documentation/getting_started/documentation.rst

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==========================
Odoo Online Implementation
==========================

This document summarizes **Odoo's Online services**, our Success Pack
**implementation methodology**, and *best practices* to **get started**
with our product.

*We recommend that new Odoo Online customers read this document before
the kick-off call with our project manager. This way, we save time and
don't have to use your hours from the success pack discussing the
basics.*

*If you have not read this document, our project manager will review
this with you at the time of the kick-off call.*

Getting Started
===============

Do not wait for the kick-off meeting to begin playing with the software.
The more exposure you have with Odoo, the more time you will save later
during the implementation.

Once you purchase an Odoo Online subscription, you will receive
instructions by e-mail on how to activate or create your database. From
this email, you can activate your existing Odoo database or create a new
one from scratch.

If you did not receive this email, e.g. because the payment was made by
someone else in your company, contact our support using our 
`online support form <https://www.odoo.com/help>`__.

.. image:: media/getting_started02.png
    :align: center

Fill in the sign-in or sign-up screens and you will get your first Odoo
database ready to be used. 

In order to familiarize yourself with the user interface, take a few
minutes to create records: *products, customers, opportunities or
projects / tasks*. Follow the blinking dots, they give you tips about
the user interface as shown in the picture below.

+----------------+----------------+
|  |left_pic|    | |right_pic|    |
+----------------+----------------+

Once you get used to the user interface, have a look at the
implementation planners. These are accessible from the Settings app, or
from the top progress bar on the right hand side of the main
applications.

.. image:: media/getting_started05.png
    :align: center

These implementation planners will:

-  help you define your goals and KPIs for each application,

-  guide you through the different configuration steps,

-  and provide you with tips and tricks to getting the most out of Odoo.

Fill in the first steps of the implementation planner (goals,
expectations and KPIs). Our project manager will review them with you
during the implementation process.

.. image:: media/getting_started06.png
    :align: center

If you have questions or need support, our project manager will guide
you through all the steps. But you can also:

-   Read the documentation on our website:
    `https://www.odoo.com/documentation/user <https://www.odoo.com/documentation/user>`__
    
-   Watch the videos on our eLearning platform (Free with your first Success Pack):
    `https://odoo.thinkific.com/courses/odoo-functional <https://odoo.thinkific.com/courses/odoo-functional>`__
    
-   Watch the webinars on our 
    `Youtube channel <https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenERPonline>`__    

-   Or send your questions to our online support through our
    `online support form <https://www.odoo.com/help>`__.

What do we expect from you?
===========================

We are used to deploying fully featured projects within 25 to 250 hours of
services, which is much faster than any other ERP vendor on the market.
Most projects are completed between 1 to 9 calendar months.

But what really **differentiates between a successful implementation and
a slow one, is you, the customer!** From our experience, when our customer 
is engaged and proactive the implementation is smooth.

Your internal implementation manager
------------------------------------

We ask that you maintain a single point of contact within your company to 
work with our project manager on your Odoo Implementation. This is to ensure 
efficiency and a single knowledge base in your company. 
Additionally, this person must:

-   **be available at least 2 full days a week** for the project,
    otherwise you risk slowing down your implementation. More is better with
    the fastest implementations having a full time project manager.

-   **have authority to take decisions** on their own. Odoo usually
    transforms all departments within a company for the better. There 
    can be many small details that need quick turn arounds for answers and
    if there is too much back and forth between several internal decision 
    makers within your company it could potentially seriously slow everything down.

-   **have the leadership** to train and enforce policies internally with full support
    from all departments and top management, or be part of top management.

Integrate 90% of your business, not 100%
----------------------------------------

You probably chose Odoo because no other software allows for such a high
level of automation, feature coverage, and integration. But **don't be an
extremist.**

Customizations cost you time, money, are more complex to maintain, add risks
to the implementation, and can cause issues with upgrades.

Standard Odoo can probably cover 90% of your business processes and requirements.
Be flexible on the remaining 10%, otherwise that 10% will cost you twice the original
project price. One always underestimates the hidden costs of customization.

-   **Do it the Odoo way, not yours.** Be flexible, use Odoo the way it
    was designed. Learn how it works and don't try to replicate the
    way your old system(s) works.

-   **The project first, customizations second.** If you really want to
    customize Odoo, phase it towards the end of the project, ideally
    after having been in production for several months. Once a customer 
    starts using Odoo, they usually drop about 60% of their customization
    requests as they learn to perform their work flows out of the box, or 
    the Odoo way. It is more important to have all your business processes 
    working than customizing a screen to add a few fields here and there 
    or automating a few e-mails.

