Company Name: PFM Intelligence Group

Location: The Netherlands, Europe

Industry: Technology

Established: 1983

Company Size: <100

Odoo Users: <100

Hosting Type: Odoo.sh

Apps: CRM, Sales, Subscriptions, Purchase, Invoicing, Accounting, Inventory, Project, Helpdesk, Employees, Studio, Time Off

Implementing Partner: Cravit

With offices in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, PFM Intelligence Group provides business intelligence solutions tailored to the needs of every company requesting its services, related to visitor data in physical locations. After using a large range of standalone systems for years, PFM decided to streamline its operations on Odoo’s consolidated, centralized and integrated ERP system, working together with the implementing partner Cravit, who has been of great help.

Operating on the Dutch and British markets, PFM Intelligence Group combines data and historical context to provide real-time insights that make a difference. Companies using their tailored business intelligence solutions can therefore take advantage of a custom and detailed forecast and make informed decisions, in order to enhance their customer experience, improve their financial performance and elevate their property value. 

For years, the company has been using a variety of tools across different departments to handle marketing, sales, logistics, support, finance and HR - amongst others. This led to multiple redundancies and manual entries, which was consuming too much time, causing inconsistencies and presenting a substantial risk of error. 

The fragmented environment of this setup was provoking real operational inefficiencies, as data was duplicated across the diverse tools, visibility was limited between departments and processes were inconsistent across the offices.

PFM’s journey started with a vision of growth and innovation, with a fierce ambition to constantly push boundaries in order to create pioneering solutions. To achieve this, it was essential to adopt a powerful multi-company management solution integrating all departments’ operations and centralizing all data. 

Consequently, PFM decided to consolidate all of the functions within Odoo’s fully integrated and centralized software. The company chose Odoo as it stood out for several reasons:

 Flexibility of the open source system: Odoo can be customized extensively, which was appreciated by PFM to adapt the system to its specific needs without being locked into a rigid system.

 Cost-efficiency: Odoo offers the potential to replace multiple systems (some of which were more expensive) with a single solution, all of that with a straightforward pricing model.

 Modular approach: Odoo makes it easy to start small and scale up as the business processes expand or change, integrating new modules.

 Centralized database: Having all data centralized means that sales, operations, and finance are in one database, providing better insights and eliminating “information islands.”

Before making a decision, PFM compared around 30 solutions, such as SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Exact Online, Microsoft Dynamics, Ridder and Salesforce (amongst others). But those considered softwares either lacked flexibility or required a more significant investment in custom development.

“Odoo’s combination of modularity, open-source roots, and overall cost-effectiveness was unique.” - Michel l’ Amie - COO at PFM Intelligence Group

With the valuable help of Odoo’s Gold implementing partner Cravit, previously B-Informed, PFM worked step by step to introduce, install and configure Odoo’s modules:

1. Proof of concept and gap analysis: The first step was to make sure Odoo could handle the core needs of PFM.

2. Initial rollout with the Time Off app: PFM started using Odoo with a simple but universal feature : Time Off. The idea was to introduce the system to the entire organization in a practical and low-risk way, which proved to be a huge success! 

3. Phased deployment of core modules: Once everyone was familiar with the system, other modules such as CRM, Inventory, Accounting and Helpdesk have been added.

4. Iterative improvements: Weekly check-ins were conducted to address issues, add customizations, and refine processes if needed.

5. Continual optimization: Even after the initial completion of the project, PFM continues to improve and add features in Odoo in a constant wish for optimization.

Installing an all-in-one ERP system has brought multiple benefits for the company:

 Smooth-running workflows: The system streamlines the operations on a daily basis, unifying the departments through consistent processes across regions. This also improves cross-departmental collaboration. 

 Valuable insights: The team benefits from real-time data to work better and faster, taking advantage of more accuracy and quality in the decision-making process. 

 Process automation and centralization: It was crucial to reduce reliance on manual tasks. Avoiding any unnecessary extra workload and centralizing processes made that possible. Teams no longer need to re-key data, which means fewer errors and faster turnaround times.

 Efficiency maximization: Odoo’s management system facilitates scalability while being cost-effective.

 Cost reduction: Centralizing all the software into one solution has significantly reduced costs, in particular on IT maintenance.

 Time-saving: Consolidating tools into Odoo decreased process times across departments. A focus can be put on the core business, that is, transforming movement data into powerful insights shaping the future of physical spaces.

Odoo’s management system made it possible to bring all the data into one system, standardizing the departments and transforming the operations. 

“Odoo has been a game changer in aligning our teams and reducing overheads” - Michel l’ Amie - COO at PFM Intelligence Group 

Streamlining the processes and eliminating double entries allows the teams to focus on higher-value activities. For example, customer care is enhanced as the teams can answer faster and better to tickets. More resources are also devoted to product improvements, exploration of new markets and overall strategic growth projects.

All the benefits PFM gains from Odoo have given the company a strong competitive edge.The next step is to further optimize and expand Odoo’s capabilities to keep growing in Europe. Scalability is a big focus for the company to ensure the system keeps up with the increasing number of data and transactions in the upcoming years. 

“Odoo helped PFM become more agile. The time once lost to managing fragmented systems is now invested in innovating, expanding, and delivering better services to our customers.” - Michel l’ Amie - COO at PFM Intelligence Group