Excel might be free, but Odoo saves you money

Once a small project run by two students, Davai Dumplings now is a full-fledged start-up that creates and sells plant-based, ecological and - most importantly - delicious dumplings 🥟 The founding duo Maybritt Devriese and Ruslan Podgaetskiy even started out making all their dumplings by hand! While they scaled their production process some time ago, their business processes and set-up were still very homemade - and not in a good way. Entering a new stage with their business and getting ready to scale, they were looking to professionalise their whole set-up! And what better way to do so, than with Odoo? 😉

As a nutritional developer and processor, Davai is bound by many regulations. For example, they need to manage the traceability of incoming ingredients, produced dumplings and outgoing packages. This means a lot of Lot Numbers, expirations dates, and other digits to keep track of. And so they did… using Excel and Excel only 😨

Now, Excel isn’t a bad tool on its own, but this way of working is prone to errors and labour-intensive. Due to the many Excel files they kept, there was no real overview and the founders needed to enter the same data multiple times to keep track 😵 Using Excel might have worked when Davai was still small, but the dumpling company was outgrowing those Excel sheets at lightning speed. It was clear Davai was in dire need of a more efficient and scalable solution.

Our approach

First things first: we started this project by taking a deep dive into Davai. What’s the bigger picture? What are their long term goals? And how did they evolve over the past years? 💭 Next, we looked into their business processes, so we could map out how they worked, which tools they used, and what their current challenges were. 

Once we had a clear overview, we could look into Odoo and which customisations would need to be built in order to fit their needs. Said customisations are easily created thanks to Studio, an Odoo feature which allows you to establish them without any coding 💡

While configuring Odoo, we kept validating our process with Maybritt and Ruslan, in order to make sure the platform would completely fit their needs and workflow. After the platform went live - and those Excel files could finally be ditched - we made sure to follow up regularly. This way, the transformation went smoothly! 

Davai’s biggest wins 💪

Ever since Maybritt and Ruslan dumped Excel, they lived happily ever after - or at least when it comes to managing Davai 😉 These were their biggest wins:

• Reduced data entry and errors. Remember how our founders had to enter the same numbers over and over again? 😅 With Odoo, they only have to fill them out once - thanks to its native flow, there’s no need to keep repeating those numbers. Which not only reduces their workload, but also leaves less room for errors. And thanks to the many control mechanisms of Odoo, mistakes are even less likely to happen.

• 100% compliant. A must when you’re in the food industry! Maybritt and Ruslan can relax, because everything is taken care of. For example: every product has a clear traceability, thanks to assigned and personal Lot Numbers in their stock management system. Phew!

• Reporting. Where overview was previously non-existent due to the many, many Excel files, Odoo provides Davai clear reporting on pretty much anything ✨ There’s insights on how many ingredients are needed to produce a certain amount of their dumplings, how great the food waste is and when they should refill their stock, so they can keep producing. And this is only a fraction of what Odoo can show them!

• Scalability. Today, Davai has a platform that’s a solid foundation for further growth. For the next decade, they can keep expanding Odoo as their dumpling business continues to grow 🔝

What’s next? 👀

We can already tell you Maybritt and Ruslan are avid fans of their new Odoo platform - they’re using it every day! To keep them updated and make sure they get the most out of their platform, we’ll be doing workshops every few months, where we discuss what can be done to overcome their challenges and achieve their ambitions. This way, dear digital is more than just an Odoo builder: we’re a strategic partner who continues keeps improving, supporting and growing with Davai 🤗

Ruslan: “Without dear digital we'd still be stuck with 400 excel tabs. Cheers to them for coming to our dumpling factory and saving us time & money thanks to Odoo!”

Ready to take your business to the next level? Book a free consult and discover what Odoo can do for you 📈