Odoo for FieldBee: IoT Manufacturer of Agriculture Machines

Elizaveta Meleshkevich

1 day ago

Summary:

A manufacturer of agricultural automation equipment struggled to optimize its operations due to limitations in its previous Odoo implementation. The company faced several issues, including poor coordination between sales, production, and accounting; lack of warehouse process automation; insufficient R&D task and time tracking; and difficulties managing complex accounting requirements.

This article presents a case study of an Odoo project rescue and takeover by VentorTech. It outlines the challenges that were met with solutions implemented across key modules (manufacturing, inventory, sales, accounting, and more), which enabled significant improvements in traceability, efficiency, and warehouse performance.

Company name: FieldBee by eFarmer
Location: HQ – The Netherlands; Production – Poland
Industry: Manufacturing
Specializations: Agriculture, IoT, Automotive, Autopilot
Company size: 51–200 employees
VentorTech Solutions: Odoo Audit. Odoo Implementation and Customization, Odoo Rescue
Goal: Achieve full production traceability, streamline sales and accounting processes, build a centralized Order Management System (OMS), optimize warehouse processes, and support FieldBee’s transition to efficient in-house manufacturing.

This story was presented in the interview at Odoo Experience 2025 that featured Louis Vigneron, Odoo Account Manager, and Oleksandr Lynets, Production Director at FieldBee.

You can watch it here:

About the Customer

FieldBee, founded in 2014, is a leading agricultural automation company headquartered in the Netherlands, with offices in Ukraine and Poland and a strong presence in Germany. The company develops precision agriculture solutions that help farmers automate and optimize field operations through smart steering and autopilot systems, GPS guidance, and connected farm technologies. Today, FieldBee serves more than 6,000 customers across 60 countries and employs around 100 people.

Although FieldBee had been active for many years, its most substantial growth began only about three years ago — when the company brought all production processes in-house and adopted the Odoo ERP system to support and scale its operations.

What FieldBee Brought to the Project

In its early years, FieldBee operated with simple tools such as Excel spreadsheets and emails to manage sales and internal processes. This workflow was sufficient while the company was small, but as operations expanded, the lack of transparency and structure became a major obstacle.

FieldBee’s leadership recognized the need for a system that would provide strict traceability and better process control. This led to the decision to implement an ERP system; they chose Odoo ERP.

Challenges

1. Lack of Coordination Between Sales, Outsourced Production, and Accounting

The first main challenge was significant disorganization between outsourced production, internal sales, and accounting processes. The flows were inconsistent, poorly connected, and difficult to track, causing operational confusion. This issue became even more complex when FieldBee needed to implement a module for capitalizing product development costs, which required accurate financial and operational data that the existing setup could not provide.

2. Aligning Internal Processes With Odoo’s Standard Functionality

Like many companies implementing Odoo for the first time, FieldBee had to decide whether to adapt their internal processes to fit Odoo’s standard workflow or to modify Odoo to match their specific business cycle. Their initial implementation partner lacked the expertise to help them make these decisions effectively, which slowed progress and limited the company’s ability to use Odoo efficiently.

Related service: Odoo project rescue

3. Need to Track R&D Timesheets and Report Them Into Odoo

As FieldBee’s R&D department grew, it became essential to monitor development tasks and hours and then report project progress accurately into Odoo.

4. Complex Polish Accounting and Payroll Requirements

Having a separate company in Poland where they have a production facility, FieldBee had to comply with local accounting and payroll regulations. These areas are highly specific and require specialized local expertise that their initial partner could not provide.

5. Automation of Warehouse Processes

As FieldBee’s production volume increased, the need for structured, automated warehouse operations became critical. Manual tracking and scattered workflows made it difficult to manage stock levels, ensure accurate material availability, and maintain smooth internal logistics. Automating these warehouse processes was essential to support growing production demands and maintain overall operational efficiency.

Solution

First of all, we migrated all essential data from FieldBee’s legacy systems into Odoo.

We then continued the Odoo journey by focusing on their highest-priority areas: accounting and sales, enhancing and stabilizing processes there. For nearly two years, these modules comprised the core of their system while the company transitioned from outsourced operations.

This process described above is the approach that many prefer in Odoo. The main benefit of this transition method is that you can implement the system step by step, integrating it with current software and working in parallel if a sudden whole-system changes are not possible.

When production moved in-house in 2023, the need for a more comprehensive ERP framework became critical. Together with their new implementation partner, VentorTech, FieldBee expanded Odoo to include:

Manufacturing
Inventory
Purchasing
Accounting
Sales
Helpdesk
Repairs

This modular sequence was natural: production became central to FieldBee’s business, so managing BOMs, traceability, and quality assurance in Odoo became the foundation of their digital operations.