Our project managers are trained to help you make the right decisions and
measure the tradeoffs involved but it is much easier if you are aligned
with them on the objectives. Some processes may take more time than your 
previous system(s), however you need to weigh that increase in time with 
other decreases in time for other processes. If the net time spent is 
decreased with your move to Odoo than you are already ahead.

Invest time in learning Odoo
----------------------------

Start your free trial and play with the system. The more comfortable you
are with navigating Odoo, the better your decisions will be and the quicker
and easier your training phases will be.

Nothing replaces playing with the software, but here are some extra
resources:

-   Documentation:
    `https://www.odoo.com/documentation/user <https://www.odoo.com/documentation/user>`__

-   Introduction Videos:
    `https://www.odoo.com/r/videos <https://www.odoo.com/r/videos>`__

-   Customer Reviews:
    `https://www.odoo.com/blog/customer-reviews-6 <https://www.odoo.com/blog/customer-reviews-6>`__

Get things done
---------------

Want an easy way to start using Odoo? Install Odoo Notes to manage your
to-do list for the implementation:
`https://www.odoo.com/page/notes <https://www.odoo.com/page/notes>`__.
From your Odoo home, go to Apps and install the Notes application.

.. image:: media/getting_started07.png
    :align: center

This module allows you to:

-   Manage to-do lists for better interactions with your consultant;

-   Share Odoo knowledge & good practices with your employees;

-   Get acquainted with all the generic tools of Odoo: Messaging,
    Discussion Groups, Kanban Dashboard, etc.

.. image:: media/getting_started08.png
    :align: center

.. tip::
    This application is even compatible with the Etherpad platform
    (http://etherpad.org). To use these collaborative pads rather than
    standard Odoo Notes, install the following add-on: Memos Pad.

What should you expect from us?
===============================

Subscription Services
---------------------

Cloud Hosting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Odoo provides a top notch cloud infrastructure including backups in
three different data centers, database replication, the ability to
duplicate your instance in 10 minutes, and more!

-   Odoo Online SLA:
    `https://www.odoo.com/page/odoo-online-sla <https://www.odoo.com/page/odoo-online-sla>`__\

-   Odoo Online Security:
    `https://www.odoo.com/page/security <https://www.odoo.com/fr_FR/page/security>`__

-   Privacy Policies:
    `https://www.odoo.com/page/odoo-privacy-policy <https://www.odoo.com/page/odoo-privacy-policy>`__

Support
~~~~~~~

Your Odoo Online subscription includes an **unlimited support service at
no extra cost, 24/5, Monday to Friday**. To cover 24 hours, our teams
are in San Francisco, Belgium and India. Questions could be about
anything and everything from: specific questions on current Odoo features and where to configure them, bugfix requests,
payments or subscription issues.

Our support can be contacted through our
`online support form <https://www.odoo.com/help>`__.

Note: The support team cannot develop new features, customize, import
data or train your users. These services are provided by your dedicated
project manager, as part of the Success Pack.

Upgrades
~~~~~~~~

Once every two months, Odoo releases a new version. You will get an
upgrade button within the **Manage Your Databases** screen. Upgrading your
database is at your own discretion, but allows you to benefit from new
features.

We provide the option to upgrade in a test environment so that you can
evaluate a new version or train your team before the roll out. Simply
fill our `online support form <https://www.odoo.com/help>`__ to make this request.

Success Pack Services
---------------------

The Success Pack is a package of premium hour-based services performed by
a dedicated project manager and business analyst. The initial alloted hours
you purchased is purely an estimate and we do not guarantee completion of 
your project within the first pack. We always strive to complete projects 
within the initial allotement however any number of factors can contribute
to us not being able to do so, for example a scope expansion or "Scope Creep"
in the middle of your implementation, new detail descoveries, or an increase
in complexity that was not apparent from the beginning.

The list of services according to your success pack is detailed online:
`https://www.odoo.com/pricing-packs <https://www.odoo.com/pricing-packs>`__

The goal of the project manager is to help you get to production within
the defined time frame and budget, i.e. the initial number of hours
defined in your success pack.

His/her role includes:

-   **Project Management:** review of your objectives & expectations,
    phasing of the implementation (road map), mapping of your
    business needs and the Odoo features.

-   **Customized Support:** by phone, e-mail or webinar.

-   **Training, Coaching, and Onsite Consulting:** remote trainings via
    screen sharing or training on premises. For on premise training
    sessions, you will be expected to pay extra for travel expenses
    and accommodations for your consultant.

