We DO NOT sell "Odoo EE" licenses

Language: Bosnian

Introduction

At a previous presentation organized by “Odoo S.A.”1, I stated that we cannot sell an “Odoo” license to our clients in Bosnia for even 1 BAM/month. The reason was the lack of support for Bosnian localization in accounting. At that time, we had one “Odoo” project behind us (Presentation: Odoo Bosnian Payroll). I made this statement, which the presenters did not particularly appreciate, with the aim of finding out if there are any programs to help localization projects. However, it turned out that such programs do not exist.

Also, I noticed that “Odoo S.A.” promotes exclusively commercial channels “Odoo S.A” <=> “partner network”, while every discussion about “open-source” projects is ignored. To be more precise: “Not encouraged and not supported”.

To join the partner network, candidates pay a minimum of approximately 2500 EUR annually.

Representation of Leading ERP Providers in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small and underdeveloped market. Large ERP providers (Microsoft, Oracle, SAP) have negligible presence. Only organizations of the scale of JP Elektroprivreda BiH, BH Telecom and similar can afford million-dollar budgets for ERP projects in Bosnia.

Even more importantly, the partner network of these large providers in Bosnia and Herzegovina is weak (and therefore expensive for the end user). Interestingly, the “Bingo” retail chain, as the largest Bosnian company, uses local solutions.

”Odoo” Bosnian Localization

“Odoo S.A.” with its product “Odoo EE” promotes itself as a new and different major “ERP player”. It truly is in many aspects. However, coming back to Bosnia and Herzegovina:

What does this “Odoo EE” story mean specifically for clients in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

From the perspective of a business accounting solutions provider (which is the heart of any ERP), as long as quality and sustainable Bosnian localization is not ensured, “Odoo EE” in Bosnia and Herzegovina is largely an “empty” marketing story.

Therefore, we are not and do not plan to be “Odoo S.A.” partners, nor do we want to enter the “Odoo S.A.” licensing business.

The Paradox

However, despite this difference, our story and the commercial “Odoo” story are essentially currently not in conflict. “Odoo S.A” has, through its commercial success, secured large development resources for the “Odoo” open-source platform that we use to develop our software solutions. It is to be expected that they will continue these investments because their key marketing mantra is that “Odoo” is the world’s largest open-source ERP solution2.

We are working intensively on Bosnian localization because “Odoo” open-source is excellent as a platform for developing ERP solutions. Moreover, the open-source platform is completely sufficient for us to deliver complete ERP solutions to our clients. This makes us competitive. Our offering to clients is therefore not burdened with licenses from the upstream provider.

Odoo Partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Those who believe that purchasing “Odoo EE” licenses is the best solution for them have two official Bosnia-Herzegovina partners available:

Odoo partners BiH

I have met the partner from Prijedor, but not the one from Gračanica. What I noticed they have in common is that the founders of these companies participated in “Odoo” projects in other countries3.

The domain in which we are leaders in the “Odoo” context is the accounting domain. In this field, to my knowledge, we have done the most work and know the subject matter best.

The Paradox, Part Two

“bring.out” is a micro business. Bosnian “Odoo S.A.” partners, if license sales are successful, can quickly secure resources that will “melt away” our current advantage.

Whatever future developments may be, in the short term we are cheering for “Odoo EE” partners to increase the number of sold “Odoo EE” licenses in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This contributes to the visibility of “Odoo” as an ERP platform.

“Odoo” visibility in Bosnia and Herzegovina is our direct interest.

Conclusion

We have greatly benefited from “Odoo” as an open-source software platform. “Odoo” has brought new energy to “bring.out”. We are grateful to everyone who works with this platform and contributes in any way. The “Odoo” ecosystem of “open-source” providers worldwide is large4. We believe that the “open-source” offering is a winning combination in the Bosnian market. That’s why we’re putting “all our cards” on this concept.

Ernad Husremović, hernad@bring.out.ba

Footnotes

  1. The company that is the “copyright holder” of the open-source project https://github.com/odoo/odoo, author of the “proprietary” product “Odoo EE”, owner and main seller of licenses for that product ↩

  2. However, there is a justified concern that the level of development activities will significantly decline in the open-source part compared to “proprietary” development ↩

  3. the first in Austria, the second in the Middle East ↩

  4. Why don’t we have a single quality OCA “Odoo” localization in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and Serbia - see the article Odoo OCA Adriatic ↩