OERP Canada: The Toronto Firm That Gets Called When A Company Needs An ERP Done Right The First Time

Enterprise software implementations fail at a rate that would be unacceptable in any other field. A Toronto consultancy specializes in ERP Implementation for SMBs.

The Most Expensive Project a Small Business Will Undertake

An enterprise resource planning system is the software that runs a company: accounting, inventory, purchasing, sales, manufacturing, human resources, all working from one set of data. Getting one in place is among the largest projects a small to mid-size business will ever take on, however, the industry is overrun with failed or mismanaged implementations.

The reasons are consistent. The software is configured to match a process nobody documented properly. The consultants understand the product but not the business. Data migration is underestimated. Staff are trained too late. The project runs past budget, enthusiasm drains away, and the organization ends up running the new system badly alongside the old one it never retired.

“A good implementation is expensive. A failed one will cost even more.” – Daniel Dico

OERP Canada is unique in that regard. The Toronto firm is an Odoo Gold Partner specializing exclusively in the open-source Odoo platform, serving small and medium businesses across Canada and the United States. They have 14 years of experience, are rated 4.9 stars on Google, have a 97% customer retention rate, and have completed over 200 projects.

A Founder Who Was Building Systems Before ERP Had a Name

Daniel Dico, founder and chief executive, began his information technology career in 1986 and has spent close to four decades in development and consulting. He was building applications around 1990 across human resources, accounting, sales, inventory, customer service and billing, and from 2000 turned to the problem of connecting systems that had been built separately and did not speak to one another.

That work led him to enterprise resource planning as a concept: one integrated system rather than a collection of interfaces holding a business together. From 2002 he surveyed the open-source ERP and customer relationship management landscape without finding anything he considered a genuine solution. In late 2012, he discovered Odoo and became one of its first partners, establishing what the firm describes as the first Odoo partnership in Toronto.

The team has grown to 20 experts who serve companies across Canada, US and Europe. The firm has been an Odoo Gold Partner since 2018.

Project Rescue as a Standing Service

Most technology consultancies offer implementation, support and upgrades. OERP lists a fourth service prominently alongside them: project recovery, or project rescue.

Publishing this as a named service is a quietly confident position. It advertises that the firm expects to be called in after another supplier has failed, and it signals to a prospective client in difficulty that this is familiar work rather than an awkward favour. For an owner sitting on a stalled implementation and a spent budget, knowing that a firm handles this routinely removes a considerable amount of hesitation about making the call.

“A good implementation is expensive. A failed one will cost even more.”

The wider service range covers implementation, customization and development, data migration, training, hosting, ongoing support and version upgrades. Engagements can be bought as fixed plans or as time and materials bundles, which suits businesses that need a defined block of expert help rather than a full project.

Certification Held to an Unusual Standard

The firm’s most concrete quality claim concerns credentials. Every employee is required to obtain Odoo certification and to maintain it for the supported versions. The result is certification coverage for every Odoo release since version 10.

That matters more than it might appear. Odoo issues major annual releases, and a consultant certified on an older version may be advising on functionality that has since changed substantially. Keeping certification up-to-date on each supported release is a real ongoing cost that many partners do not absorb.

The firm also contributes to the wider ecosystem. It joined the Odoo Community Association in 2015 as both member and contributor, and they’ve worked extensively on localization, the unglamorous but essential work of making the software handle Canadian tax, payroll and accounting requirements correctly. A business owner in Canada benefits from that work whether or not they ever engage the firm.

Recognition and Range

OERP reports more than 200 projects across manufacturing, retail and distribution, professional services and scientific sectors, and it publishes a portfolio that spans most Canadian provinces, Europe and the United States. Its named client work includes an armoured vehicle manufacturer, a high-rise HVAC manufacturer operating since 1972, and construction materials and warehouse storage businesses.

The firm has been nominated by Odoo as best partner in North America, and was recognized by CIOReview in its 2023 listing of Odoo solutions companies. Its stated values are straightforward: honesty, quality, integrity, teamwork, commitment and simplicity.

Why Open Source Changes the Calculation

The commercial argument for a platform like Odoo rests on cost structure. Traditional enterprise resource planning software carries substantial licence fees before implementation work begins, which has historically put integrated systems out of reach for smaller companies and left them running a patchwork of accounting software, spreadsheets and disconnected tools.

An open-source platform shifts the spending from licences toward implementation, which is to say toward the work that actually determines whether the system succeeds. That is a better allocation, but it only pays off if the implementation is done well, which returns the question to the quality of the partner.

For Canadian owners considering an ERP project, OERP’s positioning suggests the right questions to ask any prospective supplier. Are your consultants certified on the version I will actually run? Who did the localization work for Canadian accounting and payroll? And what happens if this project goes wrong?

If you’re interested in exploring if it might be time for you to move to an ERP, OERP Canada offers a Free Demo where they’ll set up your processes and show you exactly how your business flow would look like inside Odoo.

Website: oerp.ca

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Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available information intended only for informational purposes. CanadianSME Small Business Magazine does not endorse or guarantee any products or services mentioned. Readers are advised to conduct their research and due diligence before making business decisions.