Summary: A chemical manufacturing company faced problems with its initial Odoo implementation partner while migrating data from a legacy ERP. After that, they decided to turn to another Odoo partner and came to VentorTech for Odoo migration, customizations, upgrade, and support. These days, Odoo runs almost the entire business, including manufacturing, sales, website, accounting, multi-company, and warehouse operations. Key benefits include centralized operations, automated cost and margin control, improved cash flow, faster onboarding, lower IT overhead, and scalable growth.

Company name: Chemical House
Location: Australia
Industry: Manufacturing
Specializations: Chemicals
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
VentorTech Solutions: Odoo Direct Print PRO
Provided services: Odoo Migration, Odoo Upgrade, Odoo Configuration, Odoo Customization, Odoo Rescue
Goal: To migrate data from the outdated system, upgrade Odoo to a newer version, optimize manufacturing and accounting processes, and centralize company operations.

“I think the key criterion for success is not just picking the right software — it’s picking the right partner. We had the right software, but we didn’t have the right partner. Then once we switched to VentorTech, everything became much smoother.” — Michael Scuderi, Managing Director of Chemical House.

This story was presented in the interview at Odoo Experience 2025 that featured Mikhail Mishutin, former Account Manager at VentorTech, and Michael Scuderi, Managing Director of Chemical House.

You can watch it here:

About the Customer

Chemical House is a family-owned manufacturer of high-quality chemicals based on the Gold Coast in Australia. Established in the early 1970s, the company produces and distributes chemicals for multiple industries across the country, including construction, water treatment, janitorial services, and automotive care.

The company develops and manufactures its own branded chemical products and operates a complex production environment. Each year Chemical House manages thousands of product variants and recipes, supporting customers across Australia while maintaining a lean team of approximately 25 employees.

Why Odoo?

When Michael Scuderi acquired Chemical House in 2016, the company was running on an extremely outdated ERP system.

The software resembled a “prehistoric” interface — a black screen with green text, where users could not even operate a mouse. Every operation required keyboard commands, making the system difficult to learn and frustrating to use.

For new employees, onboarding became especially challenging. The system lacked usability, modern features, and flexibility — all critical elements for managing both manufacturing operations and financial processes.

Michael quickly realized that the company needed to move to a modern ERP platform.

After evaluating available options, Chemical House selected Odoo because of its usability, modular structure, and ability to support manufacturing and accounting in a single system.

The company initially experimented with Odoo version 7 before officially launching with Odoo version 8, and today they are running Odoo 18 while continuing to evolve alongside the platform.

Related Service: Odoo Upgrade

The initial transition to Odoo was surprisingly smooth. Data from the legacy system was exported and successfully imported into the new environment, allowing the business to begin operating on the new platform relatively quickly.

Related Service: Odoo Rescue

However, challenges appeared later during migrations and ongoing support. The company initially worked with a local implementation partner in Australia, but over time the cooperation became increasingly difficult.

Related Service: Odoo Migration

Support costs began escalating, and the focus shifted toward billing rather than solving real operational challenges.

This is when Chemical House started searching for a new partner and eventually began working with VentorTech.

How Chemical House Started Working With VentorTech

By the time Chemical House partnered with VentorTech, Odoo had already been implemented in the company. However, they needed a reliable partner who could provide ongoing support, improvements, and guidance as the system evolved.

According to Michael Scuderi, choosing the right partner turned out to be just as important as choosing the right software.

“That is something we didn’t understand at the start; how critical it was to have right partner.” — Michael Scuderi, Managing Director of Chemical House.

With VentorTech, the collaboration became much smoother. The team helped Chemical House maintain system stability, implement improvements, and introduce customizations when needed.

Even though VentorTech is based in Poland and Chemical House operates in Australia, with approximately 9 hours of time difference, the cooperation proved seamless.

“Dealing with you guys in Poland is no different to dealing with someone in another suburb. It’s been quite painless.” — Michael Scuderi, Managing Director of Chemical House.

VentorTech ensured availability during critical migrations and system upgrades while maintaining continuous communication for development and support.

