Location/Region: Quebec, CAN
Industry: Promotional apparel printing
Apps implemented: CRM, Sales, Purchase, Accounting, Website, eCommerce, Manufacturing, Inventory, Project, Marketing Automation and Email Marketing
Software
Replaced: Excel and a local accounting system
Size of the company: >10
Hosting type: Odoo.sh
When customization, production, accounting, and eCommerce all live in separate systems, growth quickly becomes a bottleneck. For Impression Multi-Images, bringing everything together in Odoo marked a turning point: transforming complex, manual processes into a single, connected workflow that supports both operational efficiency and future growth.
About the Company
Based in Quebec, Canada, Impression Multi-Images specializes in screen printing, embroidery, and personalized promotional and corporate clothing. The company serves businesses that need branded apparel and uniforms, handling everything from production to customization with a strong focus on practicality and usability for end customers.
The company’s story began in 1997, when a clear gap in the local market sparked its creation. At the time, many businesses in the region didn’t know where to source personalized clothing. The founder, Jérémy Charest’s mother, Nathalie Lemay, had studied arts, where screen printing was part of her academic background. Seeing both a creative opportunity and an unmet need, she decided to take the leap.
Starting small in her mother’s house, she handled everything herself: taking orders, producing the items, and managing the business end-to-end. Over the years, the company steadily grew, evolving from a one-person operation into a structured organization that continues to expand today. Jérémy Charest later took over as second-generation owner, leading a team and guiding the company into its next phase of digital transformation.
"She started real small in my grandmother's garage… and it grew bigger by the time, and we’re still growing."
Life Before Integration:
When Tools Held Growth Back
As the company scaled, the limitations of its existing systems became increasingly apparent. While things were manageable when the business was smaller, growth introduced complexity that older tools simply couldn’t handle efficiently.
Before Odoo, Impression Multi-Images relied on a Quebec-based accounting system. While functional for bookkeeping, it was limited to accounting and felt outdated, closer to a 1990s-era system, and significantly less powerful than modern ERP solutions. It offered no real integration with sales, production, inventory, or online ordering.
Beyond accounting, many operational steps were still handled manually. Orders, especially for larger clients, were managed through Excel spreadsheets, then re-entered into separate systems for accounting and production. This duplication of work increased the risk of errors and consumed valuable time, particularly as order volumes increased.
A Different Kind of Turning Point
Jérémy began actively searching for an ERP that could support a small but growing manufacturing business. Large enterprise solutions like Oracle were quickly ruled out due to cost: they were simply unrealistic for a company of this size. During his research, he also evaluated Zoho.
Ultimately, Odoo stood out. It felt more user-friendly, more flexible, and better aligned with the company’s needs, offering integrated apps that could grow alongside the business rather than constrain it.
The implementation journey began over a year ago. A change in project management proved decisive, bringing structure, clarity, and renewed momentum to the process. Within three to four months, Impression Multi-Images was fully operational on Odoo, with core workflows in place and continuous refinements underway as the team further optimizes its use of the system.
Today, Impression Multi-Images relies on a broad set of Odoo applications to run its operations, including Contacts, CRM, Sales, Purchase, and Accounting, alongside Website and eCommerce to manage online ordering. On the operational side, the company uses Manufacturing, Inventory, and Work Orders (Workshop view) to coordinate production, while Project supports service-based activities such as graphic design. More recently, Marketing Automation and Email Marketing have been added to support future growth initiatives.
One of the most impactful changes has been the Website and eCommerce integration. The company now builds dedicated online stores for its clients, allowing employees of customer organizations to order uniforms directly online. This removes the burden from HR or management teams, while ensuring orders flow seamlessly into production and accounting.
Automation plays a key role. Once a sale is confirmed, it automatically moves through production and accounting, with tasks progressing from one stage to the next without manual intervention. This end-to-end flow simply didn’t exist before.
In production, the Manufacturing and Work Orders (Workshop) apps have dramatically reduced interruptions. Previously, employees regularly had to stop and ask managers what to do next. Now, all instructions are visible upfront, allowing production staff to start work immediately. “They don’t have to come see us anymore. Everything’s there. They know exactly what to do when they start.” Jérémy Charest.
Efficiency gains are also clearly visible in website creation. Before Odoo, building a customer website took around three full days. With Odoo Website, the same task now takes one day (about seven hours). Beyond speed, the visual quality has improved as well: teams can now spend time making sites both practical and good-looking, instead of just functional.
Accounting, while still being finalized, already shows clear promise. Even during cleanup, Jérémy can see how much easier daily operations will become compared to the previous system once everything is fully aligned.
Project management has also improved, particularly for graphic design services. When these services are sold, tasks are automatically created in Project instead of Manufacturing, giving every team member instant visibility into responsibilities and timelines.
Looking Ahead: Scaling Smarter, Not Harder
With operations now unified, Impression Multi-Images is focusing on growth. The company has historically grown 10% year over year through word of mouth alone. With Odoo’s Marketing Automation and Email Marketing, the goal is to reach 20% annual growth by the end of this year and next.
Marketing is a new chapter for the business. Until now, no structured advertising or email campaigns have been in place. With more time freed from manual tasks, the team is ready to actively promote its services and accelerate expansion.
On the commercial side, the next major step is the development of multiple specialized websites. Beyond the main site and customer-specific stores, the company plans to launch dedicated microsites (for example, one focused on lanyards, another on t-shirts, and another on ecological products) each tailored to a specific audience.
Impression Multi-Images’ journey shows how a growing manufacturing and personalization business can regain control by centralizing operations in one platform. If your business is facing similar challenges with disconnected systems and manual processes, contact Odoo today to discover how you can centralize your operations, streamline production, and scale with confidence on a single, integrated platform.
