| Company Name | Cercle de Wallonie-Bruxelkes |
Industry | Business network for company leaders |
Number of Employees | +10 |
Odoo Applications Implemented | Subscriptions, Accounting, Knowledge, Contact, CRM, Events, Billing, Membership, Appointments, Sales, etc. |
We had the opportunity to attend the Odoo Business Show in Louvain-la-Neuve with the presence of Jonas Benazzi, Manager of the Cercle de Wallonie-Bruxelles. During this event, Jonas openly shared their journey with Odoo. In his testimony, he talks about the initial mistakes and how they ultimately achieved a successful Odoo implementation, based on standard practices, trust, and team involvement.
Implementing an ERP is often seen as a technical project, but for Cercle de Wallonie-Bruxelles, it was primarily an organizational, strategic, and human transformation. In this article, discover how Odoo, with the support of Nalios, enabled them to regain control of their business.
Who is Cercle de Wallonie-Bruxelles ?
Cercle de Wallonie-Bruxelles is a business club active across the entire French-speaking part of Belgium.
The initial internal structure was quite complex:
- Over 1,000 members,
- Over 1,000 subscriptions to manage,
- Over 6,000 event entries per year,
- Over 6,000 e-commerce clients and
- A team of just 10 people
In other words, lots of operations, lots of data and few resources.
It made for an ideal yet demanding environment for an ERP system.
A first experience
Jonas admits :
"Our story with Odoo didn’t necessarily start well, and it was entirely our fault."
The mistake was trying to force the tool to work exactly how the company had decided, leading to multiple custom developments. This resulted in managing over 65,000 lines of code, which were costly to maintain.
This situation, unfortunately, led to a complex system where employees were afraid to use the tool for fear of “breaking the machine” and the ERP no longer followed best practices.
The collaboration with Nalios
Meeting Nalios marked a turning point in their ERP management. In three key steps, they decided to go back to basics and return to standard for a simplified integration.
The decision wasn’t easy because returning to standard meant:
- accepting to revisit past decisions,
- taking on the cost already invested in custom developments,
- trusting the tool and ecosystem.
But this decision proved to be crucial.
An all-in-one ERP
By fully switching to standard, Cercle de Wallonie-Bruxelles was able to centralize all its activities into a single tool. Subscriptions, accounting, and events, no more isolated tools that don’t communicate with each other. Odoo became a true hub capable of circulating information seamlessly.
This digital transformation resulted in smoother processes and better-controlled growth.
Empowering Employees
Change management was the key to success. When the tool was locked down by code, employees remained passive. But by returning to standard, they set up a testing environment to encourage teams to experiment, allowing them to embrace errors as learning opportunities.
"Let your employees take control. Let them play with the tool."
Thanks to this, their employees can now create workflows, optimize them, and improve the tool for the benefit of the business.
The Single Point of Contact (SPoC)
One clear method we apply at Nalios is the Single Point of Contact (SPoC). This method designates one internal person as the Odoo contact. This person will be the single point of contact with Nalios to ensure functional coherence and better relay within the teams.
This person knows everyone’s habits and needs, which makes it easier for internal adoption and training. The goal is to make teams autonomous, confident, and engaged in the company’s evolution.
Much more than a management tool
To conclude, Jonas perfectly summarizes the impact of the project:
"For many entrepreneurs, Odoo is a management tool. For us, it helped us regain control of the company."
Aujourd'hui, le Cercle de Wallonie-Bruxelles dispose d'un ERP stable, d'une équipe impliquée et d'un pilotage clair. Le parfait cocktail pour diriger au mieux une entreprise, et la preuve qu'un partenaire Odoo impliqué fait toute la différence dans la réussite d'un projet ERP