The Oakland Delivery Method: how we implement Odoo

Definition: The Oakland Delivery Method is our published six-phase process for implementing Odoo — Discover, Design, Configure, Migrate, Go-live, Optimize — with fixed deliverables, named owners, and success criteria for every phase, built for mid-market companies of 50–500 employees.

A typical single-company mid-market implementation runs 8–16 weeks end to end; multi-company and multi-country programs run longer, and we say so in Discover rather than pretending otherwise.

What happens. We run a structured kickoff: interviews with your executive sponsor and process owners, a walkthrough of your current systems and reports, and a mapping of every business flow that will touch Odoo — sales, purchasing, inventory, accounting, manufacturing, HR, whatever is in scope. We end the phase knowing what we are building, for whom, and how success will be measured.

Duration: typically 1–2 weeks.

Deliverables: requirements matrix, scope map, project plan with milestones, risk register, agreed success metrics.

Who runs it from Oakland: Solution Architect with your Account Lead.

What you provide: an empowered executive sponsor, availability of process owners for interviews, access to current systems and sample reports, and honest answers about what is actually broken.

Success criteria: signed scope map and success metrics that both sides accept — before anything is configured.

What happens. We translate the scope map into a blueprint: which Odoo apps are used, how each process flows, where configuration is enough, and where genuine customization is justified. We design integrations (e-commerce, banks, logistics, marketplaces), the data migration approach, security roles, and the report list. Every customization is priced and approved here — not discovered mid-project.

Duration: typically 2–3 weeks.

Deliverables: functional design document (the blueprint), integration map, data migration plan, test plan.

Who runs it from Oakland: Lead Functional Consultant, with Technical Consultants for integration design.

What you provide: process owners for design workshops, decisions on gaps, and your accountant or controller for the accounting design.

Success criteria: blueprint signed off; customization list approved with prices attached.

What happens. We build your environment — on Odoo.sh or on-premise per the design — and configure it: companies, taxes, warehouses, workflows, roles. Where Odoo Studio covers a need, we use Studio; where code is justified, it is developed, documented, and reviewed. Integrations are connected and tested, and the first trial data loads begin.

Duration: typically 4–8 weeks, overlapping with migration.

Deliverables: configured staging environment, custom modules with documentation, working integrations, first trial data load.

Who runs it from Oakland: Functional and Technical Consultants under the Project Manager.

What you provide: feedback cycles on configured processes, real-ish data for trial loads, and timely decisions when configuration surfaces questions.

Success criteria: an end-to-end walkthrough of your key processes passes on staging, with data that looks like yours.

What happens. Data is where implementations are won or lost. We clean and map master data — customers, vendors, products, chart of accounts — then migrate opening balances and open items (receivables, payables, stock). Trial migrations run against staging, are reconciled line by line, and are repeated until the numbers agree. Only then do we plan the cutover.

Duration: typically 2–4 weeks, running in parallel with late Configure.

Deliverables: migrated master and open data, reconciliation report, cutover plan.

Who runs it from Oakland: Data Migration Specialist with our accounting lead.

What you provide: clean data extracts, decisions on open items and legacy balances, and finance staff for reconciliation sign-off.

Success criteria: reconciliation accepted and signed by your finance team; user acceptance testing complete.

What happens. Cutover weekend: final delta migration, verification, and the go/no-go call against a checklist both sides signed weeks earlier. Then role-based training — your team learns the screens they will actually use — followed by hypercare: our engineers on-call while your team runs the business on Odoo.

Duration: typically 1–2 weeks, plus hypercare.

Deliverables: production environment, trained users, executed go-live checklist, hypercare plan.

Who runs it from Oakland: Project Manager with the full pod; Support Engineers on hypercare.

What you provide: UAT users on schedule, a freeze on legacy-system edits, and an executive go decision.

Success criteria: the first financial close happens in Odoo; support tickets trending down.

What happens. Go-live is the midpoint, not the finish line. We review what the first weeks revealed, tune configurations, build the KPI dashboards your managers actually look at, plan phase-two modules, and set the support rhythm — with an eye on staying current as Odoo releases new versions.

Duration: ongoing; the first 90 days get structured attention.

Deliverables: optimization backlog, KPI dashboard, support plan, version-upgrade roadmap.

Who runs it from Oakland: Account Manager with the Support team.

What you provide: usage feedback, participation in KPI reviews, and a list of what still hurts.

Success criteria: adoption metrics and cycle-time improvements against the baselines agreed in Discover.

• For how we work in your region, start at your regional hub: Europe, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia

Book a discovery call. We will apply this method to your situation on the first call — including an honest read on timeline and what your team needs to provide.