How to Run a Discovery Call with an Odoo Partner: Questions That Surface Scope Risks Early

This checklist is for business owners, COOs, and operations leads who are about to run (or are preparing for) a first discovery call with a prospective Odoo implementation partner. Work through it before the call to frame your questions, and use it during the call to make sure nothing critical gets skipped. The earlier you surface scope risks, the cheaper they are to address.

1. Establish the Partner's Odoo Track Record

Before you discuss your business, get a clear picture of who you're talking to. Partner experience varies significantly, and the Odoo partner network includes firms that specialize in specific industries, specific modules, or specific company sizes.

1. Ask how many Odoo implementations they've completed in the last 24 months, and specifically how many in your industry. A partner with 40 completed projects is meaningfully different from one with 6, even if both carry the same partner tier badge.
2. Ask for the breakdown of project sizes. A team that primarily does 5-user startups may not be the right fit for a 60-person manufacturer. Conversely, a firm oriented toward enterprise deals may overengineer a 20-person wholesale operation. Ask: "What's your typical project in terms of user count and implementation budget?"
3. Ask which Odoo modules they deploy most frequently. If you need Manufacturing, Inventory, and Accounting tightly integrated, and they've mostly done CRM and Sales rollouts, that's a gap worth knowing about now.
4. Verify their Odoo partnership status directly. Odoo's partner tiers (Ready, Silver, Gold) are based on certified staff and completed projects. Ask how many certified Odoo consultants are on the team who would actually work on your account, not just the firm overall.

2. Map Out Who Is Actually Doing the Work

Subcontracting and staff-switching are common sources of project risk in ERP implementations. The people on the discovery call are often not the people who will configure your system.

5. Ask who specifically will be assigned to your project. Get names and roles: project manager, lead configurator, QA, data migration lead. If they can't tell you yet, ask when they'll know and make it a condition of signing.
6. Ask whether any work is subcontracted. Some partners bring in freelance Odoo developers for custom module work. That's not necessarily a problem, but you should know who owns accountability when a subcontracted deliverable comes in late or broken.
7. Ask about team continuity policy. What happens if your lead consultant leaves mid-project? Is there a documented handoff process? This question often surprises partners who haven't thought it through, which tells you something.

3. Define the Scope Boundaries Early

Scope creep is the primary driver of budget overruns in ERP projects. The discovery call is the right time to draw lines, not after the statement of work is signed.

The projects that go sideways rarely do so because the software failed. They go sideways because the scope was never pinned down clearly enough in the first place.

8. Walk them through your current process, end to end, and ask where they'd draw the implementation boundary. For example: "We run purchasing, receiving, production, and invoicing. Which of those are in scope for Phase 1, and which are you recommending we defer?" A good partner will push back if you're trying to do too much in one phase.
9. Ask specifically what is NOT included in a standard implementation. Custom reports, complex pricing rules, third-party integrations (shipping carriers, payment gateways, EDI), and legacy data migration are frequently treated as out-of-scope add-ons. Get that list in writing before you get attached to a price.
10. Ask how they handle scope changes after the SOW is signed. Do they use a formal change order process? What's the typical cost and timeline for a mid-project scope addition? You want a partner with a clear process, not one who says "we'll figure it out."
11. Ask whether they've seen projects like yours go over scope, and what caused it. A partner who's been through this enough times will have specific, honest answers. Vague reassurances ("we've never had that problem") are a flag.

4. Pressure-Test the Timeline

A 3-to-6-month implementation timeline is realistic for a mid-complexity Odoo rollout. Anything shorter deserves scrutiny; anything longer may suggest the partner is under-resourced or the scope is genuinely complex.

12. Ask for a high-level phase breakdown with milestones. Discovery, configuration, data migration, user acceptance testing, go-live, and hypercare are standard phases. Ask what's included in each and what deliverables you should expect from the partner at each stage.
13. Ask what causes timelines to slip in their experience. The honest answer is usually some combination of: slow client decision-making, messy legacy data, late requirement changes, and integration complexity. If they point only to client delays, ask how they help clients stay on schedule.
14. Ask what you (the client) are responsible for delivering, and by when. Implementations are two-sided. You'll likely need to provide clean data exports, assign an internal project lead, run UAT, and make configuration decisions on a tight timeline. Know what's expected of your team before you commit.

