Itransition delivered a customized Odoo-based BPM solution that automated core workflows at an automotive company, reducing manual work by 80%.
The customer is a Canadian car repair shop. In the automotive industry for over 40 years, they specialize in car diagnostics and repair, spare parts, and used vehicles.
The company used to manage their client database and business information with a Sage-based system. Unfortunately, due to the lack of features, employees performed core tasks (such as, work order processing and invoicing) manually. Aiming at improving these workflows, the customer wanted to modernize and automate them.
The company planned to implement a system able to accelerate their workflows and provide more control over the working process. They expected the new solution to allow accessing, creating, and storing work orders, invoices, and reports while offering a positive user experience.
The customer also needed a user portal for their clients to monitor their car repair order statuses and receive invoices instead of communicating by phone.
Itransition’s track record in business process management consulting and experience in the automotive industry were among the key factors for the customer to engage our team in this project.
To reach the outlined goals and implement the requested functionality, Itransition suggested using the Odoo platform. With Odoo development as one of the core domains of Itransition’s ERP Center of Excellence, our experts could help the customer launch, customize, and successfully adopt Odoo from scratch. We demonstrated the platform’s flexible modular architecture and wide selection of modules and apps adjustable to various business needs. After a consulting session, the team went ahead with implementing this Odoo-based BPM solution.
The system allows creating vehicles’ profiles and connecting them with the respective clients, managing appointments, work orders, and invoices, as well as generating invoices and reports.
The solution supports four user roles:
The solution consists of the following Odoo modules:
The delivered solution automates the following processes:
The solution enables responsible employees to:
To schedule work orders for a certain date and time, a user can create an appointment using the calendar features, adding necessary details (vehicle, client, planned works) to the associated work order. Clients can request an appointment on a specific day and time via the user portal. Upon receiving a new client request, a service manager confirms or declines it.
The solution also allows creating new products (for example, spare parts) or services for sale. While creating a new item, employees can add product name and type (consumable, stockable, service), its price, and discount information.
After a work order is completed, a user generates an invoice, with the total costs of services and materials calculated automatically. Each invoice includes a date and a number, client and vehicle information, a list of provided products and services, and the total price.
Depending on a client’s choice, they can receive an invoice by email as a PDF or by post as a print-out. After the payment is received, the service manager validates the invoice, which changes its status to Paid. Paid invoices can be refunded; to get a refund, the client needs to provide a reason and choose a refund date.
The solution comes packed with reporting features for the customer’s accountants to keep track of general expenses and revenue, as well as employees’ billed hours and payroll. These reports include sale/purchase journals and balance sheets.
Apart from configuring the standard Odoo functionality, our team also expanded the BPM solution with custom features:
Our team used the Odoo framework with PostgreSQL as a database and Apache HTTP Server as a web server. We deployed the BPM solution on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) with the help of the AWS CloudFormation templates. Our software development experts choose the Docker Compose tool to facilitate the configuration of the development environment through defining and running multi-container Docker applications.
Itransition’s team delivered the BPM solution module by module, allowing the customer to start using it as soon as possible. Our business analysts examined the customer's business processes, existing workflows, user and data flows, and elaborated non-functional requirements. Then the project team developed a roadmap defining the Odoo customization requirements, functional requirements, project timeline, and deliverables.
During the implementation phase, we configured the standard Odoo modules and extended them with custom features. We also provided the documentation and performed testing to ensure the solution was fully functional and covered all the business needs.
During the delivery phase, we deployed the solution, delivered user training, and performed user acceptance testing to ensure the solution could handle the required tasks in real-life scenarios while meeting usability standards and requirements.
The delivered BPM solution for the automotive maintenance service provider automated daily tasks of service managers and technicians while reducing manual efforts by nearly 80%. The system allowed the customer to cut their operational expenses in half and increase client satisfaction through greater workflow transparency and faster service.