Givex: The Gift of Odoo’s Flexibility and Tailored Workflows

Location/Region: Toronto, Canada
Industry: Financial technology
Apps implemented: Accounting, CRM, Sales, Subscriptions, Documents, Project, Field Service, Timesheets, Helpdesk, Website, Expenses, Employees, Sign, Inventory, Purchase
Software Replaced: Quickbooks and Netsuite
Number of users: 164
Company size: 400
Hosting type: Odoo.sh
Odoo Partner: Syncoria

Gift cards, coupons, and loyalty programs make customers’ money go a long way, which is why they are extremely popular in retail and hospitality businesses. However, setting up one of these systems is not as easy as one might think. Companies such as Givex, based in Toronto, Canada, help businesses handle this entire process from start to finish.

Givex was founded in 1999 by current CEO Don Gray and his wife Debra, who serves as Executive Vice President. The company's originating service was helping businesses manage their digital coupons. The duo wanted to engage customers and strived to provide companies with the platform to do the same. Today, Givex’s core business is gift card processing and all of the steps along the way, including generating card numbers, printing the gift cards, and distributing them to customers. The company also has its own point-of-sale system that clients can choose to implement should they desire. With a modular system that allows customers to tack on services as their needs grow, Givex prides itself on being a bespoke solution in the software industry.

CEO Don Gray

Being a comprehensive software solution itself, Givex recognized the benefit that an ERP could provide with business operations on its own backend. As the company’s growth demanded more support, it turned to Odoo to meet its needs.

Prior to using Odoo, Givex used both Quickbooks and Netsuite at different points in its journey as a company. However, both systems left a lot to be desired when it came to customization ease and the costs associated with them. Juan Tovar, Senior Vice President of Corporate Integrations, explains that he knew there was a more cost-effective solution for the requirements Givex had in mind.

When exploring alternative solutions, Juan says that Odoo’s open-source nature was extremely appealing to Givex, given the high level of customizations that the company anticipated needing. Considering the flexibility it offered, Odoo’s price point was much more affordable for the company than that of bigger competitors. 

In 2020, Givex decided to go live with Odoo. Juan explains that while implementing new software is a challenge no matter what, the company’s switch over to Odoo proved to be a success. While there were rocky aspects, the implementation overall went really well. This is due, Juan says, greatly to the fact that Odoo’s user interface is easy to understand and comfortable to use. This has led to the software being well-adopted by Givex’s employees. Furthermore, the company intentionally rolled out its Odoo’s applications slowly, giving the company and its employees ample time to adjust to the change.

Now, four years into its journey with Odoo, Givex has found the software’s customizability and comprehensiveness to be extremely beneficial. Specifically, as Senior Vice President of Corporate Integrations, Juan says that Odoo’s reporting capabilities have made a big impact on his role. Juan oversees the entire company's operations and, therefore, takes advantage of the insight that Odoo can give him, particularly when it comes to accounting and sales reports. 

Out of all of the modules, Studio has perhaps been the most impactful Odoo function for Juan. He explains that the application’s ease of use has been really helpful in reducing overhead and manpower that would otherwise be spent customizing the software to fit Givex’s specific needs.

Studio is quite powerful if you need a field or something generally simple that doesn’t require a developer to go in and do something in the backend of the code. That, to me, at my level, is the most beneficial part.

In general, Odoo’s integrated nature and comprehensiveness have changed how Givex’s team does business on a daily basis. Juan explains that Odoo connects business functions and guides users along an intuitive process when using the database, helping speed up operations.

The workflows the Odoo has implemented and the way they present them are key. It’s easy and visually appealing to whoever is using it.

As a software company that simplifies and expedites processes for other businesses, Givex knows the value of an effective ERP. With Odoo’s reporting capabilities, intuitive usability, and high level of customizability, Givex has the support it needs to continue helping companies engage with their customers.

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