Company
Sector
Odoo applications
Urbagestion SA
Facility Management
Support, On-site Service, Maintenance, Accounting, Sales, Subscriptions, Staff, Leave, Expense Claims, Timesheets
Urban Gestion, a Niche Player in Neighborhood Management
Urbagestion was founded six years ago by Thomas Maiburg and his business partner Rafael Pinto. The company, primarily active in French-speaking Switzerland, has positioned itself in a niche market: neighborhood management, sitting at the crossroads of facility management and co-ownership management.
As Thomas Maiburg, CEO of Urbagestion, explains: at the time the company was founded, no real estate agency or facility management company was truly active in this specific niche. Urbagestion therefore built a hybrid offering, designed to meet this precise need.
Growth That Led to a Proliferation of Tools
Starting Out on Excel
Like many companies that start with just two people, Urbagestion initially managed its entire activity on Excel: invoicing, accounting, and client requests. A solution that was sufficient at a small scale, but quickly outgrown as the company expanded.
The Gradual Accumulation of Software
As the team grew and became more professional, Urban Gestion added new tools one by one to address specific needs:
- Software for staff management
- Software for accounting and receivables management
- An external accounting firm for payables
- A tool for time tracking
- A tool dedicated to electronic signatures
The result: six different pieces of software, each effective in its own domain, but with little to no communication between them. A common situation for growing SMEs, but one that creates data fragmentation and considerable time loss on a daily basis.
The Weak Point: No Client Request Tracking
Despite this growing stack of tools, one need remained unmet: structured tracking of client requests. Urban Gestion handled these exchanges informally, with no clear traceability of deadlines or actions taken.
This gap was eventually pointed out directly by clients themselves, prompting the company to actively search for a solution.
From Searching for a Tool to Discovering Odoo
While searching online for client request management software, Thomas Maiburg came across Odoo. His original intent was simple: find a tool dedicated solely to this tracking need.
But Odoo's potential quickly proved far broader. The company realized it could eventually replace its entire software stack with a single integrated platform.
"We realized we could throw away all our old software and keep just one: Odoo." — Thomas Maibaud, CEO of Urban Gestion
A Structured Rollout Built Around Two Internal Points of Contact
To carry out this transition, Urbagestion designated two internal points of contact (SPOCs), each responsible for a distinct area:
- Thomas Maiburg (CEO) : leading the accounting rollout
- Nathalie Flemming (Operations Manager): deploying the Helpdesk and Field Service modules
This split allowed the company to move forward on several fronts in parallel, while keeping clear ownership of each area.
The Odoo Modules Deployed at Urbagestion
Helpdesk: Centralizing Client Request Tracking
The Helpdesk module directly addresses Urban Gestion's original need: tracking client requests submitted by email. Every request is now logged, assigned, and followed through to resolution, directly resolving the issue previously flagged by the company's own clients.
Field Service: Coordinating Field Teams and Billing
Complementing Helpdesk, the Field Service module enables direct communication with employees on site. It allows the company to track completed activities, turnaround times, and subsequently handle billing for the corresponding work.
Nathalie Flemming, Operations Manager, highlights just how fluid and fast this communication has become, whether accessed from a computer or directly from a mobile phone.
Largely Internalized Accounting
Before Odoo, Urbagestion limited itself to in-house client invoicing while outsourcing payables management to an accounting firm. With Odoo, nearly all accounting is now handled directly by the team, with the exception of payroll.
This shift has resulted in significant time savings and better control over the company's financial flows.
An Automated Subscription System
Setting up a subscription system, linked to the Sales module, has helped automate part of the recurring billing process, further reducing manual workload.
Maintenance: The Next Step
Urbagestion also plans to roll out the Maintenance module, which will make it possible to group equipment requiring regular servicing (fire alarms, extinguishers, etc.) and plan its upkeep in a structured way.
Concrete Benefits for Urbagestion
A Phenomenal Time Saving
Moving to an integrated system has eliminated much of the manual and duplicated work, particularly in accounting and service tracking.
Fewer Missed Invoices
Thanks to the Field Service module, work completed in the field is now systematically linked to billing, reducing the oversights that used to occur.
Smoother Communication Between Teams
Centralizing information makes it easier for field teams and managers to communicate, with simple access from a computer or smartphone.
Better Budget Control
By consolidating features that were previously spread across several tools (such as Bexio), Urbagestion has been able to bring its software costs under a single license, for a roughly equivalent overall budget, but with far deeper integration.
An Accessible Tool, Despite a Demanding Setup Phase
Nathalie Flemming emphasizes how easy Odoo is to use day-to-day, even for users less familiar with more recent digital tools. She does note one point of caution: implementations happen in a cascading way, and even a small error or omission early on can have repercussions later in the process. Setting things up therefore requires rigor and time, but the result is both user-friendly and genuinely useful.
A Testimonial That Illustrates the Power of Odoo's Centralization
Urbagestion's journey is a concrete example of how an SME can move from a fragmented environment, with six separate pieces of software, to a single platform covering most of its core business needs: client request management, field team coordination, billing, accounting, and soon equipment maintenance.
At Nalios, we support this type of transformation by structuring every stage of the project, helping companies make the most of Odoo's full potential.
>> Contact us to discuss your project <<
Urbagestion, a company specialising in facility management.
Nalios, a certified Odoo integrator, specialising in supporting SMEs with their digital transformation.