5. Get Concrete on Data Migration

Legacy data migration is consistently underestimated. Whether you're coming from QuickBooks, Sage, NetSuite, or a collection of spreadsheets, the actual cost and effort depend heavily on data quality and volume.

15. Ask what data they migrate as standard and what's extra. Open transactions (invoices, purchase orders, inventory balances) are usually included. Full transaction history, custom fields, and attachment files often aren't. Know the difference before you budget.
16. Ask how they handle data cleansing. Migrating dirty data into Odoo just moves the problem. Ask whether data cleanup is part of their scope or whether that's expected to be done on your end before migration begins.
17. Ask about their cutover plan. How long will you be running parallel systems? What's the go/no-go criteria for switching off the old system? A partner who's done this before will have a clear answer. One who hasn't may wing it.

6. Discuss Hosting and Infrastructure

Odoo runs on three main hosting options: Odoo.sh (Odoo's managed cloud platform), a third-party cloud provider (AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean), or on-premises servers. Each has different cost, control, and support implications.

18. Ask which hosting option they recommend for your situation, and why. For most manufacturing and distribution companies without a dedicated IT department, Odoo.sh simplifies maintenance considerably. For companies with data residency requirements or existing infrastructure, on-prem or private cloud may make more sense.
19. Ask who manages upgrades and backups under each hosting model. On Odoo.sh, Odoo manages the platform layer; your partner handles the application. On self-hosted, your team or partner handles everything. Be explicit about who owns what.
20. Ask what happens to hosting support after go-live. Is ongoing infrastructure management included in a post-go-live retainer, or are you on your own? This is often left ambiguous and becomes a source of friction six months in.

7. Understand the Post-Go-Live Support Model

Go-live is not the finish line. The first 60 to 90 days after launch typically generate the most support tickets, user questions, and configuration adjustments. Know exactly what you're getting.

21. Ask what's included in hypercare (the period immediately after go-live). Some partners include 30 days of priority support at no extra cost. Others charge hourly from day one. Get specifics, in writing.
22. Ask what ongoing support looks like after hypercare ends. The typical model for Odoo partners is either a monthly retainer (covering a set number of hours) or time-and-materials at an hourly rate. Ask what their current clients typically spend per month post-launch, and whether they can give you a reference to ask directly.
23. Ask how they handle Odoo version upgrades over time. Odoo releases a new version annually. Your partner should have a clear process for upgrading your instance when you're ready, including how they handle custom modules you've built with them.

8. Get to a Realistic Budget Range

A partner who won't give you a ballpark budget range in a discovery call is either unprepared or deliberately vague. A reasonable discovery call should produce at least a rough budget range, even if the final SOW requires a formal scoping engagement.

24. Ask for a rough range based on what you've described. For a mid-complexity Odoo rollout (Manufacturing, Inventory, Accounting, 20-50 users), implementation costs typically fall between $50,000 and $150,000 depending on customization depth and data migration complexity. If a partner quotes you $25,000 for that scope, ask what they're leaving out.
25. Ask how Odoo licensing is handled. Odoo Enterprise runs approximately $60 per user per month. Ask whether the partner invoices licensing directly or whether you set up a subscription with Odoo. Either is fine; just know who you're paying and what the renewal process looks like.
26. Ask whether they offer a formal scoping or discovery engagement as a paid step before the full SOW. For complex projects, a paid discovery phase (typically $5,000 to $15,000) where the partner audits your processes and produces a detailed scope document is often money well spent. It reduces surprises on both sides and gives you a much more accurate implementation estimate.

One Final Check: How They Handle Disagreement

Before you wrap the call, ask one question that has no "right" answer: "Tell me about a time a project didn't go as planned, and what you did about it."

Every experienced partner has a story here. What you're listening for isn't a perfect record, it's how they communicate under pressure, whether they take ownership, and how they resolved it. A partner who can answer that question honestly is the kind of partner you want handling your ERP rollout.

The goal of this checklist isn't to interrogate your prospective partner. It's to surface misalignments early, when they're cheap to fix, rather than after the statement of work is signed. The right partner will welcome these questions. Many of them will have anticipated them already.