-   **Configuration:** decisions about how to implement specific needs in
    Odoo and advanced configuration. (e.g. logistic routes, advanced
    pricing structures, etc.)

-   **Data Import**: we can do it or assist you on how to do it with a
    template prepared by the project manager.

If you have subscribed to **Studio**, you benefit from following
extra services:

-   **Customization of screens:** Studio takes the Drag and Drop approach to
    customize most screens in any way you see fit.

-   **Customization of reports (PDF):** Studio itself will not allow you
    to customize the reports yourself, however our project managers have 
    access to developers for advanced customizations. 

-   **Website Design:** standard themes are provided to get started at
    no extra cost. However, our project manager can coach you on how to utilize
    the building blocks of the website designer. The time spent will consume
    hours of your success pack.

-   **Workflow automations:** e.g. setting values in fields based on
    triggers, sending reminders by emails, automating actions, etc.
    For very advanced automations, our project managers have access
    to Odoo developers.
    
If any customization is needed, Odoo Studio App will be required. Customizations 
made through Odoo Studio App will be maintained and upgraded at each Odoo upgrade, 
at no extra cost.

All time spent to perform these customizations by our Business Analysts will be 
deducted from your Success Pack.

In case of customizations that cannot be done via Studio and would require a 
developer’s intervention, this will require Odoo.sh, please speak to your 
Account Manager for more information. Additionally, any work performed by a 
developer will add a recurring maintenance fee to your subscription to cover 
maintenance and upgrade services. This cost will be based on hours spent by 
the developer: 4€ or $5/month, per hour of development will be added to the 
subscription fee.

**Example:** a customization that took 2 hours of development will cost:
2 hours deducted from the Success Pack for the customization development
2 * $5 = $10/month as recurring fee for the maintenance of this customization

Implementation Methodology
==========================

We follow a **lean and hands-on methodology**, that is used to put
customers in production in a short period of time and at a low cost.

After the kick-off meeting, we define a phasing plan to deploy Odoo
progressively, by groups of apps.

.. image:: media/getting_started09.png
    :align: center

The goal of the **Kick-off call** is for our project manager to come
to an understanding of your business in order to propose an
implementation plan (phasing). Each phase is the deployment of a set
applications that you will fully use in production at the end of the
phase.

For every phase, the steps are the following:

1.  **On Boarding:** Odoo's project manager will review Odoo's business
    flows with you, according to your business. The goal is to train
    you, validate the business process and configure according to
    your specific needs.

2.  **Data:** created manually or imported from your existing system.
    You are responsible to export the data from your existing system
    and Odoo's project manager will import them in Odoo.

3.  **Training:** once your applications are set up, your data imported, and
    the system is working smoothly, you will train your users. There will 
    be some back and forth with your Odoo project manager to answer questions 
    and process your feedback.

4.  **Production**: Once everyone is trained, your users start using
    Odoo.

Once you are comfortable using Odoo, we will fine-tune the process and
**automate** some tasks and do the remaining customizations (**extra
screens and reports**).

Once all applications are deployed and users are comfortable on Odoo,
our project manager will not work on your project anymore (unless you
have new needs) and you will use the support service if you have further
questions.

Managing your databases
=======================

To access your databases, go to Odoo.com, sign in and click **My
Databases** in the drop-down menu at the top right corner.

.. image:: media/getting_started10.png
    :align: center

Odoo gives you the opportunity to test the system before going live or
before upgrading to a newer version. Do not mess up your working
environment with test data!

In that purpose, you can create as many free trials as you want
(available for 15 days). Those instances can be instant copies of your
working environment. To do so, go to the Odoo.com account in **My
Organizations** page and click **Duplicate**.

.. image:: media/getting_started11.png
    :align: center

.. image:: media/getting_started12.png
    :align: center
    
You can find more information on how to manage your databases
:ref:`here <db_management/documentation>`.

Customer Success
================

Odoo is passionate about delighting our customers and ensuring that
they have all the resources needed to complete their project.

During the implementation phase, your point of contact is the project
manager and eventually the support team.

Once you are in production, you will probably have less interaction
with your project manager. At that time, we will assign a member of
our Client Success Team to you. They are specialized in the long-term
relationship with our customers. They will contact you to showcase new
versions, improve the way you work with Odoo, assess your new needs,
etc...

Our internal goal is to keep customers for at least 10 years and offer
them a solution that grows with their needs!

Welcome aboard and enjoy your Odoo experience!

.. seealso::
    * :doc:`../../db_management/documentation`
    
.. image:: media/getting_started13.png
    :align: center

.. |left_pic| image:: media/getting_started03.png
.. |right_pic| image:: media/getting_started04.png