Value in Circular products?
Maxicoms inventive ERP approach with Odoo Experts
Determining the value of a batch of used IT equipment without being able to do an extensive test? Purchasing stock of which the real value for the supplier is only determined afterwards? Sounds logical, but how do you incorporate this behavior into your stock management? How do you process an item value and a purchase invoice? Odoo Experts made it possible.
25 years ago, Patrick de Vreede (Founder of Maxicom Distribution IT) started saving network equipment from the electronic junkyard and gave it a second life by refurbishing it. They grew in 2021 to a serious company with 60 employees and are a part of the Circular IT Group since 2022. Altier Networks, NEG-ITsolutions, CTC IT Solutions, iUsed, Stichting ITdonations, iRENT, TellusRem, emXcore and CTG Circular are also part of the group. .
Specialist in refurbishing
“Maxicom is a specialist in refurbishing of IT-equipment, just like the other partners in the Circular IT Group”, says Patrick de Vreede. “All these companies make it possible for IT-hardware to be used for longer. Increasing the lifespan of IT-hardware helps to lower the CO2 emissions immediately because less production is required. In our early years we saw that a lot was thrown away because the technology was developing so rapidly. The development of hardware and software were not in lockstep with each other. This is different now. There is more realization among companies that reusing the IT-equipment is more environmentally friendly. It is not just about saving money, but also about circularity, the unnecessary usage of resources. “
In-house development
“We have always done our software development because what we needed was only partly available through the big software houses. Then you are talking about tons of euros per year in maintenance and implementation costs. The software packages in this market segment are interesting from a price perspective, but are aimed at standard business operations and are not a match for our business operations, which require smarter software. There was actually nothing in between. That's why we were forced to make it ourselves. But with the rapid growth of the company, it became an increasing responsibility and that was no longer possible.”
Maxicom started searching for an open source ERP-system with possibilities for free programming with a strong web-based database. “Odoo was a perfect fit for us,” says Patrick de Vreede. “Plus, Odoo is at least 75 percent cheaper than the big brands. Gold partner Odoo Experts gave us the confidence to work with the most experienced Odoo partner during their presentation.”
"Maxicom's basic question was 'Make sure that the processes of our software are included in Odoo and immediately take some improvement points into account'", says senior Odoo consultant Bastiaan de Keijzer of Odoo Experts. “We didn't recreate the screens and the overviews, but what we did do was carefully map out the processes. How does stock come in, and how are we going to do that in Odoo? Maxicom sometimes does not know what is in a pallet at all, and whether you can assign value to it. Odoo doesn't like that. They want to know exactly what you ingest from the start because then you can process it in the right way.”
“The Odoo-partner has to keep you from the wrong route and wrong turns. Stay close to the core and do not get tempted into too much custom code. Odoo Experts have helped us to stay as close as possible to the Odoo core.”
Stay close to the core
“I wanted a lot and had no idea how Odoo worked”, explains Patrick de Vreede. “Odoo Experts is a mature partner who got us through many pain points. To anyone who starts with Odoo I will say ‘prepare yourself because it is not an easy road’. Especially because Odoo is open-source software. Anything can be done, but you can also do the wrong things and make it difficult. The Odoo-partner has to keep you from the wrong route and wrong turns. Stay close to the core and do not get tempted into too much custom code.
“Circular IT Group exists of 300 employees and that makes it possible to train some internal Odoo Studio developers.”, explains Patrick de Vreede. “They can make small changes in the future. The Odoo partner will be used for the larger changes and upgrades to new versions”.
Not afraid to step forward
“Odoo takes a step forward every year with new functionalities,” says Patrick de Vreede. “Other software packages are often not that dynamic. Odoo dares to take steps towards progress, and that is what it is all about at Maxicom and Circular IT Group.”
Value in Circular products?