How Portcities Helped Carrefour Mongolia with Odoo
S2, #25 - Learn about what we do in Mongolia, the issues faced by big retailers, and how ERP can help tackle these challenges using a case study.
Introduction
This is my Carrefour Mongolia implementation team. I put their pictures here to show these guys my appreciation and acknowledge their hard work.
As a CEO, I feel your pain when it comes to choosing an ERP solution. You may be tempted to dismiss Odoo as too puny or too plain for your big retail business.
But trust me, you’d be missing out on a gem.
In this episode, I’ll tell you how Portcities partnered with Carrefour Mongolia, one of the biggest retail players in Mongolia, to implement Odoo ERP for their hypermarkets and supermarkets. It’ll show you how Odoo helped them standardize their business processes, comply with Mongolian accounting regulations, and handle many transactions.
You’ll also get to see some of the obstacles we encountered, the solutions, and the outcomes attained. As always, I’ll throw in a business quote that can help you succeed in your ERP implementation.
You’ll see why Carrefour is not too big for Odoo.
Agenda
1. Odoo news: Another great project is down in the books as Portcities wrapped up its latest project with Carrefour Mongolia
2. Case study: Carrefour Mongolia
3. Lessons learned: Implementing Odoo in Carrefour Mongolia
4. Business quote
5. Last but not least, a $ 1,000 gift
1. Odoo news: Portcities Concludes Carrefour Project
Last October, Portcities closed the main project with Carrefour Mongolia. And at the end of 2023, we finished rolling out the implementation to all Carrefour branches in the country 🛍️
Going in, we know it’s important to get our client to reach the end goal: Help them transform their operations and prepare them for long-term growth in the dynamic Mongolian retail market.
The team working on the implementation, Portcities Vietnam (PCV), used a phased approach to address different aspects of the business. First, they optimized the store functions to improve the daily operations and customer experience. Then, centralized the finance processes and master data to ensure accuracy and consistency across the organization.
To handle the high transaction volumes typical for retail stores, the Portcities also customized their Odoo to meet the demands specific to Carrefour Mongolia retail stores.
2. Case study: Carrefour Mongolia
"It used to be my second project with Odoo ERP and my first one with Portcities. This project for the Carrefour franchise in Mongolia was challenging due to the gap between the former system and Odoo and the change management part. Fortunately, with the excellent partnership and professionalism of Portcities, we succeeded in this big challenge. Their very good retail business knowledge also used to be a major plus.
Portcities Group is geographically present in each continent so it will be my wish partner for future projects in other countries."
William DENIZE • Project Manager at Carrefour Mongolia."
Carrefour contacted us asking to transform their previous ERP to Odoo in order to achieve their goals of standardizing procedures across their stores, localizing their system to comply with Mongolian accounting regulations, and handling a large volume of transactions.
So this is what Portcities did to solve their issues:
We hooked up their Odoo system with local banks, tax systems, and payment gateways to ensure compliance with local regulations
Our team tweaked Odoo to handle a ton of transactions and improved store functions like POS, Inventory, Purchasing, Sales, and Helpdesk
The team then took it step by step by conducting a store implementation first to make their daily operations smoother. Then, we continued with centralizing finance and master data to get the big picture
As a result:
Their overall system became more user-friendly and efficient
The financial accuracy of Carrefour Mongolia increased and automation makes their work far more efficient
Now, they can also manage their inventory better with PDAs and barcode scanning
After the implementation, we are still providing them with ongoing support such as continuing the support to roll out Odoo to 16 other Carrefour branches in Mongolia. The team also provides help in consolidating Carrefour’s finance figures and providing helpdesk support.
You can read more about the Carrefour Mongolia implementation on our website.
3. Lessons learned from implementing Odoo in Carrefour Mongolia
01. Carrefour is not too big for Odoo.
Fun fact: You can combine ERPs to gain advantages from different systems for your business.
Odoo can be implemented for corporate clients that already use SAP, NetSuite Oracle, or other systems that are utilized for different functions. You can also use Odoo even if your parent companies or other branches use a different ERP.
Odoo ERP is quite flexible when facing multi-business and localization challenges. For instance, Carrefour Mongolia uses Odoo for accounting since it helps them with tax localization. But they also decided to integrate it with other modules from SAP to stay connected with other Carrefour branches around the globe.
And even with a large data set, we managed to ensure that Carrefour Mongolia has its Odoo Accounting system connected with Manufacturing, Inventory, Helpdesk, Sales, POS, and Purchase modules to smoothen their day-to-day business operation.
02. Odoo can handle a lot of transactions.
Grocery retail is a specific case that requires a lot of transactions. It requires a complex ERP processing.
In retail, every purchaser of a supermarket is considered as one order. Typically, each person has an average of shopping 10 items per purchase.
So let’s say, a supermarket chain with twenty supermarkets has 250 orders per day. That means, their ERP will have to process around 50,000 items that must be checked out daily.
So yes, Odoo can handle a huge amount of transactions.
However, you would need to build the right architecture. So, our team designed a decentralized system where each store has its own Odoo setup before finally connecting all branches.
This step is necessary so Carrefour branches in Mongolia can report and share their joint master data.
03. Prepare to have a rock star mentality.
At some stages of the project, all our consultants may look like rock stars with all the fans around. Be prepared!
At 7.30 PM on a workday, Tran Binh, our Project Director, was still surrounded by the Carrefour Mongolia Finance team to answer questions - just like Brad Pitt on a red carpet taking questions from paparazzi.
PS: Thank you, Binh. You are a rock star 😎
04. Paper rolls. Bring more paper rolls even if you think you have enough.
Always bring more paper rolls than you need. That’s the lesson we learned from Franck Plazanet, our Engineering Manager.
Even when we are in the business of digitalizing business processes, papers are still an inseparable component of some businesses.
In retail, you’ll need labels for scalable fresh items. So here we are testing the printing function to ensure the barcode layout contains the information of item code, weight, and converted price.
4. Business quote
“Big retail ERP implementation is like marriage. It takes commitment, patience, and compromise. But once you get through the hard times, you’ll enjoy the benefits of a long and happy relationship” 👰🏽♀️
With great teamwork between Carrefour Mongolia and Portcities, after a year of dedication and hard work, the Odoo implementation tackled Carrefour’s problems with its previous ERP vendor.
Yes, we faced challenges like project delays and language barriers. But their clear implementation goal helped our team find the best functions to solve their pain points and meet their business needs.
5. Last but not least, a $1,000 gift
Writing this newsletter costs time, i.e., the missed opportunity to do something else. That’s about $500-1000 per week that I give for free to the Odoo community.
I hope it delivers as much value as possible. If you like it, I ask your favor to support this project. Any of the following would be a HUGE help:
Subscribe
Share it with someone who may be interested in Odoo
Give me feedback about this newsletter by emailing gaspard@portcities.net
Spread the word about Odoo and Portcities
If you know someone who wants to implement Odoo, we offer implementation services for SMEs and larger enterprises and corporations.