How to Get Your Team to Actually Use Odoo

You have invested in Odoo. The system is configured, the data is migrated, and everything is ready to go. There is just one problem: your team does not want to use it.

This scenario plays out more often than anyone in the ERP industry likes to admit. The technology is only half the equation. The other half — the harder half — is getting people to change how they work. Here is how to make Odoo adoption actually happen.

Why People Resist New Systems

Before you can fix resistance, you need to understand it. People do not resist Odoo specifically — they resist change. And they resist it for rational reasons:

• Loss of competence — they were experts in the old system and now feel like beginners
• Fear of the unknown — they do not understand how the new system works or what is expected of them
• Increased workload — learning a new system takes time, and they still have their regular job to do
• Bad past experiences — they have been through failed software rollouts before
• Lack of input — nobody asked them what they needed, the decision was made without them
• Genuine concerns — sometimes the old way really was better for specific tasks, and those concerns deserve attention

Understanding these reasons does not mean you accept the status quo. It means you address the root causes instead of just telling people to deal with it.

Start Before Go-Live

User adoption does not begin on launch day. It starts weeks or months before, during the implementation process. The single most effective thing you can do is involve key users early.

Identify one or two people from each department who will become your internal Odoo champions. Include them in requirements gathering. Let them test the system during configuration. Ask for their feedback and actually incorporate it. When these people are part of the process, they become advocates rather than resisters. Their colleagues are far more likely to listen to a peer who says 'I helped set this up and it works' than to a manager who says 'use it because we paid for it.'

Training That Actually Works

Most Odoo training fails because it is structured wrong. A common approach is gathering everyone in a room (or a video call), clicking through the system for two hours, and assuming people will remember everything. They will not.

Effective training follows different principles:

1. Make it role-specific — salespeople do not need to learn warehouse operations. Train each team on exactly what they will do every day
2. Hands-on practice — people learn by doing, not by watching. Give them exercises that mirror their actual work. Use real (or realistic) data, not generic demo data
3. Keep sessions short — 60-90 minutes maximum. Longer sessions lead to information overload and declining attention
4. Repeat and reinforce — one training session is not enough. Schedule follow-up sessions at one week, two weeks, and one month after go-live
5. Create reference materials — quick reference guides, cheat sheets, or short video recordings that people can consult when they forget a step

The best training investment you can make is building internal capability. When someone in the accounting department can answer Odoo questions for their colleagues without filing a support ticket, adoption accelerates dramatically.

The Power of Quick Wins

Nothing builds adoption like visible improvements. Identify processes that are clearly painful in the current workflow and make sure Odoo solves them early.

Maybe your sales team currently creates quotes in Word and manually emails them. Show them Odoo quotations with one-click email and online confirmation. Maybe your warehouse team manually counts inventory with clipboards. Show them barcode scanning. These quick wins create momentum and goodwill.

Conversely, if the first thing people experience with Odoo is something that feels harder than before, you are starting with negative momentum. Sequence your rollout so that the immediate benefits are obvious.

Address Concerns Honestly

When team members raise concerns about Odoo, listen — genuinely listen. Not every complaint is resistance. Some are legitimate usability issues. Some are configuration problems. Some point to workflows that need adjustment.

If someone says 'this takes me five clicks where before it took two,' do not dismiss them. Investigate whether there is a better way to configure that workflow, a shortcut they have not been shown, or whether it is indeed a trade-off where a few extra clicks in one area save time elsewhere.

Be honest about trade-offs. If something genuinely takes longer in Odoo, explain why (better data quality, audit trail, integrated reporting) rather than pretending it is better when it is not. People respect honesty and lose trust when they feel they are being sold to.

Management Must Lead by Example

If managers ask for reports outside of Odoo, request data in spreadsheets, or do not use the system themselves, they are sending a clear message: Odoo is optional. And if it is optional, it will not be adopted.

Management needs to use Odoo dashboards for their reporting. They need to approve purchase orders and leave requests in Odoo. They need to check the CRM pipeline in Odoo, not ask for a separate status update email. This is not about micromanagement — it is about demonstrating that the system is the single source of truth.

Set Clear Expectations

People need to know what is expected of them. Be specific:

• All customer interactions must be logged in the CRM by end of day
• Purchase orders must go through Odoo — no more email-based ordering
• Inventory movements must be scanned — manual adjustments require supervisor approval
• Timesheets must be entered weekly in Odoo

These expectations should be communicated clearly, documented, and consistently enforced. If one team is allowed to bypass Odoo while another is held to the rules, resentment builds and adoption erodes.

Post-Go-Live Support Is Critical

The first two to four weeks after go-live are make-or-break for adoption. This is when users encounter real-world scenarios they were not trained on. This is when frustration peaks and the temptation to revert to old methods is strongest.

Have support available — whether that is your internal champions, an IT team member, or an external consultant. Fast response to questions and issues during this period prevents small frustrations from becoming permanent workarounds.

A dedicated Slack or Teams channel for Odoo questions can be effective. People are more likely to ask quick questions in a chat than to submit a formal support ticket. And often, a colleague who solved the same problem yesterday can answer before your IT team even sees the question.

Measure and Communicate Progress

Track adoption metrics. How many quotes are being created in Odoo? How many users log in daily? Are inventory adjustments decreasing (a sign of better accuracy)? Share these metrics with the team.

Celebrate milestones. When the first month's invoicing is completed entirely through Odoo, acknowledge it. When the warehouse team completes a stock count using barcode scanning in half the time it used to take, highlight it. These stories reinforce the message that the new system is working.

When to Bring in Help

If adoption is stalling despite your best efforts, an outside perspective can help. Sometimes teams respond better to an external trainer or consultant than to internal staff — there is less political baggage and more perceived expertise.

Through odoone, you can bring in experienced Odoo consultants who have guided teams through adoption challenges before. They can provide targeted training, identify configuration issues that are causing friction, and help you develop an adoption roadmap. Starting at €80/hour with a free approval cycle and money-back guarantee, external help can break through adoption barriers that internal efforts cannot. The real cost is not the consultant — it is the lost productivity when your team does not use the system you have invested in.