Odoo CRM/ERP for Thinh Cuong Corporation

The problem

Thinh Cuong Corporation operates in electric cars, electric trucks and charging station infrastructure. Its subsidiaries have their own sales and operating processes. During my internship, the business processes had to be analysed to move onto Odoo CRM/ERP: which parts could use standard modules, and which needed customisation.

The tables and examples below are simulated to illustrate the method.

Context and role

• Business Analyst intern for three months, from 06/2025 to 09/2025.
• Worked with Sales, Operations, Accounting, HR, Engineering and the Odoo implementation team.
• My work: taking requirements from business units, analysing them into system requirements, supporting proposals for new processes, writing flows and requirements for Dev, and supporting the checking of results.

Step 1: Learn the business first, Odoo second

I started from the real sales and operating processes, and only then compared them with the system.

Electric vehicle sales journey

1. 1Leadshowroom, online, dealerRetail carsTrucks sold as fleets
2. 2Consultation and quotation
3. 3Test drive
4. 4Deposit and contract
5. 5Vehicle deliveryby chassis number
6. 6Charging account activationconnects sales to station operations

Two things differ from traditional car sales: the charging account activation step connects sales to station operations, and electric trucks are sold as fleets to businesses, not at retail.

Step 2: Fit-gap analysis against standard Odoo modules

For each step of the process, the question is: can standard Odoo do it, does it only need configuration, or does something have to be built?

Fit-gapEight business steps compared with standard Odoo

• Fit
• Partial
• Gap

• 8 steps8

  431

Fit-gapActual process compared with standard Odoo

	Odoo module	Fit	Notes
Leads, opportunities, quotations	CRM, Sales	Fit	Configure the pipeline by vehicle line
Test drive	CRM	Partial	Needs a test-drive vehicle calendar
Deposit and contract	Sales, Accounting	Fit	Use the standard down payment
Delivery by chassis number	Inventory	Fit	Use serial numbers
Selling trucks as fleets	Sales, Fleet	Partial	Standard Fleet manages the company’s own vehicles and needs extending
Charging account activation	None yet	Gap	Needs integration with the charging station system
Charging station incidents and maintenance	Maintenance, Helpdesk	Partial	Needs extra information on chargers and connectors
Sales staff, commission	HR, Payroll	Fit	Commission rules by vehicle line

Step 3: Analysing a charging station requirement

A simulated example of how I go from a one-sentence request to a handover document.

ODOperations department

“We need to know which chargers break down often so we can maintain them in advance.”

ObjectsEach incident is tied to one connector

Business rulesFrom a one-sentence request

• A charger with many incidents in 30 days automatically gets a preventive maintenance request.BR-01
• A power outage across a whole station triggers an immediate notification to the person in charge of the area.BR-02
• Downtime is counted from the moment the fault is reported until the charger is confirmed working again.BR-03

The handover document includes the handling flow, the data field table, business rules, screen mockups and basic test cases.

Step 4: Working between departments

The hardest part was not Odoo but getting departments to agree. For example: Sales wanted to count revenue from the deposit, while Accounting counted it only at vehicle delivery.

Two revenue milestonesNo forced choice: the report shows both

same order, two data milestones

QuotationDepositSales counts revenueVehicle deliveryAccounting records it

1. Quotation
2. DepositSales counts revenue
3. Vehicle deliveryAccounting records it
4. same order, two data milestones

My approach was to draw both flows, point out the two different data milestones, then propose a report that shows both milestones instead of forcing a choice.

Results

• Experience in business analysis for a group that sells electric cars and electric trucks and operates charging stations.
• Experience in analysing the Odoo CRM/ERP system: modules, workflows, business rules and data.
• Used to working department by department and with several teams at once.

What I learned

• Learn the business before the tool. Odoo is only a way of representing the process.
• A fit-gap table helps business and technical people speak the same language.
• In a large group, many “system requirements” are really two departments that have not agreed on a definition.