Duration: 24:15
🧾 Analytical Summary
Business analyst demonstrates smart replenishment tool transforming procurement from manual spreadsheet management to AI-assisted ordering. Giovanni runs Italian grocery "Olio e Pane" in Brussels—needs better stock management without stress.
Vendor Catalog View: Dashboard showing all vendor products with "Suggest" feature computing recommended order quantities based on:
- Historical sales: Configurable lookback period (default 30 days)
- Forecast horizon: Days to stock (default 30 days)
- Safety margin: Percentage buffer (e.g., 110% for safety stock)
- On-hand quantity: Current stock + expected receipts - expected deliveries
One-Click Ordering: Select suggested quantities across categories, automatically populating PO with correct prices. Categories can be treated differently (e.g., cheese restocked every 15 days vs monthly for other products).
Alternatives Feature: Create alternative POs with different vendors, automatically comparing prices and lead times. Green highlighting shows best options. Choose individual lines from different vendors, automatically canceling non-selected lines.
Price Comparison: Historical price tracking across vendors, graphical trends identifying price increases requiring vendor follow-up.
On-Time Delivery Tracking: 84% delivery rate with drill-down to product-level performance (identifying Black Olives as problematic at lower delivery rate).
Merge RFQs: Combine multiple draft RFQs to single vendor avoiding duplicate communications.
Documents Integration: Attach terms/conditions directly from Documents app (not just computer files).
Emergency Ordering: Last-minute Halloween candy order completed in under 2 minutes using suggestions + fast catalog selection.
🧠 Viewpoint: Odoo Perspective
Smart replenishment exemplifies our AI-first approach: invisible intelligence suggesting optimal actions without forcing users through complex configuration. The vendor catalog collapsing historical analysis, forecasting, and safety stock calculations into one-click selections demonstrates UX maturity—power without complexity. And the cross-app integration (Documents, reporting, contracts) shows platform advantage: purchasing isn't isolated workflow, it's connected to everything.
🏢 Viewpoint: Competitors
The AI suggestions are helpful though relatively simple statistical models—weighted averages with configurable parameters rather than machine learning forecasting. Enterprise procurement requires more sophisticated demand planning (seasonality, promotional lifts, external factors). The alternatives comparison is clean but misses RFQ workflow where vendors bid competitively rather than predefined catalog prices. Still, for SMB scenarios with straightforward replenishment patterns, the balance between simplicity and intelligence is well-calibrated. The speed demonstration (2-minute emergency order) proves the workflow optimization value.
Disclaimer: This article contains AI-generated summaries and fictionalized commentaries for illustrative purposes.