might need to create a training module for your team to educate them regarding the checkout process.
To do so, you will require developers who know programming languages like XML and Python. They will also need to be familiar with Odoo’s framework.
Integrating With Other Systems
You will need to integrate your Odoo ERP system in Qatar with your existing systems to ensure ease of functionality. These existing systems include payment gateways, APIs, and e-commerce platforms.
This will ensure that you can view and share your data between different parties or branches of your organization efficiently.
Integrating Odoo will help you optimize your business’s efficiency as well, since it can automate time-consuming functions like:
- HRMS (employee databases, attendance)
- Payroll (Disbursal of salaries)
- CRM (Responding to customer queries)
Modifying The UI As Per Requirements
You can also modify the user interface to ensure that it follows a format that your employees are comfortable with. Some areas where you can make changes are the dashboard, color scheme, and layouts.
For example, say you’re a retail company that sells activewear to young people. You can consider bright colours that go well with each other.
On the other hand, if you work in the financial industry, then you can opt for a clean, clutter-free interface.
Automating Everyday Processes
You can automate various routine operations or processes, which will help you re-allocate your resources and devote them to other tasks.
For instance, you could automate your CRM system to:
- Thank people for becoming customers
- Come up with guest behavior forecasts
You can then use your customer support executives to handle serious calls or train them in other tasks.
Running Customization Tests
Once you’ve set up the Odoo ERP system, we would recommend testing it in a simulated environment, as seen below:
These tests will reveal where there are any errors in the software, like missing data libraries, module installation errors, and database connection errors. You can also test how well the ERP integrates with your other platforms.
For example, as a CRM professional, you could check the data of the number of leads gained and customers closed. If the ERP system is unable to display the correct data, then you will need to configure the application settings.
You can launch the ERP formally after running all the checks.
Carrying Out Regular Maintenance Checks and Updating Software
As with every software application, running regular maintenance checks helps determine that everything is functioning as expected.
Take a look at the kind of maintenance checks you should run in the list below:
