ERP or custom software? How to decide what to build

We implement Odoo and we build custom software, so we have no reason to push you one way. The honest answer is that most growing businesses need an ERP for the back office and a little custom software around the edges. Here is how to tell which is which.

Use an ERP for standard processes

Accounting, inventory, purchasing, sales, HR and payroll work much the same in most businesses. An ERP such as Odoo gives you these processes ready-made, tested by thousands of companies and updated every year. Building them yourself is expensive and rarely better.

Build custom software where you are different

If a process is what makes your business different, or you are building a product for customers, custom software can be worth it. Examples include a customer portal with your own logic, a pricing engine, a booking platform or an app for your field teams.

Connect the two

The best results come from combining them: the ERP stays the single source of truth for customers, products, stock and money, and custom software reads and writes through its API. That avoids double entry and keeps reporting in one place.

Questions to ask

• Does an ERP already do this well enough if we adapt our process slightly?
• Is this process a real competitive advantage, or just how we have always done it?
• Who will maintain custom code in three years' time?
• How will the custom software share data with the ERP?

Not sure where your requirement falls? Tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will recommend the simplest route, whether that is Odoo, custom software or both.