Odoo 15 – business applications for innovation enthusiasts

The maker of the well-known open-source ERP platform Odoo did not disappoint its users and fans last autumn either: it presented a new version of the popular ERP software under the name Odoo 15.

Odoo is a platform whose development and improvement involve thousands of internal and external developers. Its functionality keeps expanding with attractive features that users request directly, or that appear on the market as technologies worth including in or integrating with Odoo. The main goal is to come up with meaningful innovations and to automate internal business processes as much as possible.

Odoo 15 brought several new features that deserve a few lines. As someone from the business side, I have always looked at ERP systems critically – first and foremost through the lens of what they bring to sales as such, because many vendors fell asleep in prehistoric times when everything revolved around accounting and taxes. In this respect Odoo is clearly at the front of the imaginary peloton, because it understood that sales is the fundamental driving force behind every company's success. That is why in this article we look at the improvements related to sales, whether directly or indirectly.

What does Odoo 15 offer to improve sales?

In the Sales app there are three main improvements. First, there is major progress in price list configuration. Users can now configure the item form views, including a simulation in the Pricelist module. Product images can be elegantly fetched in the Product module through their UPC/EAN barcodes; all you need is a Google Custom Search API key. Finally, the Terms and Conditions are displayed as a web page with default content that can be edited, and the default link is available on every customer order.

The upgrade from Odoo 14 to 15 also brought new development in as many as 11 different areas of the CRM module. Interesting features include Predictive Lead Scoring, which helps you rate the relevance of your potential customers based on selected criteria. The mail connectors for Outlook and Gmail (add-ons) now support all Odoo languages. Users can also create leads, tasks and helpdesk tickets from e-mails and send them to personal e-mail addresses. Creating sales forecasts has been simplified as well: all you have to do is move opportunities between months and the deadline updates to the last day of the month.

What changes does it bring on the marketing side?

The new version of Odoo also brought improvements to the marketing tools. Odoo is well aware that for a business to move forward, its marketing strategies have to be right. So it is no surprise that there were improvements in this area too. In SMS marketing, a recap with the results is sent automatically 24 hours after an SMS campaign goes out. If some messages failed, they can be resent all at once.

In social marketing, Odoo 15 lets you link social accounts to individual companies within a multi-company environment. Once you connect your company's Instagram page or YouTube channel with Odoo, you can post from the new Odoo dashboard as well.

Odoo also brings e-mail marketing improvements. You can create mailing lists on the fly and move contacts between them. Users no longer have to edit code after the e-mail templates moved to QWeb. That makes customisation robust and helps with adjusting e-mails at their final rendering.

What do you think? I am satisfied. 🙂

Next time on the blog we will look at further innovations from the Odoo workshop. So write to us about what interests you. Is it warehouse management or manufacturing? Or would you like to know how to build company websites very quickly and effectively? Let us know.

Summary

Finally, a summary for those wondering whether it makes sense to move to the latest version of Odoo:

Not only will you get access to new functions that make business operations easier, you will also get the best support from the Odoo team or from one of its trusted partners. It is important to know that Odoo has ended support for version 12, so you will only be able to get the support you need for versions 13, 14 and 15. You should also be aware that upgrading to a newer Odoo version is only the first step. The next step is preparing the customisations of third-party applications for the new version. So make sure you are in touch with the right Odoo partner who has this type of experience and, above all, verifiable references.