Sector | Real estate consulting and territorial development |
Location | Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg |
Odoo modules | Timesheet, Project, Accounting, Dashboards |
Location | Wallonie-Bruxelles |
Founded in 2005, Géoconsulting is a consulting firm specialising in real estate and territorial development. Based in Belgium, the company is active across the whole country and in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, its two core territories, and also works more broadly throughout Europe.
At the head of the company, its founder and CEO François Honoré holds a conviction that guides the entire firm: you can only lead well what you see clearly. A conviction that matches Géoconsulting’s own trade, where data analysis is used to objectify issues and make them measurable.
The challenge: before Odoo, almost no visibility
Looking back, the story begins in 2013. The company was then eight years old, remained small, and operated without a real management system. Invoicing was based on an Excel file. The tools were scattered across different computers, with no connection between them.
The result can be summed up in one word: no overview at all. At year-end, it was impossible to know which projects had really been profitable or which clients were driving the business up. François puts it bluntly: before Odoo, there was zero visibility, and information was regularly lost, particularly in project follow-up.
Reconstructing this information was a project in its own right. What seems obvious today required considerable effort at the time.
The turning point: Odoo as the backbone
Convinced early on of the value of a system that connects the different departments, François was among the early adopters of OpenERP from 2013, with the Timesheet, Project and Accounting modules. The need was clear: connect the departments and finally get a global view of the company.
The implementation was completed around 2016. And that is when the change went beyond the tool itself.
The “common pot”: rethinking the way we work
For years, François played the role of what he himself calls the “super planner”. When a 100-hour project was sold, he would open each colleague’s calendar to allocate the hours, judging who had the skills for what.
His assessment of this method is clear-eyed: it took up a considerable amount of his time, he didn’t enjoy doing it, he didn’t always do it well, and it remained very directive. Above all, it ignored an essential dimension: appetites. Beyond skills, there is the desire a colleague has to work on a given project, and the enjoyment they will get from it.
With Odoo, Géoconsulting has devised a different logic. All sold projects go into a common pot. Every week, each colleague chooses from it the projects for which they have both the skills to move forward and the desire to get involved. This common pot, concretely, is Odoo. Work allocation is no longer imposed from above: it is organised around the autonomy and motivation of the teams.
Measure to steer, drill down to understand
Today, every Géoconsulting employee is connected to Odoo, for timesheets as well as dashboards. The company upholds a culture of transparency in which everyone has access to all the information.
On the steering side, dashboards designed with Nalios and an internal point of contact give the executive a view of the company’s status across all fronts, instantly, from a single document. This cross-functional view has a double benefit. It provides a holistic reading of the business. And when an indicator goes off track, Odoo lets you zoom in to the source of the problem, and then discuss it with the right person. François insists on this point: it is not a control tool, but a support for understanding and questioning.
The logic comes down to one sentence, which resonates as much with the tool as with Géoconsulting’s consulting business: you can only improve what you can measure.
Nalios support
Géoconsulting’s business is consulting, not software management. For François, the line is clear: “Odoo, for us, is a tool, it is not a trade.” Hence the choice to outsource this part to specialists, in order to stay focused on its core business.
The choice of Nalios was quickly made. What made the difference: the agency’s ability to focus on developing the client’s business rather than piling up technical developments. For two years now, Géoconsulting has worked with a single, stable contact, Florian, who knows their business and thinks alongside them.
That continuity makes all the difference. Where other partners rotate three, four or five people who often change, Géoconsulting has the same contact throughout, who doesn’t merely develop what is asked of him. He challenges the business: with the tool as it exists, isn’t there a way to think about the activity differently? A business-oriented vision, rather than one centred on technical issues. François sums up the feeling in one word: “It’s a real pleasure.”
The results
The time saving for the executive is considerable, notably thanks to this instant global view. Beyond that, the entire organisation has changed its logic: work distribution based on autonomy, data shared by everyone, and the ability to measure in order to continuously improve. And the assurance of staying focused on its core business without getting lost in migrations that cost data and time.
Asked for a recommendation, François doesn’t hesitate. Yes, he recommends Nalios, for two reasons: the availability and intelligence of his contact, and the agency’s business-oriented approach, serving the client’s development rather than multiplying IT projects.
In summary
The story of Géoconsulting shows that a successful Odoo project is not measured by the number of features deployed, but by the way the tool frees the company to focus on what it does best. For a consulting firm whose trade is to objectify through data, finally having a clear, shared view did not just streamline management. It aligned the tool with the company’s culture.
Want to discuss your Odoo project? Contact the Nalios teams.