Dispensing Delight: Discount Vending Store's Journey to Success with Odoo's ERP Software!

Vending machines are found in many places frequented on a daily basis– offices, schools, airports, shopping centers, hotels, gyms, and more. Ranging from the standard vending machine most individuals are familiar with, to higher-end versions supplying healthy snacks or beauty products, vending machines have become a staple of American public spaces. 

Founded in 2007 by CEO Jeff Cramer, Discount Vending Store makes and sells vending machines for every budget. Before getting into the vending machine manufacturing industry, Jeff was a successful landscape architect looking for a hobby on the side to explore with his kids. He came across the popular gumball candy machine and saw an opportunity to sell them as an avenue of alternative revenue. This side venture proved to be lucrative, and after some time, Jeff expanded into vending machines. He recognized that there was a better way to serve individuals who wanted to become small business owners– and thus began Discount Vending Store.

Based in Fountain, Colorado, Discount Vending Store sells new, used, and customizable vending machines at various prices. While the company had previously sufficed with a largely manual data tracking system, its growing success demanded more integrated business software to manage its workflows. Odoo was the perfect solution.

Before using Odoo, Discount Vending Store operated the way many small businesses do– with disjointed applications and manual data-keeping. Vice President Trig Bundgaard describes their old business management system as “some Quickbooks, some spreadsheets, [and] a CRM all by itself that didn’t talk to anything. Everything was disconnected, everything took a lot of manual work. As we grew - and we’ve been growing fast - it became very clear that we’d outdated the system.”

In particular, inventory control was manual and spreadsheet-based before Odoo. This system required employees to input numbers accurately and efficiently, and human error became a significant pain point for the company. As Discount Vending Store continued to flourish, this old way of doing things couldn’t keep up with their growing number of sales. The company began seeking out alternative options, eventually coming down to a choice between Odoo and Netsuite.

Trig explains that the decision came down to a few factors. Odoo’s cost of launching was significantly more affordable than Netsuite’s, aligning more directly with what the company was looking for from a financial standpoint. Trig himself is also self-admittedly a “huge open-source nerd,” and greatly appreciated that Odoo’s philosophy was similar to his own. In speaking with representatives from both companies, Trig felt like Odoo would offer more of a partnership to Discount Vending Store than Netsuite, working more cohesively with the company for a successful implementation. 

In September 2023, the company officially began its implementation with Odoo. Trig admits that the process proved difficult because he had to learn a lot of things on-the-fly in order to become comfortable with the database and how it works. Thankfully, their Odoo consultant Inderesh Manchanda was always “just an email away”, and guided Trig as he pulled all of their systems together to transition them to Odoo. 

Since its implementation, Discount Vending Store has doubled its net profits in the 1st quarter of 2024 alone, thanks to the nuanced details and automatic processing that Odoo provides. Trig explains how the automation of their business flows has made a tremendous impact on the accuracy of their numbers and inventory:

“Everything is reserved, put on hold, pulled into production with serial number tracking and barcode scanning, shipped, delivered, timed out... it’s all automatic. Everything that had to be done by hand is now automatic. Frankly, we screwed it up when it was manual. Now, we don’t screw it up anymore.”

He elaborates that before, their numbers were “close enough,” but not exact. Now, they have the ability to really dig into their numbers and understand the business from both a hawk's eye view as well as the nitty-gritty details. When asked to describe Odoo, Trig emphasized that “it’s a beast, it's definitely a “dragon” of a software, but it is 100% worth it if you want to try to play with the big boys.” 

Another benefit of Odoo that Trig says the company is particularly looking forward to utilizing in the future is the ability to manage multiple companies underneath one parent company. Discount Vending Store is planning to split their business into two independent brands– one focusing on their standard vending machines, and one focusing on their customizable machines. Trig says that Odoo will be critical in this transition.

“In order to have that central hub where Remarc vending is the mothership, Odoo has made that a piece of cake. So we can have different invoices, different emails, addresses, different contact information depending on which customer is coming from which company.”

With many processes now automatic and more dependable with Odoo, Discount Vending Store has more time to look towards the future. With exciting business plans on the horizon, the company is grateful to have Odoo on its side as it continues to grow in the industry.