Short answer: for an SME scope with 3-6 modules, 5 to 50 users and average complexity: 3 to 9 months from first conversation to go-live.
The three factors that set the pace
1. How many modules in scope
- 1-2 modules (e.g. just CRM + Sales): 2-4 months
- 3-4 modules: 4-6 months
- 5+ modules with integrations: 6-9 months
2. How much custom work
Pure standard Odoo: fast. One or two custom modules: moderate. Many custom flows, integrations with legacy systems, data migration from a complex ERP: slower.
3. Your team’s availability
This is the biggest factor and the one most often underestimated. An Odoo implementation takes 4-8 hours a week from your key users (the people who will use the system most). If they aren’t there, the project stalls, not because we get stuck, but because we can’t get decisions made.
The fastest implementations we’ve done
- 6 weeks, small services firm, CRM + Sales only, no migration, key user available.
- 3 months, manufacturing company, Sales + Inventory + Manufacturing, moving from an Excel-only setup.
The slowest
- 14 months, mid-sized company switching from SAP, with 8 modules, 4 integrations and 20 years of legacy data. Entirely within scope, but simply a big job.
What we don’t do
Big-bang implementations. We always work in phases. First two modules go live, then two more, then the rest. That keeps an implementation from sitting in a test environment for months while your team loses patience.
Want an honest estimate for your situation? Book a scan, 30 minutes is enough for us to sketch a timeline.