What we do for SMEs in the Dender region
Implementation, configuration, custom development and ongoing support for Odoo for companies that want to replace their loose spreadsheets or scattered tools with one coherent system. Our office in Affligem is a few kilometers from Aalst, so for companies from the Dender region we are a partner from their own area.
The Dender region has a dense concentration of SMEs: food producers, wholesalers, manufacturers and family businesses that have grown over generations. Many of those companies still work with a combination of a local accounting package, Excel files for inventory and a separate tool for the webshop. It works, until it no longer scales.
If you want to get rid of that fragmentation and are looking for an Odoo partner close by, you have come to the right place.
Abstractive's four-stage rocket
Understand first, then build.
From diagnosis to growth: we optimize, digitize and automate your business processes with Odoo.
Diagnosis
We start on your shop floor: observing, listening, asking questions. For each process you get an honest verdict: standard, configuration or custom development.
Design
You give feedback on a working environment, and that same environment becomes the basis you go live with. After the diagnosis you get one fixed price for the first phase.
Delivery
Before the go-live you run the scenarios yourself; only when that works do we go live, followed by two to three weeks of hypercare.
Growth
The collaboration simply continues after the go-live. Everything we build stays deliberately upgradable, so your environment can keep up with the current Odoo version.
What you can expect from us
Full service under one roof
Sales, logistics, finance and manufacturing: we cover the whole project ourselves, and we are strong in each of those domains. Accounting, inventory, CRM, eCommerce and HR end up in the same database. No separate partner per module that you have to coordinate yourself.
100% in-house, 100% Belgian
Consultants, business analysts and developers sit in one close-knit team that works together every day. No external freelancers that fragment the coordination, no outsourcing to low-wage countries. Whoever answers your questions knows your file because he or she worked on it personally.
An SME that works for SMEs
We are an SME ourselves and we work for SMEs. That makes a difference: we know the reality of scarce time, switching gears fast and looking at every euro twice. Our approach is tailored to that.
Experienced consultants, straightforward
Senior consultants who have guided several implementations. We tell you why something works well. What does not work, we tell you too.
Active in Aalst and the whole Dender region
For diagnosis visits, kick-off, go-live moments and quarterly reviews we are physically present. In between we work remotely with short lines of communication, and we reserve time on site where it really moves the phase forward.
Welcome to Affligem.
We have our own meeting rooms where you can work for a few hours or a whole day on something that needs your attention, without a colleague walking in or a phone ringing. A quiet place to dive deep into the structure of your organization, or for conversations that require some discretion. The coffee is ready.
What customers ask us beforehand
Both. For the first diagnosis, the kick-off, critical go-live moments and quarterly reviews we are physically with you. In between we work remotely with short lines of communication, and we reserve time on site where it moves the sprint forward. Our office is in Affligem, right next to Aalst, so dropping by is easy.
Not always. If your current setup works, you do no double entry and you can report what you need: staying where you are is a legitimate choice. The conversations we have usually start differently. There is a growth spurt that your loose spreadsheets and tools no longer keep up with. Or a new activity that does not fit in the existing package. Or the same error comes back too often because the same data lives in three places. If you recognize any of that, then an introductory call is worth it. Otherwise it is not.
Often yes, but not always without custom development. What comes standard in Odoo typically covers most of what an SME needs: accounting, inventory, sales, manufacturing. For the rest, our developers write additions in-house. We deliberately stick to modular, upgradable custom development: the more specific you build today, the more work a migration to the new version takes tomorrow. In the diagnosis you get a verdict per business process: standard, configuration or custom development.
As a rule we work with the current Odoo version. We believe an Odoo environment should stay current, so we invest heavily in keeping everything we build upgradable and dynamic. Existing environments on older versions we migrate along. The price of a migration depends on the amount of customizations added over the years, and we estimate it case by case after a short analysis.
For a first phase at an SME with five to fifteen users, count on three to six months in practice, depending on scope. Shorter is possible when the processes are clear and the custom development is limited. It takes longer as soon as integrations with other systems, manufacturing flows or multiple companies come into play. We work in phases: getting a first set of modules live has priority, the rest is added gradually on the same Odoo installation. You can read how such a project unfolds at our approach.
It depends on scope. The cost of an implementation depends on the apps in scope, the data migrations, the custom development, the API integrations and any custom customer portals. On top of that comes the Odoo license, see odoo.com/pricing. After the diagnosis you get one fixed price for the first phase, no open end.
Yes, regularly. We do not start by tearing things down, but with an audit of a few days: how is your Odoo set up, how is it used, where is the real pain. That leads to concrete advice. Sometimes the collaboration with the current provider is difficult without anyone making a mistake. A second opinion can then restore trust. Sometimes switching is the right choice. We say honestly what we see, even when the advice is "stay where you are".
Yes. We build AI agents that work alongside you in Odoo. They prepare orders from e-mail, WhatsApp or phone, propose journal entries, look for discrepancies in your accounting, build dashboards in Odoo spreadsheets and answer questions about your data. Your team reviews and approves. Read more at AI agents.
Three options are possible: Odoo Online (SaaS), Odoo.sh or our own hosting infrastructure. Which choice fits best depends on how you use Odoo. For classic administrative setups, Odoo Online and Odoo.sh are good options that we do not automatically advise against. But for implementations with very active points of sale, busy webshops or heavy integrations, dedicated computing power comes in handy: predictable speed, better control over upgrades and no interference from other users on a shared server. Our own hosting has starting prices comparable to Odoo.sh. So the choice depends on your situation, not on your budget.
If you want to test the software first, or for very specific cases: yes. If you want to run production-ready, we recommend Odoo Enterprise. The difference lies in support, ongoing updates and a number of modules that SMEs in Belgium need in practice.
Some customers prefer to stay discreet, so we do not share every name on the website. In an exploratory call we share concrete case studies and, with their permission, we put you in touch with a reference customer from your region.
Rather talk than fill in a form?
Schedule a no-obligation introductory call with Vincent, online or on site at your company. Pick a time that suits you, or call us at +32 53 89 50 21.
Schedule a call with Vincent →Abstractive · Kerkstraat 74, 1790 Affligem · +32 53 89 50 21 · [email protected]