Company name: TEQPHONE
Location: Bad Nauheim
Industry: Wholesale
Company size: <50
Odoo users: 30+
Hosting type: Odoo.sh
Apps: Inventory, Point of Sale (Shop), Sales, Purchase, Accounting, Website Builder, eCommerce, Helpdesk, Maintenance
Implementing partner: Codequarters
TEQPHONE GmbH is a distributor of smart home products in Germany and Europe. Its team consists of specialists with over 20 years of experience. TEQPHONE GmbH’s goal is to bring innovative products into private households. To achieve this, they analyze the market, monitor trends, and thus always offer their customers the latest and most exciting products. For such analyses, you need a complete and comprehensive overview – of the market and your own business processes. With multiple warehouse locations, thousands of products with serial numbers, and multi-channel operations, this is no easy task.
TEQPHONE is looking for the right product for their smart business
While TEQPHONE provides its customers with innovative smart-home products, their own digital infrastructure had become outdated. The legacy system had become difficult to maintain and was no longer supported. When deciding which ERP system should replace the old solution, it became clear that TEQPHONE’s complex sales operations placed a whole range of demands on the new software.
Inventory: Tracking products (including serial numbers) across multiple warehouses and stores was the main challenge. The legacy ERP system was unable to accurately track which products were in stock, sold, or returned. This resulted in significant discrepancies in inventory levels. An additional challenge was external fulfillment centers that also had to be integrated into the warehouse logistics. In the legacy system, these synchronizations were performed manually by employees. This process was tedious, error-prone, and led to frustration among everyone involved.
Sales: The core business of TEQPHONE GmbH. Sales are conducted through retail stores and the online shop. In addition, there are B2B sales to major customers. Each of these channels has its own specific requirements, but they all must be fully synchronized with one another.
Shipping: Until now, shipping has also been heavily reliant on manual labor. There was no automated integration with logistics providers such as DHL or UPS. Employees had to create shipping labels manually and then enter them into the respective order. For a large-scale distributor like TEQPHONE, this took up a significant amount of time every day.
Once the pain points had been identified and it became clear what needed to change in the future, the search for a replacement system began.
Open-heart surgery – TEQPHONE successfully implements Odoo without interrupting operations
Odoo was quickly identified as the best solution for TEQPHONE GmbH’s needs. Odoo’s modular architecture made it possible to consolidate TEQPHONE’s multi-channel business model onto a single platform.
To implement the software solution without disrupting ongoing operations, a phased implementation was chosen. The individual modules were set up in a total of 5 phases and went live one by one.
The project began with the Sales, Purchasing, Warehouse, and Accounting modules. These standard applications formed the backbone of the target architecture. They enabled the central warehouse to be transitioned to the new system, standardized billing processes, and laid the foundation for organized multi-channel sales.
The next step was to tackle this very challenge. The e-commerce module was implemented to enable online sales. At the same time, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) interfaces were implemented to ensure seamless communication with major retail partners, such as the Mediamarkt-Saturn Group. Odoo’s PoS module was also set up to integrate in-store sales into the new platform.
Finally, the external warehouses were integrated into the new system. To ensure seamless operations with these third-party providers, the Odoo partner Codequarters developed an API-based interface. At the same time, the Odoo integration for DHL and UPS was utilized to streamline shipping.
Thanks to this agile implementation, day-to-day operations could continue uninterrupted. All new features were first set up in a test environment and thoroughly tested. Only after it was confirmed that they functioned smoothly were they deployed to the production database.
Complete transparency and a clear overview – TEQPHONE overcomes their warehouse woes
The Odoo implementation enabled TEQPHONE to achieve significantly improved operational efficiency across multiple areas. In addition to the quantitative efficiency gains resulting from time savings and reduced manual work, improved data quality is another key benefit of the implementation.
Odoo has brought enormous benefits, particularly in its core area of inventory management. First and foremost, it has eliminated discrepancies between physical inventory and digital records. In addition, Odoo’s warehouse logistics allow users to track at any time where specific devices are stored – including their serial numbers. This is an absolute must, especially for the smart home devices sold by TEQPHONE. On top of that, the API interface developed by the Odoo partner Codequarters now ensures that all warehouses – whether external or internal – are correctly and transparently integrated into inventory management planning. In this critical business area, TEQPHONE has seen its efficiency doubled.
Another pain point—multi-channel sales—was also managed much more efficiently with Odoo. E-commerce, B2B sales, and retail operations are now unified on a single platform and seamlessly linked to inventory levels. This made it possible to set up and open new retail locations much more quickly. This is an example of how Odoo can help companies scale efficiently. Here, too, efficiency gains of between 60% and 80% were observed.
“We would recommend Odoo, as it is a highly suitable platform, particularly for companies with multi-channel sales, multiple warehouses or branches, and products that require serial numbers. Thanks to its modular architecture, new modules can be added as needed.”
– Jörg Semmler, Managing Director, TEQPHONE GmbH
