Company: SoftBank Robotics
Location: United Kingdom & Netherlands
Industry: Robotics, Wholesale Trade
Partner name: Seamless
Main Apps Implemented: Sales, Subscription, Procurement, Inventory, Repair, Accounting
Company Size: 10-50
Number of users: 15
Hosting type: odoo.sh
Overview
SoftBank Robotics is driving technology forward by becoming a worldwide leader in robotics solutions. The company is constantly exploring and commercializing robotics solutions to help make people’s lives easier, safer and connected. After discovering their legacy system didn’t fit the requirements for the EMEA region, Softbanks Robotics decided to switch ERP systems. Working in collaboration with Seamless, the company’s Odoo solution was deployed over 3 months. Thanks to Odoo, Softbank Robotics now has a user-friendly and scalable system that can now deliver added value to business operations.
Key Challenges and Requirements
SoftBank Robotics EMEA is part of SoftBank Robotics Group, a worldwide leader in robotics solutions. SoftBank Robotics is constantly exploring and commercializing robotics solutions that help make people’s lives easier, safer, more connected, and more extraordinary.
Prior to switching to Odoo, SoftBank’s solution was built based on SAP Business ByDesign to manage the operations of existing robots and spare parts. The solution unfortunately didn't fit with the EMEA market and team requirements. EMEA is a region that requires flexibility per country when going to market. After a Proof of Value, the EMEA team found that the solution was not meeting the following critical steps required to manage operations:
- Supply Chain Asset Traceability: Properly acknowledge and track end-to-end operations from procurement to after-sales including repairs and returns.
- Finance Invoicing and Reporting in Multi-companies: Purchasing the right quantity of robots and spare parts from the right legal entities; subsequently organizing shipments and payments internally from headquarter to local branch offices and then to the end clients. The solution needs to comply with multi-companies with the multi-currency situations.
The SAP Business ByDesign solution had to be tailored to the EMEA market and it was not easy to be configured within the expected timelines and budget outlined. So the EMEA team decided to look for alternative solutions and found they had two options; to configure the old solution with a new custom-made solution to support EMEA operations or implement a regional out-of-the-box solution.
They needed a quick return on investment and a traditional ERP proved not to be the best solution to meet their requirements. The only solution that was able to pass the company’s requirements was Odoo. From a cost and implementation timeline perspective, SoftBank Robotics EMEA decided to go with Odoo.
Implementation and Results
Even though their initial focus was on Supply Chain and Finance, the scope of the solution that was implemented was much bigger. First, Odoo Purchase was implemented to manage their purchase orders for the hundreds of stock keeping units SKUs. As soon as an order is placed by a local branch, they make sure that the corresponding purchase order is approved by the local Finance team after that passed to headquarters. For that, they need Odoo Accounting.
Odoo Accounting was added in order to be able to make the payment to suppliers and invoice the clients later on. A multi-company setup covers the activities of several branch offices, and they have a completely automated reconciliation service on all payments. Odoo Inventory was added to manage the inbound and outbound fulfillment, backorders, multiple warehouses and locations, stock transfers, drop-ship, inventory adjustments, scrap, receipts, serial numbers tracking, perpetual inventory valuation, dashboard reporting, and inventory forecast.
Odoo Repair was added to manage a complete after-sales process but also to simply repair products that have been manufactured if they had a defect, and to record the repair activity, repair parts usage, and send the repair invoices to clients. Odoo Sales was implemented to manage the sales orders and client bills, replacing HubSpot within one month.
For the implementation, there was a lot of work to complete in a short amount of time. To be operational in time, and with a reliable system, Odoo partner Seamless carried out the implementation project according to an agile methodology where the implementation steps were undertaken in two-week sprints. After the initial Go-Live within three months time, each sprint feature was deployed with tight quality control. Seamless were able to create an understandable and client-prioritized Product & Sprint backlog. By keeping their eye on the ball, Seamless was able to continuously deliver with high speed and quality. The role of SoftBank Robotics during the implementation was key in helping the implementation partner in understanding, planning & prioritizing, and testing steps. By doing sprint reviews Seamless was able to increase the team focus, motivation, and therefore productivity. All team members part of the project felt involved and very happy with the end results.
The Odoo solution was implemented very quickly. After 3 months of implementation, the Supply Chain team was able to manage the day-to-day operations. It was also important for Softbank Robotics to have an ERP solution where they could leverage their best assets - which is their people. Odoo provides a complete as well as a full-fledged solution with the operations capability to manage the entire business. With the ease of set up as well as the completed functions, Odoo was better able to cope with EMEA requirements than SAP Business ByDesign. SoftBank Robotics really appreciates having a user-friendly and scalable system that can now deliver added value to business operations.
About SoftBank Robotics
SoftBank Robotics is driving technology forward by becoming a worldwide leader in robotics solutions. SoftBank Robotics is constantly exploring and commercializing robotics solutions that help make people’s lives easier, safer, more connected, and more extraordinary. There are currently over 35,000 SoftBank Robotics robots, Pepper, NAO and Whiz, used in more than 70 countries worldwide and offer innovative applications relevant in the fields of retail, tourism, healthcare, finance, education, facilities management and cleaning.
About Seamless.nl
Seamless believes that systems follow business operations. Individual software solutions that work but don't talk to each other make you enter things more than once and miss a comprehensive overview of what's going on. To help you break out, we give you the ability to automate and track everything you do - centralized, online, and accessible from anywhere with any device with industry experts, loved by millions of users globally. Future business needs to plan for now.
SoftBank Robotics: Creating a New Way to Work with Odoo