Location/Region: Brownsdale, MN
Industry: Sales and marketing services
Apps implemented: Inventory, eCommerce, Sales, Studio, Accounting, Invoicing, Expenses, Manufacturing, Documents.
Company size: <50
Software replaced: NetSuite and a DOS-based system
Hosting type: Odoo.sh
Managing inventory, accounting, and client-specific workflows across dozens of brands is no small task, especially when every client expects their processes to feel uniquely their own. For IBI Data, a Minnesota-based sales and marketing services company for the food industry, Odoo became the backbone that brought clarity, flexibility, and scalability to a highly complex operation. By adopting Odoo’s multi-company architecture and expanding across multiple apps over time, IBI Data transformed how it manages inventory, financials, and customization for its Fortune 500 foodservice clients.
Founded in 1986, IBI Data was created to solve a problem its founder, Katherine Harte, saw early on: the growing complexity of managing sales materials, customer data, and fulfillment activities for foodservice industry brands with pinpoint accuracy. Harte recognized both the operational burden companies faced and the future value of data-driven sales and marketing. That insight led to the creation of IBI Data.
Today, the company operates from Brownsdale, Minnesota, with a team of approximately 50 employees. IBI Data supports food industry clients with a wide range of sales and marketing services, including web development, sample packing and fulfillment, rebate verification, loyalty programs, customer care, lead qualification, and the management of sales materials. Rather than specializing in a single function, the company intentionally built a model that brings many sales and marketing activities together under one roof.
What truly differentiates IBI Data is how it operates on behalf of its clients. The company works with 40 to 50 clients at any given time and treats each one as if it were its own internal operation, managing inventory, workflows, and data separately for every brand.
"Anything you can think of as sales and marketing, we can do it all under one roof."
Before Odoo: Legacy Systems and Growing Complexity
As IBI Data grew, its operational complexity increased alongside its client base. Inventory and warehousing of food samples and materials were central to the business, but the systems supporting those functions had not kept pace.
Initially, the company relied on a DOS-based system to manage inventory and warehousing. While functional, the team knew an upgrade was inevitable, but finding the right solution took time.
Over the years, IBI Data explored multiple solutions. The challenge wasn’t simply replacing a legacy system: it was finding a platform that could mirror how the company actually worked. Because IBI Data manages inventory and activities separately for each client, any system needed to support a true multi-company structure, not just multiple warehouses or locations.
That requirement became the deciding factor.
"The multi-company aspect of Odoo was really the deciding factor. It allowed us to switch companies and have their inventory assigned to that company, separate from everything else.”
A Turning Point, Not Just a Tool
IBI Data’s President, Geoff Smith, first discovered Odoo back in 2020. Implementation happened in phases. The first phase focused on inventory and warehousing, which went live with one client in 2021. It quickly expanded to include all clients. More recently, IBI Data completed a major accounting migration from NetSuite for The Ryan Group, a sister company, which consults with clients to help strategize and develop the sales and marketing programs that IBI Data executes. The team was able to migrate financial data and activate Odoo Accounting at the start of 2026.
This phased approach allowed the company to build confidence with the platform while expanding its footprint gradually across departments.
Real Impact Across Inventory, Accounting, and Customization
Inventory remains one of the most critical areas where Odoo supports IBI Data’s daily operations. The Inventory app modernized how teams interact with stock, replacing legacy workflows with clearer flows, and a more intuitive interface.
Internal champions quickly emerged; team members became strong advocates for Odoo after experiencing improvements firsthand. The modernization of inventory workflows helped streamline processes and made the system easier to navigate and maintain.
"Integrating Odoo into our e-commerce platform delivered immediate efficiency gains, reducing processing time by 20%, while also making it possible for us to launch NuvoFoodservice.com, a shared e-commerce and sampling platform that had been on our roadmap for years.
On the financial side, the transition to Odoo Accounting brought immediate benefits, particularly in costs, reporting and billing workflows. Because IBI Data was already using Odoo for inventory, expanding into accounting felt like a natural progression. The ability to manage billing logic and generate client-specific invoices significantly improved operational clarity. Since they were already using Odoo, adding the additional users for accounting will end up saving The Ryan Group 70% in software costs.
Customization plays a central role in IBI Data’s value proposition. Many of its clients are large Fortune 500 companies that require processes, documentation, and invoices to match their own standards and branding. Odoo’s flexibility made this possible.
"There’s a lot of customization that we love. Our clients want us to integrate with their systems and to match their specific business processes, and Odoo gives us that flexibility.”
To support this, IBI Data uses Studio extensively and works with an implementation partner, QOC Innovations, for more complex customizations along with internal developers who continue to deepen their expertise in Odoo.
Beyond inventory and accounting, IBI Data uses the Website app for blog content and has built an eCommerce environment to help streamline future client adoption. The Expenses app is now active following the accounting migration, and the Sales app is used in connection with sales orders. The company also makes limited use of manufacturing-related features for kitting activities.
Rather than rushing to deploy every module, IBI Data takes a deliberate approach, adopting apps when there is a clear operational fit and business case.
"Every day I come across something and think, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool.’ There’s just a lot that Odoo offers.”
What’s Next for
IBI Data
Looking ahead, IBI Data is focused on deeper integration and expanded digital capabilities. One priority is eCommerce and Sample ordering: the company is offering a more standardized, templated ordering site for clients, nuvofoodservice.com, complementing the custom solutions it already supports. Combined with easy handling of sales tax and their newly improved shipping discounts they hope to take cost and complexity out of the process for their clients.
Integration is another key area of growth. IBI Data already uses applications that import orders from external client platforms such as WooCommerce, Shopify, Sysco, US Foods, and Amazon, and the team plans to further strengthen data flows between Odoo and client systems, including eCommerce platforms, CRMs, and other data sources.
The company hopes to implement additional Odoo apps to drive efficiency and pass savings on to clients. Beyond Odoo itself, IBI Data continues to integrate emerging technologies, particularly AI, could be integrated into its service offerings, helping clients navigate an increasingly data-driven sales and marketing landscape.
IBI Data’s journey with Odoo shows what’s possible when technology adapts to a business, not the other way around. For businesses managing multiple brands, entities, or client-specific operations, Odoo’s all-in-one platform offers a powerful way to consolidate systems, improve visibility, and grow with confidence, just as IBI Data continues to do.
