Company name: PIEPS GmbH
Location: Austria
Industry: Manufacturing
Established: 1967
Company size: <50
Odoo users: <30
Hosting type: Odoo.sh
Apps: Sales, Inventory, Manufacturing (MRP), Accounting, Purchase, Maintenance, Helpdesk, CRM, Marketing Automation, Email Marketing
Implementing partner: Kaiser Digital
Since 1967, PIEPS GmbH has been developing avalanche safety and mountain sports equipment and is today considered the technology leader in this field. Their portfolio includes beacons (avalanche transceivers), avalanche airbags, probes, and shovels for mountaineers, rescue teams, and professional users worldwide. When it counts, you have to be able to rely on their products. This high level of quality and reliability led, as expected, to a sharp increase in demand. However, this growth pushed the previous system to its limits and led to unnecessary extra work. As with companion rescue: every second counts. It was time for a modern ERP system.
An overloaded backpack hinders progress
The high quality of their products and long-standing experience in the field of snow safety made PIEPS GmbH products highly sought after. However, the demand for their innovative products is not constant. The rescue equipment business is seasonal, and demand fluctuates significantly throughout the year. Given this dynamic, it is crucial to maintain a complete overview at all times to react quickly to changes – especially in the daily interplay of sales, inventory, shipping, and invoicing.
The old Microsoft Navision 2007 system could no longer help here. It proved to be too rigid, was "over-programmed," and over the years had become an "overloaded backpack."
This led to two major problems: First, the system was no longer able to provide data quickly – Intrastat declarations, for example, were impossible to generate. Second, the high degree of customization prevented regular updates to the latest version. Thus, the legacy system became more and more of a burden.
Marketing and sales were not the only departments suffering from this information bottleneck. Even supposedly simpler processes, such as invoicing, took an extreme amount of time. Every requested invoice had to be created and sent manually. Simply opening an invoice in the overloaded legacy system took up to 45 seconds. For PIEPS GmbH, it was clear that this had to be faster, and they began their search for a new ERP system.
The choices included Microsoft Business Central, Business Express, and the open-source solution Odoo.
Why they chose Odoo:
All-in-one approach: Odoo is not a niche solution tailored to a specific industry. With over 70 apps, all business processes can be mapped end-to-end within a single software solution.
High flexibility: The system can be adapted to individual business processes without costly custom programming, thereby preventing the “update death” that the old system suffered.
Intuitive design: Compared to other solutions, Odoo stands out with its extremely user-friendly design. This accessibility increases acceptance of the new platform and reduces the risk of implementation failure.
Modular Design: Odoo consists of a series of individual apps or modules. Each module covers a specific business process. At the same time, the modules work with the same database and can be seamlessly integrated. Perfect for agile implementation during ongoing operations with subsequent scaling.
When selecting a partner, PIEPS specifically chose Kaiser Digital because the team was thoroughly familiar with the existing business environment thanks to their prior experience and had the trust to implement the project in a practical and timely manner.
On the way to the summit together – PIEPS und Kaiser Digital implement Odoo in just 5 Months
Together with Odoo partner Kaiser Digital, PIEPS GmbH defined clear milestones and priorities. Through structured workshops, transparent project planning, and a practical implementation, the company achieved its goal of going live with the first core processes in just five months.
Kaiser Digital also served as a strategic sparring partner throughout the process. Processes were critically examined, streamlined, and consistently aligned with Odoo’s standard functionalities – with the goal of ensuring long-term maintainability and the ability to update the system. This approach allowed the team to achieve quick wins and continuously build on their experience.
They had learned from their mistakes with Navision. “During implementation, we deliberately opted for the standard solution to keep our processes lean and efficient,” reports the PIEPS team.
The initial focus was on the sales process. Due to seasonal fluctuations, demand for highly specialized rescue equipment varies, and bottlenecks can only be identified early on through complete transparency throughout the entire sales process. Odoo is particularly helpful in this regard thanks to its readily available real-time reports, which can be generated with just a few clicks.
Gradually, the manufacturing processes were also integrated into Odoo. The focus was on keeping the processes lean, and changes were always implemented in a structured manner. This resulted in a system that remains scalable and flexible and can adapt to further growth. Another advantage of this “Keep it Simple” strategy is that the system is easy to understand and accessible. This eliminates the need for complex onboarding processes, and during peak season, even temporary staff can make full use of the system.
Throughout the entire process, a clear structure and transparent change management were particularly helpful. This ensured that all stakeholders were kept fully informed at all times. “Thanks to our professional and collaborative partnership with Kaiser Digital, we were able to quickly build a system that immediately lightens our workload, creates transparency, and lays the foundation for future growth.”
Saving up to four working days per month thanks to improved speed
Despite an ambitious schedule, PIEPS GmbH succeeded in mapping its processes in Odoo and successfully completing the implementation. The legacy issues of the Navision system were successfully resolved. The results are impressive.
On one hand, the newly gained transparency is impressive. The entire sales process—from inquiry to order, fulfillment, and final invoicing—is now mapped in Odoo, and everything works with a unified data set. A system without blind spots allows for much more precise budget planning for the entire year, regardless of seasonal peaks. According to PIEPS, overall reporting is now 60% more effective.
The next important step is the planned integration of the webshop. In the future, this will access the central database in Odoo seamlessly, further simplifying ordering and delivery processes.
“For our customers, much has already improved: they benefit from more transparency through digital delivery notes and tracking information. With the planned webshop integration, products will be available even faster and communication will be further simplified”
Invoicing, in particular, has seen a 100% increase in efficiency through automation. In the first six months after implementation, several thousand invoices and credit notes were created. Thanks to Odoo, these are generated automatically and sent via bulk mail – the team saves around two working days per month on invoice creation alone. Invoice management, including payment status, dunning, and incoming invoices, brings the total savings through Odoo to around four working days per month.
PIEPS sees the strong support from their Odoo partner as a cornerstone of their success. "For us, it was crucial to work with Kaiser Digital from the very beginning. The expertise in the workshop and the practical implementation of our requirements laid the foundation for the quick success of the project," the PIEPS team concludes. "We are very satisfied with the introduction and use of Odoo. The consistent data structure and the central mapping of all processes create a stable basis on which we can work efficiently and continuously improve our workflows."
