Integrations
DataScope & Odoo CRM

For businesses and organizations who require a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, but may not have the budget for subscription-based platforms like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, open-source applications present an attractive alternative. Odoo (formerly OpenERP), a free CRM that's part of the Odoo suite, was introduced in 2013 and has quickly become one of the most user-friendly open-source options available. Odoo is built for businesses that want to get started with a basic web-based CRM solution, but who might want to extend functionality into other areas as their business grows. You have the option to add various apps and integrations as you scale, so you can do everything from managing finances to increasing your marketing outreach. The customization capabilities of Odoo CRM are a far cry from expensive enterprise solutions, but it's quite effective for small businesses and freelancers on a budget.Read MoreGetting started with Odoo is simple. You can add new companies, contacts, or opportunities by clicking the Create button in the top-left corner. Then you can drag and drop opportunities through the Kanban pipeline as they change stages, as well as drill down into specific opportunities to manage them. From within the Opportunity screen, you can schedule meetings on Odoo's own calendar, send emails to sales prospects, log notes, and schedule follow-up tasks. If you need to schedule a qualification phone call, for example, click the calendar icon next to Meeting to be taken to the calendar event creation screen. Once the deal is won or lost, you select the correct option, and the system will automatically update the sales pipeline. You can filter and group opportunities via the homescreen. For example, a salesperson can filter to only see opportunities for which there is a "to-do" activity for the day and group them by stage so they can tackle the highest priority tasks first. You can also view a feed of current to-dos and activities by clicking on the small, circular clock icon on the top-right.A particularly unique feature of Odoo is the Pivot Tables area, where key sales data is presented in spreadsheet format that's easy to export to Excel. Odoo has eight pre-built metrics that such as Expected Revenue, Prorated Revenue, and Days to Close, but you can customize these however you'd like. In terms of analytics, reporting, and dashboards, Odoo's functionality is basic—but easy for CRM beginners to pick up. On the main screen, you'll see a dashboard reflecting the sales data in the main Pipeline area. You'll be able to get a quick snapshot of the dollar value of potential deals in each opportunity stage, along with other key metrics like Average Deal Size and Expected Revenue. You can easily add other metrics to the dashboard and toggle the data visualizations between bar, line, and pie chart formats.Overall, the Odoo core free CRM is best suited for basic sales processes that require minimal documentation and approvals. That being said, Odoo's a-la-carte approach to additional functionality makes it easy for organizations to add modules they need, when they need them. Odoo's Kanban pipeline management interface is user friendly, its dashboard features are uncomplicated and accessible, and it's an open-source CRM that can manage just about every aspect of the sales cycle.