Since the first of july I work again as an independent Odoo consultant and Developer. This after fifteen years working for Therp BV, the company I founded together with Anne Sedee and Stefan Rijnhart. We were the first company in the Netherlands supporting Odoo (at that time still called TinyERP and a bit later OpenERP). We were always a quite technical team, using standard modules where possible, programming custom code where needed or practical.
In my new independent work, I still want to concentrate on Odoo. I firmly believe that ICT systems of organisations should be centered around an ERP system, that brings together all the central data, knowledge and processes of an organisation. The ERP system should contain your customers, financial data, suppliers, orders, stock. It will prevent redundant or double entry of data. It needs tight control on integrity, guarding consistency and enforce business rules. In this way each company or organisation can be made into a smoothly functioning machine.
What goes for companies goes for political parties, sporting associations, government institutions. You need a single database containing all crucial data. Not a bunch of spreadsheets distributed over local and remote folders, containing outdated data of uncertain quality.
And to enter the data, and get information out of the database, you need a user friendly single point of access, which is the ERP system with a browser front-end. Available on desktops, laptops or phones.
Of course there can be links with other systems. Of customers, suppliers. Or with document management systems. With email and calendars. With banks. But these links need to be well defined, and guarded against unauthorized access.
With the central role of an ERP system in the organization, you want to control how the system works, who has access to it. You do not want to be dependent on a single supplier. Or have your data subject to laws of countries outside of Europe. And that is why your ERP system has to be open source, like with Odoo, and why it should be your choice whether you want the data hosted in a European cloud of your choice, or even on your own computers.
I can advise organisations on how to implement Odoo, help in selecting the right modules (functionality), and install or program links with any other system with which the ERP needs to interact.