Company | Tubao |
Industry | Large-volume liquid storage: stormwater basins, fire reserves, rainwater harvesting, chemical storageStockage de grands volumes de liquides : bassins d'orage, réserves incendie, récupération d'eau de pluie, produits chimiques |
Odoo applications | CRM, Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, Manufacturing, Accounting, InvoicingCRM, Ventes, Achats, Inventaire, Fabrication, Comptabilité, Facturation |
In the large-volume liquid storage industry, projects are long, technical and heavily documented. Stormwater basins, fire reserves, rainwater harvesting, chemical storage: each job comes with drawings, files and attachments that sometimes need to be kept for decades. In short, the information system cannot afford to be approximate.
Tubao, a specialist in these storage solutions, understood this well. Under the leadership of Sébastien Gorge, Sales Administration & IT Director, the company has relied on Odoo for three years to structure its operations, and has been working for the past year with Nalios Haute-Normandie to evolve its ERP.
Choosing the ERP: Odoo for the breadth of its apps
When it decided to get properly structured, Tubao challenged several ERPs, including X3 and Dynamics. Odoo won on the breadth of its applications and its ability to cover a wide scope, from CRM to accounting and manufacturing.
The rollout was not a smooth ride. As in any ERP project, teams had to be brought on board and some habits had to change. One of Tubao's key lessons was to move back toward the standard rather than piling up custom developments around complex workflows.
The challenge: an Odoo database that hit saturation
Tubao's business generates a significant volume of data. Long-running CRM projects, loaded with drawings, files and numerous attachments, feed the database continuously. The result was a saturation point reached on Odoo SH in under two years, faster than expected.
This database-size issue is more common than people think, especially in project-driven businesses where documentary data builds up quickly. It calls for both an immediate response and a deeper fix.
The solution: a quick response, then a deeper fix
To free up space without waiting, the Nalios Haute-Normandie team wrote, in a few hours, a script to compress attachments (PDFs and image files). The operation freed up 40 to 45% of space and gave the database breathing room until the next migration.
But compression treats the symptom, not the cause. Odoo is an ERP, not a document management system. It is not designed to archive documents over several decades. The structural answer is therefore to externalise part of the data to SharePoint: what Odoo generates natively stays in Odoo, while external documents are archived in SharePoint and linked transparently for the user. This Odoo–SharePoint integration will roll out with the V19 migration.
The partnership with Nalios: knowing how to say no
Before Nalios, Tubao worked with several integrators. Teams that brought real know-how, but that tended to say yes to every request, even if it meant piling up developments. What Sébastien Gorge was looking for was different.
"What I expect from an integrator is someone who knows how to say no when I raise a complex question, rather than answering yes, yes, we'll build it with a custom development."
This stance is what brought Tubao closer to Nalios Haute-Normandie, led by Sébastien Bélanger. A team with an industrial-field background, which ran a thorough gap analysis to understand the processes before writing any code, and which favours standard Odoo when that is the solution that will last. The approach is pragmatic: a question raised often finds its answer in a short tutorial video sent by email, rather than in a disproportionate project.
Concrete benefits for Tubao
With Odoo and Nalios's support, Tubao enjoys several advantages:
- A centralised, scalable ERP: a wide scope covered by a single tool, from CRM to invoicing.
- A database kept under control over time: immediate compression, then document externalisation to SharePoint to avoid repeating the saturation.
- Responsive, pragmatic support: fast, fitting answers, without oversizing the solutions.
- A clear roadmap: migration to Odoo V19 and the move to e-invoicing.
Conclusion
Tubao's example illustrates a simple idea: a well-implemented ERP is not measured by the number of custom developments, but by its ability to last over time. By relying on standard Odoo, a solid gap analysis and a partner able to say no at the right moment, Tubao turned a saturated database into a controlled roadmap.
Choosing the right partner remains decisive for a successful digital transformation and for structuring a company sustainably, especially in a business as demanding as large-volume liquid storage.