Business Challenges

Before fully optimizing their Odoo environment, Chemical House faced several operational challenges:

• Lack of a centralized overview of business operations
• Complex manufacturing processes with multi-level Bills of Materials
• Frequent material cost changes impacting production margins
• Customer payment delays affecting cash flow
• Fragmented software landscape with multiple disconnected systems

Managing thousands of SKUs and product recipes added additional complexity, requiring accurate cost calculations and efficient operational control.

Key Solutions Implemented

VentorTech worked closely with Chemical House to improve and optimize their Odoo environment by introducing several key improvements:

Automated cost control for Bills of Materials
Material cost changes automatically update product pricing to protect margins.

Automated accounting workflows
Daily accounting, sales, and purchasing processes were streamlined and partially automated.

Automated payment reminders
Customer payment follow-ups improved cash flow and reduced overdue receivables.

Centralized business management
All operations, manufacturing, sales, website, accounting, and inventory, were consolidated into one integrated system.

Chemical House now uses a wide range of Odoo modules, including:

• Manufacturing
• Sales and quotations
• Accounting
• Website and eCommerce
• Multi-company management
• Multi-warehouse operations

Today, almost the entire business runs on Odoo.

A short summary of the solution, from automatic Bill of Materials cost control to payment reminders and automated accounting, sales and purchasing, is in our Chemical House case study.

Results

The improvements delivered measurable business outcomes.

Improved profitability

Product sales prices now update automatically when material costs change, preventing margin losses and improving financial stability.

Better cash flow control

Automated reminders and improved receivable tracking reduced payment delays.

Lean operations

Odoo allows Chemical House to operate efficiently with a relatively small team.

“We’re only 25 people, but with Odoo we manage around 20,000 SKUs and 15,000 recipes.”

Reduced IT infrastructure

Previously the company relied on multiple systems, servers, and specialized software tools.

Today their entire software stack consists of:

• Microsoft Office 365
• Odoo
• A payroll system (soon to be replaced by Odoo Payroll)

“If my laptop died, I could throw it away, open a new one, and be back online in ten minutes.” — Michael Scuderi, Managing Director of Chemical House.

Faster employee onboarding

New employees can quickly learn the system thanks to Odoo’s intuitive interface and accessible training resources.

“We can show them a few YouTube clips and they pick it up quite quickly.” — Michael Scuderi, Managing Director of Chemical House.

Continuous Growth With Odoo

Chemical House has experienced consistent annual growth exceeding 20% over the past five years.

With Odoo as their operational backbone, the company plans to expand further by opening new locations and warehouses.

Odoo’s multi-warehouse and multi-company features will allow the company to scale quickly without rebuilding their IT infrastructure.

“It will be very simple for us to add new warehouses, and new users into Odoo.” — Michael Scuderi, Managing Director of Chemical House.

Advice for Companies Considering Odoo

Michael Scuderi offers practical advice to companies evaluating Odoo:

1. Be open-minded
No software will solve every problem perfectly, but Odoo offers strong flexibility and customization possibilities.

2. Focus on overall value
It’s easy to get stuck focusing on one missing feature while ignoring the broader benefits.

3. Choose the right Odoo partner
Proper implementation and support are critical to long-term success.

Top 3 reasons to implement Odoo with a partner

Michael Scuderi, relying on his experience of implementing Odoo, names the core reasons why it is better to work with an Odoo partner for Odoo development and Odoo configuration: 

• Correct setup from the start. While the initial implementation may seem straightforward, mistakes made early can be difficult and costly to fix later. An experienced partner ensures that the system is configured properly from the beginning.
• Expert guidance and best practices. Even technically skilled teams can miss important architectural or process decisions. A partner brings experience from multiple implementations and helps design the system in the most effective way.
• Long-term planning and support. A reliable Odoo partner helps businesses understand the total lifecycle of the system, including infrastructure, upgrades, and ongoing support, ensuring that the solution remains stable and scalable as the company grows.

Need help solving issues in your Odoo project? Let our experts fix them for you.

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