Duration: 21:10
PART 1 — Analytical Summary 🚀
Context 💼
This OXP talk features Yonas Stunkins, Project Manager at Dynaps (a leading Odoo implementation partner), presenting a real-world upgrade of a heavily customized Odoo v14 environment to Odoo v17 for OMI, a fast-growing UK-based EV charging company operating across Europe and Australia. OMI’s mission—making charging cheaper, greener, and connected—relies on deep integrations with energy providers and car manufacturers. The upgrade mattered because OMI’s system had extensive custom code, hundreds of Odoo Studio fields, comprehensive automated actions, and roughly 500 multilingual mail templates—all creating risk and complexity for a major version jump.
Core ideas & innovations 🧠
Dynaps anchored the project in a structured analysis phase, likening it to designing house plans before building. They performed a full inventory of the current system (modules, Studio assets, mail templates, automations, integrations) and reviewed business processes to identify where Odoo v17’s new features could replace legacy customizations. Deliverables included a detailed inventory report, a pragmatic plan of approach, and a clear budget.
A pivotal move was to eliminate reliance on Odoo Studio for critical objects. Together with OMI, they converted all Studio artifacts into maintainable custom code—after first determining that about 75% of Studio fields were redundant. This de-risked the upgrade, improved stability and performance, and simplified future migrations. OMI also shifted management of email templates to an external marketing tool, pushing final content into Odoo to streamline the core database.
Because OMI’s internal team had built most of the original stack, Dynaps and OMI formed a collaborative RACI: Dynaps handled the custom code migration, database upgrades, and initial testing; OMI took on deep-dive testing, Studio-to-code refactoring, and the email template migration. The team performed a dry run before go-live and chose a Saturday cutover with Dynaps engineers and Odoo SH support on standby. When key users fell ill during User Acceptance Testing (UAT), the teams jointly decided to postpone go-live by a month—a disciplined choice that preserved quality and reduced risk.
Impact & takeaways ⚙️💬
The project went live smoothly after a 3–4 week analysis and a ~6-month execution window—ultimately finishing under budget. Dynaps delivered recommendations to improve OMI’s test coverage and future upgrade posture. The broader message is both practical and encouraging: even highly customized Odoo environments can be upgraded efficiently when you reduce complexity, refactor Studio into code, and keep version gaps small (ideally no more than three releases).
Key takeaways include:
- Start with a rigorous analysis to map dependencies, identify redundant customizations, and leverage new standard features in Odoo v17.
- Replace critical Odoo Studio elements with code before migrating; it improves reliability, performance, and testability.
- Define clear responsibilities between partner and customer; align on the plan of approach, testing scope, and budget upfront.
- Perform a dry run and schedule go-live with proper staffing; consider platform specialists (e.g., Odoo SH) on standby.
- Don’t postpone upgrades; smaller version jumps keep complexity and cost in check and reduce integration risk.
PART 2 — Viewpoint: Odoo Perspective
Disclaimer: AI-generated creative perspective inspired by Odoo's vision.
When teams prioritize simplicity and clarity, upgrades stop being a hurdle and become an opportunity. Moving critical Studio artifacts to code isn’t about limiting flexibility—it’s about making room for maintainability and performance at scale. This project shows how the right preparation and collaboration let customers fully benefit from what’s new in Odoo.
Our vision remains the same: integrated apps, fewer moving parts, and a platform that grows with you. I’m particularly proud when partners and customers engage the community mindset—share lessons, standardize where possible, and keep version gaps short. That’s how we keep Odoo fast, simple, and future-ready.
PART 3 — Viewpoint: Competitors (SAP / Microsoft / Others)
Disclaimer: AI-generated fictional commentary. Not an official corporate statement.
The Dynaps–OMI upgrade exemplifies disciplined governance on a complex, customized stack. Converting low-code artifacts to maintainable code, enforcing testing, and staging a controlled cutover are best practices we applaud. For large enterprises, the remaining challenges tend to be automated regression testing at scale, performance benchmarking on very large datasets, and consistent adherence to compliance frameworks across regions.
From a strategy lens, Odoo’s UX and pace of iteration are differentiators, while suites like SAP S/4HANA and Microsoft Dynamics 365 typically emphasize standardized upgrade tooling, formalized validation (e.g., GxP, SOX), and deep domain templates. If Odoo continues to strengthen migration toolchains, test automation, and compliance accelerators, it will further expand its reach into enterprise-grade scenarios without sacrificing its integrated, user-friendly experience.
Disclaimer: This article contains AI-generated summaries and fictionalized commentaries for illustrative purposes. Viewpoints labeled as "Odoo Perspective" or "Competitors" are simulated and do not represent any real statements or positions. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.