How to Choose an Odoo Implementation Partner
You’re faced with the decision of choosing an Odoo partner for your business. You have five candidates to consider, each of which has certified consultants, Gold or Silver status, and promises a turnkey implementation.
The difficulty of this choice lies in the fact that, at first glance, the scope of work is quite similar, the timelines are virtually identical, and each partner confidently claims to know exactly how to make your company’s Odoo implementation a success.
The situation becomes even more complicated if your company already had a negative experience with a low-cost contractor, since you understand that a low starting price doesn’t mean it won’t go up as the project progresses.
So how can you determine which Odoo implementation partner will truly meet your requirements?
Comparing partners’ statuses and the numbers in their quotes isn’t the best approach, since you also need to understand what Odoo consulting includes, what exactly is behind each offer, and how the partner will approach the entire implementation process.
What Partner Status Means and What It Doesn’t Mean
Odoo’s official partner status is important because it confirms the partner’s actual experience, qualifications, and a close relationship with the platform’s developer. For you, as a client, this is one of the key indicators of reliability. However, it’s important to understand that this status alone does not guarantee that a particular company will be the best Odoo implementation partner specifically for your business.
Odoo’s current affiliate program has three official tiers: Ready, Silver, and Gold. A partner’s tier is determined by several metrics, such as the number of active certified in-house specialists and the number of new users acquired by the partner over the course of the year; for Silver and Gold tiers, customer retention is also a key factor.
Ready
Currently, to achieve “Ready” status, a company must have 10 new users and 1 certified specialist;
Silver
for “Silver” status, it needs 75 users, 3 specialists, and a retention rate of at least 70%,
Gold
while “Gold” status requires 300 users, 6 specialists, and a retention rate of at least 80%.
Although statuses indicate the extent of a partner’s interaction with the Odoo ecosystem and the availability of certified resources, they do not guarantee that a potential partner’s capabilities and experience will fully align with your project’s needs. That is why it’s best to use status as an initial filter rather than as the final selection criterion. If you have several candidates with Silver or Gold statuses, then you should assess which one is the best fit for your implementation.
Five Questions That Weed Out Half the Candidates
As experience shows, most partners have fairly similar presentations and virtually identical promises. If you simply ask them to describe their approach or talk about their advantages, you’ll most likely get canned answers. Here, we’ve compiled 5 questions for Odoo implementation partners that are difficult to answer with ‘marketing speak.’
How many projects have you completed in our industry, and is it possible to speak with those clients directly?
Keep in mind that simply citing a number representing the number of projects isn’t enough here. Ask a potential partner to name a few relevant clients and inquire whether you can speak with them directly. If you receive a response such as, “We’ve worked with virtually every company” without any specific examples, this is a sign that the partner may not be sufficiently qualified for your project. Remember that a reliable partner should be ready to back up their experience with more than just logos on the slide.
What will happen to custom modules when upgrading to the next version of Odoo, and who pays for it?
Odoo itself notes that changes between versions can affect custom code, and therefore, such modules require separate adaptation, testing, and sometimes migration scripts as well. That is precisely why this issue is essential. It’s important for a potential partner to explain the process and clarify who will pay for this work. If you don’t receive a clear answer or hear something like, “We’ll figure it out during the next upgrade,” that’s a red flag. Remember that Odoo explicitly distinguishes between standard upgrades and updates to custom modules.
Who owns the code, and do we have access to the repository from day one?
If an Odoo implementation consultant tells you that the code belongs to you, that’s a good start, but it would be best if they explained exactly how this will be specified in the contract. This information should include not only who owns the rights to the development, but also where the code will be stored and exactly how the company will access it. If, however, they tell you that the repository is controlled exclusively by the contractor and you’ll only receive the code after the project is completed, that’s not a very good sign, since this situation increases your dependence on the partner and makes it more difficult to switch contractors in the future.
Who exactly will be on the project team, how many projects are these people already involved in, and does the team composition change after the contract is signed?
If a potential partner responds that the team composition may change after the contract is signed, you should clarify under what conditions this might happen. An answer along the lines of, “We’ll assign the team after the project starts” is a bad sign. It means that the people whose qualifications you’re using to assess the partner’s skills and expertise may not end up working on your project at all.
How is work billed after go-live?
This question should be phrased specifically: “What happens the day after go-live? What contract is in effect? What is the hourly rate? What does support include? And is there an SLA with guaranteed response time?” It’s important here not just to get the verbal assurance that support is available, but to obtain an actual document outlining the terms. After go-live, it’s crucial to understand who will respond to a critical incident and how, how much additional work will cost, and what services will be included in the contract.
Take the Five Questions from the Article and Ask Them to All Candidates on a Single Call — the Difference in Their Answers Will Be More Noticeable than the Difference in Their Presentations.
