Companies across the United States have been outsourcing manufacturing to other countries for decades. Due to the complexity and nuances of the process, many businesses design, develop, and market their own products but hire outside companies to handle the manufacturing. These outside companies provide expertise in the process of manufacturing a product overseas, help with quality management, handle importations and the customs process, and deliver finished goods, all at a compelling price point. One of these such companies is Altraco.
In 1980, a former executive at a major consumer product company founded Altraco, recognizing the need for a contract manufacturing company that helped with overseas outsourcing. When the founder retired, Albert Brenner and Scott Williams bought the company and now serve as co-owners. Altraco, based in Newport Beach, California, is a contract manufacturing company that helps American businesses manufacture their products in various other countries worldwide. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, Altraco helps businesses of all sizes handle the complexity of outsourcing.
With over 40 years in the industry, Altraco has experienced its fair share of business management systems and software. From smaller software options to larger alternatives such as Netsuite, Altraco was never fully satisfied with the ERPs they used– that is, until Odoo.
“We could not leave Netsuite fast enough”
Prior to using Odoo, Altraco managed its business operations using Netsuite. Co-owner Albert Brenner says that Altraco had two major issues with Netsuite: poor customer support and an extremely high price point. Albert recounts many occasions where the company would contact Netsuite with an issue they were facing, oftentimes waiting several days, if not weeks, only to be met with incomplete and insufficient answers that did not solve the problem at hand. Albert explains that this was particularly frustrating given the high prices his company was paying for Netsuite’s services.
Netsuite’s customer support was simply garbage. Just awful. I compare that with my experience contacting Odoo support. It is literally no comparison.
He also found that Netsuite’s user interface left a lot to be desired, describing it as “old, clunky, not intuitive, and slow.” Menu items and actions were not easily located in logical spots and instead required valuable time to navigate the system as a whole. All of these factors led the company to be unhappy with where it was at with Netsuite and being researching alternative solutions. Albert came across Odoo and, after evaluating the price point as well as the software features, decided that it was the best fit.
We did not get the support we needed [with Netsuite].
“Odoo is easily 10x better for 10x less the cost of Netsuite.”
Altraco officially went live with Odoo in 2023. When asked how the company’s implementation process went, Albert says that the experience was “much easier” than the same process with Netsuite years ago. He explains that the company has been slowly rolling out Odoo’s features and applications as they settle into the new system, which has been made easier by the fact that Odoo’s functionality works well out of the box. Albert emphasizes that this is a testament to Odoo’s capabilities sans customizations. This method has allowed the company and its employees to not only get comfortable with Odoo but also to understand what workflows and potential customizations they may want to add in the future.
On a day-to-day basis, Albert finds Odoo Accounting to be extremely useful, with tasks within the application taking significantly less time to perform than in Netsuite. He also utilizes the Project module frequently, which he says helps contain a lot of information in an organized manner and provides access to related information.
While Netsuite’s user interface was a pain point for Altraco, Albert says Odoo’s is “more intuitive” and “nicer to look at.” He also explains that in all of Odoo’s applications, the number of clicks it takes to complete any given task is a fraction of that in Netsuite. This saves the company valuable time that was previously wasted navigating Netsuite’s database.
But perhaps the biggest difference between Netsuite and Odoo is the quality of customer support. Albert says that he appreciates that Odoo not only responds to Help tickets within 24 hours - and oftentimes much faster, he notes - but that the quality of the response is excellent and “answers the question regardless of the level of complexity.” Odoo’s support throughout this past year of Altraco’s journey with the software has made a huge impact not only on the company’s ease of use of the database and implementation, but its customer experience as a whole.
All in all, the difference between Netsuite and Odoo has been night and day. Albert speaks optimistically about Altraco’s future with Odoo and the possibilities the software provides when it comes to new features and workflow additions. With complex responsibilities crossing country borders and working with companies of all sizes, Altraco needed business software that could support its unique requirements.
We’ve had a very good experience with Odoo, and as a small business, we’re grateful that such a powerful platform for a reasonable price exists in the world. And anybody who’s willing to listen to me, I would let them know to leave Netsuite tomorrow and join Odoo.
Netsuite Woes and Odoo Pros: Altraco’s ERP Journey