Our first focus had been centered on educating FieldBee’s team on Odoo’s native capabilities, helping them rely on standard functionality whenever possible. Where specific workflows required adaptation, we introduced targeted custom developments that significantly increased efficiency without creating long-term technical debt.

Moreover, we implemented:

an automated R&D task and time management system integration, actively used for over three years
a centralized order management system
optimized accounting processes to ensure full alignment with Polish regulatory requirements (with cooperation from local partners)
enhanced warehouse processes by integrating a mobile application for warehouse operations and a direct printing solution.

Finally, FieldBee achieved the configuration and customizations that aligned Odoo with their real production needs.

Results

1. Full Traceability Across Production, Sales, and Accounting

We established all core processes required for FieldBee’s business operations — including manufacturing, inventory, purchasing, sales, helpdesk, and repair. In addition, we implemented several enhancements to FieldBee’s existing workflows and built a centralized order management system. FieldBee can now trace every step of production, from purchasing raw materials to delivering finished goods. When repair or support cases occur, the team can immediately identify the production date, components used, responsible operator, batch, version, and more.
➡ This directly resolves the original challenge of messy interactions between departments.

2. Efficient Processes Through Standard Functionality Enhanced With Targeted Customization

FieldBee successfully balanced adapting internal workflows to Odoo with tailoring Odoo where truly needed.
➡ This addressed the challenge of choosing between process change and system customization.

“We are able to trace each step in our production, starting from purchasing through delivering finished goods to our end customer” – Oleksandr Lynets, Production Director at FieldBee

3. Reliable Task & Timesheet Reporting for the R&D Team

FieldBee developed an accurate and continuous time and task tracking of their R&D team, supporting reporting into Odoo.
➡ This directly solves the timesheet tracking challenge.

4. Improved Accounting Operations Despite Local Regulatory Complexity

FieldBee now can successfully manage key accounting operations in Odoo (e-invoicing, payroll, and reporting). Their accounting team is satisfied with the clarity and ease brought by the system.
➡ This resolves the challenge of handling complex Polish accounting.

“To be honest, our accountant is happy, I would say” – Oleksandr Lynets, Production Director at FieldBee

5. Increased Warehouse Speed

By optimizing warehouse processes with Odoo and eliminating manual steps, FieldBee achieved a 40% increase in overall warehouse operation speed.

Additional Key Results

Higher production efficiency due to better workflow control.
Transparent and precise calculation of product development costs for investors.
Decreased repair requests, thanks to improved production quality and traceability.
Employees became enthusiastic users of Odoo, driven by the clarity, speed, and automation in their daily work.

Role of VentorTech

“What stands out most about VentorTech is their deep technical expertise in Odoo and their ability to translate complex operational challenges into clear, practical solutions. Their proactive attitude and willingness to understand our business context made them more than just a service provider — they became a true partner in optimizing our processes.”

Oleksandr Lynets, Production Director at FieldBee

VentorTech significantly accelerated FieldBee’s transformation. Our contribution included:

Comprehensive training and knowledge transfer
Configuration of Odoo’s standard manufacturing, inventory, purchasing, and sales workflows
Development of small but impactful workflow customizations
Continuous support for R&D timesheet integration
Collaboration on Polish accounting enhancements
A strong focus on maintaining Odoo best practices

VentorTech acted as both an implementation expert and a development partner, helping FieldBee turn their ideas into functional, scalable processes inside Odoo.

VentorTech and FieldBee — Oleksandr Lynets and Mikhail Mishutin, VentorTech AM, at Odoo Experience 2025

Adoption by Employees

As expected in any organization, the initial change met resistance. However, once employees experienced the benefits of using QR codes, having enhanced traceability, and streamlined workflows, they quickly embraced the system. Today, the team is highly engaged and even proactively requests new features after learning about the possibilities of Odoo 19 during Odoo Experience 2025.

Future Plans

FieldBee is growing rapidly and expanding its product portfolio. The next major milestone will be a full upgrade from Odoo 15 to Odoo 19 at the beginning of next year. This upgrade will introduce new capabilities, including:

Master Production Schedule (MPS)
Enhanced planning tools
Advanced dashboards and reporting

After upgrading production-related modules, the long-term strategy is to bring the entire company onto Odoo as a single unified system.

FieldBee's agricultural machines automation

Advice for Companies Considering Odoo

FieldBee’s key recommendations:

Don’t be afraid to change your processes. Modernizing operations often brings more value than modifying the system.
Choose a strong implementation partner who can translate your ideas into scalable solutions.

With the right guidance, Odoo becomes a powerful tool for growth and transformation.