A business often treats go-live, the moment it starts running on Odoo, as the finish line. It is not. This piece is about what to expect after Odoo go-live.
Go-live is not the end
Go-live is a milestone, the moment the business genuinely starts running its operation on Odoo, and it is natural to think of it as the end of the project. But it is not the end. The period right after go-live is a real and important part of the project, and a business that understands what to expect after go-live, and plans for it, has a far smoother transition than one that treats go-live as the finish and then is surprised by the period that follows.
Expect a period of adjustment
What a business should expect after go-live is, first, a period of adjustment. The business is now genuinely running on the new system, and its people are using it for real, daily work for the first time. That is a genuine adjustment: the people are getting used to the new system in genuine use, the rough edges that only genuine use reveals are met, small things that need attention come up. This adjustment period is normal; it is the expected reality of a business genuinely taking up a new system. A business should expect it, rather than being alarmed by it as if it were a sign of failure.
Expect to need support
The adjustment period after go-live is when the business most needs support. The people, using the system for real, have questions; the rough edges met in genuine use need attention; small adjustments are needed. So a business should expect to need support in the period after go-live, and, importantly, should have planned for it, support arranged and ready for that period, rather than go-live being treated as the point at which support ends. A business that has support in place for the period after go-live gets through the adjustment well; a business that treated go-live as the finish and arranged no support after struggles through the very period it most needs help.
Expect it to settle
What a business should also expect is that the adjustment period settles. The period after go-live is an adjustment, with its questions and its rough edges, but it is a period, and, worked through, it settles: the people become genuinely comfortable on the system, the rough edges are smoothed, and the business is genuinely running well on Odoo. So the period after go-live should be expected as a real period to be worked through, not as a permanent state, and a business should expect that, supported through it, it settles into the genuine, smooth running of the operation on Odoo that the whole project was for.
The takeaway
What to expect after Odoo go-live is that go-live is not the end of the project. Expect a period of adjustment, as the business and its people genuinely take up the new system in real use and the rough edges that only genuine use reveals are met. Expect to need support in that period, and have it planned and ready. And expect that the adjustment period, worked through with support, settles into the genuine, smooth running the project was for. A business that expects and plans for the period after go-live transitions far more smoothly. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.