Educating With A Truck

Olivier: 0:00

I'm in front of this big purple truck here with Labodoo written on it. So it's a big truck. It's like 15 meters long. It's super long.

Charline: 0:06

Welcome to the Labodoo. Education shines all over any other initiatives. We will train more than 10,000 students per academic year. I mean, it's huge. It's completely free of charge. We don't do it for money, but at scale we know that the impact will be quite huge. The more we share our knowledge and the more we can pass on it to our users, the more the community grows and then the more ooredoo grows.

Olivier: 0:29

Hi everyone and welcome back to Planet Odoo. Do you think it's possible to combine your business and marketing with a greater impact on society as a company is growing? Is there something it can give back to the community and contribute to making the world a better place? Today, we'll meet Charline Louis Odoo's education program manager, to discuss the position a company can take regarding education and give its project brand new dimensions. In other words, we'll discover a disruptive way to do marketing. But we do have a small problem. Charline is not here. She's probably in the Labodoo. Let's go meet her. So I'm outside. I'm in front of this big purple truck here with Labodoo written on it. So it's a big truck. It's like 15 meters long. It's super long. So really intriguing. There is this catch phrase on it as well 'Educational laboratory for future entrepreneurs'. So I can see Charline is already inside of it. I can see her through the window. So I suggest we just enter and talk with her because it will be warmer there.

Charline: 1:29

Hi, Olivier.

Olivier: 1:30

Hello, Charline. How are you?

Charline: 1:31

I'm fine, thank you. Welcome to the Labodoo.

Olivier: 1:33

Well, thank you. It's actually the first time I enter it. I already heard about it before, but it's really nice. It really looks like small enterprise, with a lot of desks and computer everywhere. And what's this logo? Because I see it everywhere as well 'Woody furniture." What's that?

Charline: 1:48

Yes, As you said, we have recreated a company called Woody Furniture. We have different departments. And so that's why you see lots of desks with materials. There are barcode scanners over there, pallets, we have shelves, we have a point of sales. Well, you see, everything a company needs.

Olivier: 2:06

And we have another team member over there. Hi, Jerome.

Jérôme: 2:09

Hey, Olivier.

Olivier: 2:09

So, what are you doing here exactly? Because last time I saw you, you were a developer, right?

Jérôme: 2:13

Yeah, right. And now I'm also the truck driver.

Olivier: 2:16

Okay, So both. You're doing development as well for it?

Jérôme: 2:19

Actually, yes. I'm the one who developed the server the whole Laboodo works one.

Olivier: 2:23

Wow. That's amazing. And what kind of material do we have here?

Jérôme: 2:27

We have some computers with screens, barcode scanners, printers, servers running the business games and some tablets.

Olivier: 2:37

So a lot of things we could talk more about. And I suggest we keep that for a future episode. That's a little teaser for the listeners.

Jérôme: 2:43

Would be nice!

Olivier: 2:44

So see you soon then. Bye bye. So, Charline, are you ready to welcome another class today?

Charline: 2:50

Oh, yes. Today we are welcoming students who are in the sixth grade in high school. Are you staying with us? Actually, sure. Okay, good. Now, here they are coming.

Olivier: 3:05

So Charline has just welcomed the group of 27 students. For the upcoming one hour and a half, they will have to solve problems for the company by groups of three people. There are nine departments in total, so one group per department and they all have 15 minutes per lab or per workstation. So, Charline, while they are busy, can you explain us what they are doing exactly?

Charline: 3:32

Yes. Look, here in the showroom of the company, the student discovered the point of sales app of Odoo, and so they play both the role of the cashier and the client. And so they have to do different activities like the cash opening, accounting, the bills and the etc.. They also have to scan different products like that. They also sell, they use the payment terminal, etc..

Olivier: 3:59

It's really like a small shop. It reminds me when I was a child, actually, we were playing with things like that at my grandma's.

Charline: 4:05

So yeah, exactly. The play shop. And this is the department they love the most.

Olivier: 4:11

That's not surprising.

Charline: 4:13

Then here we have the digital administration, so students that discover more the accounting job, they have to scan bills, they control them after it goes through the OCR, the optical recognition, a character recognition. And then we have also here the inventory. In the inventory, they use the barcode scanner to do the receipts. So they have a package that arrives, they scan the products and then they put it on the shelf and stuff like that.

Olivier: 4:45

So that's a big shelves with a lot of material on them. I'm just saying that people can imagine the actual decor

Charline: 4:51

And the shelf goes up to the ceiling like in the real inventories. In marketing over there, they create the company's website with the website builder of Odoo and like that we have five other workshops. We have the recruitment department and the sales. There is also the manufacturing where they create a stool. We have the field services and the project management.

Olivier: 5:13

That's amazing. While we are at it, I suggest we interview one of the students, so maybe that one over there at the point of sale. Hello.

Student: 5:22

Hello.

Olivier: 5:22

What's your name?

Student: 5:23

My name is Raphael.

Olivier: 5:24

Well, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Would it be okay for you if we interview you?

Student: 5:29

Yes. Okay.

Olivier: 5:30

Okay, cool. So what's going on here? So you have a little booklet there.

Student: 5:34

What's it? Yes, I have some instruction that I'm supposed to follow to discover all the steps and all the flows that we are supposed to do in a point of sale. So I already did the first one that was the cashier opening. So I had to count the money and say to Odoo how much money I put in in the cashier. And now the second step is about creating an order for our customer.

