Odoo vs. Zoho CRM Plus

It is well suited for inventory tracking, shipping and sales work flows. While some customization is needed to make it functional, if done correctly Odoo can serves as a powerful one stop shop for all of a businesses needs. The ease of customization for email templates, both for sales communications and marketing outreach leaves something to be desired. Perhaps our team hasn't explored this fully enough. I have personally found it intimidating in trying to construct a news letter using the email marketing module

Incentivized

Starting with campaigns, once we send the campaign out, prospects who open it are moved into the sales funnel; the sales team then calls or emails the prospect. Our VOIP works in conjunction with Zoho CRM Plus, so phone calls are logged into the contact. And generates another call, letter, or appointment with the client on the Zoho calendar. Emails are sent through Gmail since Zoho CRM Plus does not work with Gmail. The client's email must be copied and pasted into Gmail. (responses are tracked in the Zoho CRM Plus). Once the sales team meets with the client and starts the process, it turns into an "opportunity" where all stages in the sale are tracked. We mail merge the contact info to the correct letter template, then download it into "Word," where the letter is proofed and corrected as necessary (Zoho merge does not allow you to work in "Word" 2019). When finalized, it is then uploaded back into Zoho CRM Plus under the Opportunity. The sale then continues through the process, and once signed off on, all the details of the job are logged into the Zoho CRM Plus. When the job is completed and closed out, Zoho CRM Plus automatically sends the client a thank you email. The client will then can biannual automatic emails reminding them to set up their bi-annual inspection.

• The creation of products is extremely simple, I like that it does not complicate you to put a lot of detail, of course if you want to put more detailed information later it allows you to do it without problems
• The fact that I can manage my inventory of my warehouse is very convenient, I only generate my stock report of the products we have in stock and taking inventory is easier
• The management of opportunities in the CRM is also great, because the guys from the sales department generate their opportunity, place what their client is requiring and we, the logisticians, can automatically generate the quote for what they are requesting, and from there they can only download their quote and send it to their clients.

Incentivized

• Zoho CRM Plus is very good at automating many functional areas of our company including: sales, marketing, operations, and engineering. It is functionally rich, and matches the functionality we used to have with Salesforce.com, but at a much more reasonable cost.
• Zoho CRM Plus is easily "configured" to match our business processes. The ability to configure the user interface is very good, and the "BluePrint", custom functions, and reporting allow us to automate our unique operational needs.
• The buying process for Zoho CRM is extremely friendly. You can switch between software types from basic CRM to Zoho CRM +. You also can pay monthly, or annually, and don't have to purchase months before your renewal dates and get pestered by sales people.

• Customer service is nonexistent. You will need a 3rd party to assist you.
• The system has an open app for integrating with other programs. These are developed by third parties and can be hit or miss in functionality.
• The system offers great flexibility; however, it is too much and requires coding. For example, changing a Sales order PDF requires coding to modify the document.
• Initial implementation is clunky and seems to require a 3rd party just for setup.

Incentivized

• Managing attachments. Limited space for each user and you can’t easily delete attachments in bulk so if you reach your limit it becomes expensive to buy more space or labor-intensive to find and delete attachments manually.
• You can’t filter accounts by their related module fields. For example, in list view, filter all accounts with more than one contact.

Once you complete the training with Odoo, you have a great grasp of how the system works, and most every feature is intuitive- There is rarely a task within Odoo that I get frustrated trying to figure out- I can typically look through the system and find what I need to do, and if I ever do need support, the Odoo Support team is excellent

Incentivized

I personally started off as a CRM novice. But in a matter of 2 months, I was writing my own custom workflows, playing with modules and fields, and training my sales and operations teams to manage leads and accounts. Simply put, the system is intuitive after a brief introduction. The level of customization is staggering until you change your mindset. Zoho CRM Plus excels where you're able to attack your goals as problems already solved in the platform — you just need to locate the feature to make what you want to happen... happen! I equate it to the Adobe Creative Suite. You don't pick the fun filter before you lay out what exactly you want to draw. With that mindset intact, you can dial in the system to meet your and your team's needs based on your proposed SOLUTIONS, not just leaning heavily into a single feature to "force" some ROI.

Incentivized

Easy - there is NO SUPPORT (like in ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!!!!). Even for legally mandatory requirements where the system MUST work, they will gladly take a month to get back to you with a NON-answer. We couldn't even get our bank statements correctly into Odoo for 2 months - leading to no reconciliation and the company accounts were a mess (still are!!) as a result - Completely irresponsible. Have not EVEN had an apology from Odoo - they couldn't care less !!

Every account representative I have worked with has been extremely helpful and nice. You can tell the account reps and support staff truly care about the product and want to provide you with the resources that you need. The response time is also fast for support inquiries and that has been a massive help for us.

Incentivized

We decided to go with Odoo over Netsuite due to a few factors. Price was a big reason why, Netsuite is the most expensive ERP we vetted. I also did not have a great experience with Netsuite at my last job. I was on the roll out team and it did not work as promised for POS, inventory managing or reporting, it crashed constantly in the middle of using it. Just over all very poor. Considering it is owned by Oracle and the most expensive, you would think it would be able to function on some sort of base level. That company ended up terminating their contract with Netsuite early and going with a different company.

We don't have crashing or error issues. I can complete receives, cycle counts etc and all of my information saves. Visually, Odoo is more satisfying also.

Incentivized

I utilize HubSpot to gather data based on IP addresses from customers who visit our website. I do not use Zoho CRM for forms since the customization is clunky to design. HubSpot collects account data from the form and that helps me evaluate to sales potential of that account. Then I use Zapier to Zap the info into Zoho. Zoho CRM then is used to reach back out to the customer and begin tracking interactions

I would recommend that module wise update feature be opened up, for free to an additional 50-75% of paid users. These users can be restricted to work on a single module to update information only where they do not cross over multiple modules

Incentivized

I already discussed this prior with the Enterprise Support. But them aside, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Zoho is committed to connecting their userbase together. Within a month or two of using the product, we were told about Zoho User Groups. We had one right in my backyard (Chicago). I was able to both attend a meeting (pre-covid), and then stay in touch in an integrated Cliq channel. I always have power-users at my fingertips to ask quick questions. That Zoho makes it a point to keep these connections, and empower them... makes my life easier when inevitable "wants" pop up.

Incentivized

• In older versions, it was super expensive to make it even work. You had to hire third-party developers all the time.
• Newest versions have better built in functionality.
• Cost is pretty high. Odoo plus developers to support it could bankrupt a small business.

Incentivized

• The ROI is significantly positive due to the comprehensive set of modules available.
• Positive: My clients have better Dashboard data developed through Zoho Analytics than they do even though they use Salesforce. Also, Zoho CRM Plus can integrate with Salesforce or other system either through their own integrations or from Zapier.
• Campaigns allows me to target specific prospects via HTML emails, and complete tracking. This is a complement to the more shotgun approach of social media,