Can a company still be run without an information system?

Imagine you own a small company. You have one, at most two employees and no problem at all. You do not need a sophisticated system to run the company. Basic spreadsheet skills are enough, and you might even manage with pen and paper. But what happens when things go well and your company starts to grow?

Simple beginnings

Do you run a simple e-shop, for instance? Then you probably keep your stock and order records in a spreadsheet. You see exactly what is in the warehouse, and when a new order comes in you just check that you really have the goods. If everything matches, you process the order and ship it.

Let's say you get 10 orders a day at the start. In that case the order spreadsheet and the stock spreadsheet do not even need to be linked. Your link is an employee called John, who checks that everything adds up and handles the order. The company does well and suddenly you get 200 or more orders a day. What do you do? How many "Johns" will you need?

The company grows

When you are in business, growing the company is probably your main goal. The number of employees grows, as do orders, but also complaints. Suddenly you have to deal with holidays and payroll. Simply put, the agenda piles up and running the company manually, without an intelligent system, starts to become impossible.

It does not matter which industry you are in, practical problems can appear anywhere. With an e-shop you need a complete order management system. Hiring new people? The HR department has to keep records. Do you have a strong sales team? Salespeople need instant access to all contracts and agreements. Suddenly you realise that you are looking for a system that covers the complete operation of your company.

Realising the problem and looking for a solution

The biggest problem (in both a positive and a negative sense) is that usually all the needs grow at the same time. Your HR department may use a specific HR tool, orders are processed in an order system, and the sales team gets by with a simple CRM. Can you see the catch?

You want to move up another level, but you find that the systems do not communicate with each other. You cannot transfer data from one system to another. The warehouse does not work with sales, sales does not know what is currently in stock. Your company is now so big that it can no longer operate effectively without a complete ERP system.

A complete ERP solution

Complete ERP systems include, for example, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics or Odoo.

Their greatest advantage is that you can manage all processes in one system and gradually add new modules according to what you currently need. Complete ERP systems simply give companies a level of automation they would never otherwise achieve.

So, can a company be run without an information system today?

The answer to our opening question is fairly clear: if you are a large or medium-sized company that wants to hold its own against the competition and manage all its processes effectively, then without a quality information system it is impossible. Every day so many companies appear with the same products and services that the advantage at product level is gradually disappearing.

What you can gain, however, is a time advantage that keeps you competitive. By implementing a quality ERP system you make management, communication, control and work with human resources more effective. You can negotiate better terms and lower the price of products and services, something the other side cannot do without an ERP system. Digitalisation and optimisation provide a huge advantage that other companies do not have.

The advantages of the Odoo ERP system

Odoo is a modern, modular business information system that fully adapts to your business – in management, in efficiency and in price. What are its other advantages?

• Gradual automation of processes – Odoo offers the option of complete automation, and the pace and progress of automation depend on the size of the company and the goals set. With Odoo you have endless options for extension, so as the company grows you do not have to swap the system for another.
• Affordability – because it is an open-source system, hundreds of developers work on Odoo and it evolves extremely quickly. Development costs are lower, which also lowers the licence price for the client.
• Odoo exists in a Community edition – the efficiency of the open-source approach is evident here too. Hundreds of companies have implemented the system, keep innovating it and provide feedback. Odoo focuses on development and improves whatever is needed in an extremely short time.
• Odoo Store – you can download and install anything from the Odoo Store. Out of the box, Odoo has what really everyone needs; everything else can simply be assembled from modules.

Odoo can cover everything – and for far less money. The system is cheap in licensing terms because feedback comes in for free. Odoo is a reasonable alternative with the same result. Even small and medium-sized companies can afford a big solution.