Talk to UsRed Flags You Should Be Aware Of
A precise fixed-price estimate with no discovery and no access to the company’s processes
If an Odoo consulting company hasn’t yet familiarized itself with your processes, data, and integrations, but is already quoting you an exact implementation cost, you should find out exactly what they’ve included in the estimate, as this behavior is a red flag. Typically, this figure is either inflated or will result in future change requests that will incur additional charges, leaving you with no choice but to pay more.
A promise to launch a complex implementation in one month
Odoo ERP is a fairly complex system, and if we’re talking about a situation that involves data migration, configuration of integrations, customization, testing, and user training, a timeline that is too short seems suspicious. To avoid problems and disappointment, it’s best to thoroughly verify plan feasibility.
Customization of everything you ask for
There’s nothing wrong with customization if it’s truly necessary, but it’s important to understand that a good Odoo partner doesn’t just agree to all your requests—they should be able to explain when additional features are actually needed. There are many cases where standard functionality is quite sufficient and customization is completely unnecessary. If you’re working with a company that unquestioningly agrees to all your suggestions, that’s a sign you should consider switching your Odoo implementation partner, since excessive changes increase the system’s complexity and can significantly complicate future updates.
The absence of a business analyst on the team
It’s important to understand that ERP implementation goes far beyond just writing code, and the team must include a business analyst or consultant who will analyze your processes and translate them into system requirements. The absence of such a person is a serious red flag, because even technically high-quality development may end up solving a business problem that is completely different from the one you need to address.
Not enough evidence to support the engineering expertise
While having proprietary products, modules, technical documentation, or open-source code isn’t mandatory for a good partner, it’s a serious reason to learn more about them, especially if the company claims to have a strong engineering team but can’t show the results of its work. To dispel doubt or confirm that something is indeed amiss, it’s worth checking for other evidence, such as technical case studies or examples of architectural solutions.
Industry-Specific Experience vs. General Experience
Some mistakenly believe that the more Odoo implementations the potential partner has completed at different companies, the better — but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes it’s better to choose a partner with three successful projects in your industry than one with ten successful projects in a different field. The key to a successful ERP system implementation is ensuring that it reflects not only technical requirements but also the logic of the specific business.
Take, for example, a partner who regularly works with distribution and understands how returns and multi-warehouse inventory management work. They don’t have to spend the first few months of the project figuring out how to set up inventory reservations, for example, or how to manage different sales channels. And while the fact that they won’t have to figure out the basics of a specific business doesn’t guarantee an instant, correct solution, it does make for a much better starting point.
It’s important to note here that even a partner without industry-specific experience can technically configure Odoo correctly. The problem arises at the stage when the system is technically operational but doesn’t align with the company’s actual processes. As a result, the business has to adapt to the ERP, when it should be the other way around. That is precisely why, when choosing among Odoo integration consultants, it’s crucial to focus not on the total number of implementations, but on the number of implementations specifically in your industry. In addition, you should verify the references provided through Odoo case studies and, if possible, ask a potential partner to arrange direct contact with clients.
This is especially important if you’ve already had a negative experience. For example, a significant portion of our projects involves not only new implementations but also situations where a client switched from another partner due to implementation issues. This type of experience is a distinct area of expertise, because it’s not just about implementing Odoo but about first understanding what exactly went wrong.
Work Models and What to Choose
Today, among Odoo partners’ proposals, you’ll most often encounter two models: fixed price and Time and Materials. Neither is universally better, since the choice depends on how well the scope of work is defined at the outset, which is precisely why Odoo consulting and configuration must be of the highest quality.
Fixed price
If we examine these two models more closely, a fixed price model means that the parties agree in advance on a specific amount for a defined scope of work. This model works well when the conditions are clearly defined and the processes are straightforward. However, looking ahead, as practice shows, using this model without a discovery phase almost always results in either an inflated budget or a dispute over the scope of work.
Time and Materials
Time and Materials involves paying for the actual time and materials used, and Odoo recommends this approach for projects with a scope that is difficult to estimate or when requirements may change. This is a fairly flexible option; however, it is important to understand that accurate and transparent time tracking and regular budget monitoring are needed.
Without sufficient discovery, it’s always difficult to determine exactly which model will be ideal for your business; therefore, the Odoo discovery phase should not be viewed as an attempt by the partner to sell an additional service, but rather as a genuine and effective way to reduce uncertainty. At this stage, the team analyzes processes and identifies requirements, integrations, necessary customizations, and the limits of standard functionality. If we’re talking about a complex implementation, it’s entirely justified to conduct a paid discovery to clearly understand what to do with the models.
Final Thoughts
Choosing an Odoo implementation partner shouldn’t come down to the partner with the highest status or the lowest price.
It’s crucial to understand what’s really behind each proposal: how well the partner understands your industry, how they handle customization, and what will happen after go-live. You can confidently ask these five questions we mentioned in the article to potential candidates. The differences in their answers, in terms of specifics and their willingness to back up their claims with facts, will be far more noticeable than the differences between their presentations. Their answers will help you choose a partner who doesn’t just sell an Odoo implementation, but who truly understands how to implement it specifically for your business.
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