There comes a eureka moment in every Entrepreneur’s life when you have a  great product idea or solution in your mind, you think about spreading your wings. But you shouldn’t forget what lies ahead. before you take a step head towards that direction. You must make a decisive choice as to who will you trust to bring your idea to life?

Imagine that you are looking for a product on an eCommerce store like Amazon, eBay, Cdiscount etc.. and the same product from some new or a non-popular eCommerce store with a little price deviation. Which eCommerce store you will prefer? Obviously, Amazon, eBay, Isn't it?  If you are choosing the non-popular eCommerce store, then I guess reading this blog might not be a fruitful read for you. Reason to choose the popular eCommerce store is, Over time, their services have created a perception of quality, proved consistency, and cultivated trust. 

Because, those leading eCommerce stores, are more than just service providers —they have stimulated special memories and emotions with their quality. They have proven themselves by taking complete responsibility for the products all the way from delivering it safely to providing refund and replacement, in case of any defect found in the product.  

Similarly as a customer, for our Odoo Implementation, we’re always in dilemma as to whom we should trust, Official Odoo Partners or Freelancers? It is obvious that each project has its own uniqueness, there’s no single answer which is the “better” choice. And we often feel that the choice between a freelancer and an Odoo Partner Company is often made difficult.  That’s why I am sharing some glimpses, highlighting the pros and cons of each, to help you make the right choice Why you choose Odoo Partner over Freelancers for your Odoo ERP Implementation.

The simple thing which I have observed from my professional experience is that Odoo Partners have the good knowledge in a multidimensional framework of Odoo Apps Development. Odoo Partners & Freelancers both provide services for Odoo, but the difference in both of them is that the Odoo Partners are a team of experts who are highly qualified, certified & trained in Odoo. Odoo Partners have expertise in all the segments such as CRM, Accounting, POS, Warehouse, 3PL integration, API and web-services, Project Management,  Sales, Purchase, Event Management, Survey etc.. Whereas the Freelancers are individuals only having certain specialization, but not in all the dimensions. 

In 2010, Odoo was offering services to 100+ employees as OpenERP. Their products were powerful but not the superior ones in the market. Reason being, delivering services to the customers distracted Odoo from building an extraordinary product. 

It was time for Odoo to do a pivotal change in their business model. By managing proper weight in each key area such as Odoo Consultancy, Odoo implementation, Odoo Customization, Odoo Training & most importantly providing Support for each and every small thing. As a result, Odoo changed their business model and decided to increase their efforts in research and development activities and stop offering direct services to customers and started focusing on building a strong Partner network and maintenance offer. 

Its also not an overstatement if I say that Odoo Partners are one of the authorized chain stores of Odoo. An official Odoo Partner has the access to the Enterprise Edition source code. And can report a bug to Odoo. A kind of trust symbol is there. Where the Freelancers have no access to the Enterprise edition source code & officially can not report bugs to Odoo. 

The category of Gold, Silver, and Ready Partner is also not a paid service. Companies need to prove their skills in 360* manner. Such as the number of Odoo Enterprise Implementations etc. Odoo itself follows the strong quality services having the policy to increase the customer satisfaction and maintain brand value.  

Here are some factors that I feel anyone should look for, prior to selecting the Odoo Partner or a Freelancer to implement their project.

After 100+ Odoo implementations, our team at iWesabe concluded that a full cycle of services plays an essential role in order to get the best satisfaction for any individual, startup project or company. The full services cycle includes professional Odoo Consulting, Business Analysis & Gap Analysis, Furnishing the business flow in the Odoo default behavior with customization at every stage to tailor fit Odoo for any business. We also have a scenario in which our experts helped our clients to figure out monetization strategy before their eCommerce & ERP get live. These stages are very important, especially if you’re a young entrepreneur trying to build a startup. 

Working with Odoo Partner company means that you are having a whole team of professionals (developers, designers, managers, QAs, etc.) with different skills and knowledge. As discussed above, for each stage of the services there are experts who play a unique role, unlike Freelancers who are more like an all-in-one.

Unlike Odoo Partner, Freelancers just exchange time for money not a complete peace of mind. You are still required to make sure about their quality of work, also whether the methodology they follow maintains official standards or not? and sometimes you also have to be involved in technical matters of your project unnecessarily. Whereas, while working with Odoo Partner you can focus on your real task as to how you can expand your business, and not on the quality or technical stuff. As they are having systems, automation & standards following Experts in each area. 

Selection of a Right Development Partner for your Odoo Implementation is also one of the key decision. In our journey, from our 1st to 1000+ customers we found that people initially due to any reason come across some imposters and after starting their projects with them, halfway through they feel that things are going in the wrong direction and they are not getting what they really want. Then they contact Odoo Partner like us.

In simple words When we talk about implementation of a full-fledged ERP System for your business, it is not like a simple website development stuff that if it didn't suit we can start the development again from the scratch. A wrong decision not only makes you go through financial losses but after investing lot of time and resources, you also fail to tune your business in a proper system. This may also result in loss of confidential data.

So the simple thing is that your development Partner must be having a futuristic approach to the current business scenario, and they also should be updated time to time with the latest technology & Odoo Version. If you work with any trusted Odoo Partner you will realize that. They will have proved themselves over the stories of many happy and successful customers, they just know the effective & efficient solution.

When you work with Odoo Partner team, all you need to do is get in touch with project managers, run your eye over the final document of completed work, approve that work or make suggestions for any alteration, and then wait for the next part of your project to be developed. This harmonized environment will never fail to meet deadlines. Generally, In Case of the Freelancers, it is found that maybe they are good at their work, but they’re not always good at planning and organizing their own work processes. It may happen that sometimes a freelancer works with many other customers at the same time. This can create problems with meeting deadlines and will postpone your work.

When there is a new project, many companies are concerned with the price, communication, and expertise, but one area that is often overlooked is whether a company is capable of increasing or decreasing the size of a team based on the needs of the project. 

The ideal Odoo Implementation Partner will be able to dedicate a team of developers that can fluctuate in size or change out one expert for another based on the project requirements and the client's needs. A flexible Odoo Implementation Partner will work with your company to ensure that the appropriate technological needs are met while continuously seeking ways to help you reduce your overall cost of production.

Company's reputation is not the instant noodle, which can be cooked in just a few minutes, it is the aroma of the mission, vision, values in there working environment. Even I suggest that you can check the reference of each Odoo Partner at Odoo’s Official Partner page. There you can also check the category of Partnership and customer reference of your Odoo Services Provider they have worked for.  As per my opinion, the real benefits to choose any Odoo Partner Company is no chance to suffer from cold feet, because they are the group of experts which is a key factor of strength.  

Well, I hope this article threw some light on your understanding and gave you a clear idea as to who you should really rely on when it comes to choose between an Official Partner and Freelancers for your Odoo implementation.