Olivier: 5:58

Okay, let's do this one. Let's say I'm the customer.

Student: 6:00

Okay? Okay, Yes, let's do this.

Olivier: 6:02

So it's written. I have like two products I want to buy.

Student: 6:06

You can take two products in the in the shop.

Olivier: 6:08

Let's pick let's pick this one, these ones.

Student: 6:10

So now I'm supposed to scan them or to find them in the list of product. But it will be faster if I scan I think. Yes. So I scan them twice. Okay. So if it's the only two articles that you need, maybe you can pay. So you have to pay 15,68 euros.

Olivier: 6:32

And I give you €50.

Student: 6:34

So now I click on pay and I suppose I have to say how much money you gave me. So I say cash. I click on the cash and then 50, and I'm supposed to give you 18.97. So here the cashier opening and then hop here is your money.

Olivier: 6:57

Thank you. And what's the next step? Can I get a ticket?

Student: 7:03

Oh, yes. So there is a button 'Print the ticket' and here it is. It's very simple

Olivier: 7:09

Well, it seems you succeeded the exercise.

Student: 7:12

Yes, it was nice.

Olivier: 7:13

So thank you very much for your help. And see you maybe in the future.

Student: 7:16

Yeah, maybe. Bye.

Olivier: 7:17

So I suggest we just wait for Charline to finish with the students and then go back to the studio where it'll be quieter. And here we are, back to the studio. Hi again, Charline. So, how did it go?

Charline: 7:31

Oh, fine, Very well. They were super focused, so it was super easy.

Olivier: 7:35

Perfect. Is it always like that?

Charline: 7:36

No.

Olivier: 7:37

So it was a good day. So you're really in shape for the the rest of the episode. Good. So the first thing I would like to to ask you is actually about the big picture, the plan behind that thing, because Labrador is more a big experience than really a usual marketing project. So how does this education thing fit into marketing in general?

Charline: 8:00

Well, you know, education shines all over Odoo, over any Odoo initiatives. So obviously, it has to be also in marketing. It's really part of our DNA and we prefer to foster our community and giving them the key to use Odoo rather just to do like a push logo marketing, you know. And that's how we see it. For example, in our e-learning platform. We have an e-learning platform which is completely free, where the users can watch any video that explains how Odoo works. And we've realized over the years that the best marketing channel is the word of mouth. And the word of mouth is all about delivering an experience. And that's how we came up with the Labodoo, because we want really the users, or at least our future users, maybe one day who really will like live a real experience with us.

Olivier: 8:50

And that's also part of actually my big question here, because honestly, as a French speaker, when I see this thing, so there's a truck, you have to learn something in it. There's one thing that comes in mind like immediately that is actually a French TV show that is super famous right ? For listeners it's "C'est pas sorcier" so 'it's not magic', you could translate it this way. It's a very, very famous French show about science and culture in general. And they had a truck like that. So, is it where the idea comes from or is it from a totally different source that it suddenly appeared in the marketing pipe?

Charline: 9:27

Well, actually, we had the idea for a few years to have a real showroom in Odoo in our offices where the clients could come over and play with with the software and see how it works in in real life. But unfortunately, but with the growth of Odoo, we've never had the opportunity to do that showroom because there is always a lack of space, because we are recruiting so much people.

Olivier: 9:52

So it was always more urgent to put a new office somewhere than doing the showroom.

Charline: 9:57

Exactly. And so this idea was a bit put on the side. And so one day Fabien's kids had the had the opportunity to have the Xperi Lab truck at their school. And the Xperi lab is a truck that goes to primary schools where the kids have the opportunity to make scientific experiences and discover how we make toothpaste or stuff like that. And so when his daughter came back to him explaining this experience, Fabien obviously automatically made a link between like my showroom that I always wanted and I still don't have, and a truck. Let's do the same and let's go to schools. And so one day Fabien came to us and it was this crazy thing to make a showroom on wheels. And obviously we all thought, Oh my God.

Olivier: 10:38

Of course, of course. I can't imagine the face of people when they arrived with such an idea. Just be like, What's going on? Because it's not the thing you would expect. And it's really original. So then comes the question of how to make it? How much did it cost? Because it must be huge, right?

Charline: 10:55

Oh yeah, it was. Well, it's a nice project. It's a huge project so. Well it took us like nine months to do it. We found a second hand trailer that expands. We found the second hand truck because with all the materials and everything, everything is delayed. So we couldn't wait another year or two to buy a brand new.

Olivier: 11:14

Probably we should explain that because. I see what you're talking about, about the expanding truck. But for for people listening, it's a truck but indeed, to be able to enter it and have some room inside the trailer, it actually gets broader d it actually expands. And so you have more space inside of it. So to get it was already complex, I guess, and expensive.

Charline: 11:35

Yes. Yes. And that's why because as I was saying, because of the lack of resources of the past few years and with COVID and etc.. You have delays which are huge to get a trailer like that. So we went for second hand and we were for the trailer, the truck. And then I had to find a company that would help us to build inside, to transform it. And all in all, the project cost us 400 K for the truck. And actually, when you add to that maybe something like 120K in salaries per year, because we have the driver and person that goes from schools to schools. So that's the budget.

Olivier: 12:18

Okay. And then how do you compensate for all those costs? Do you charge something for having the truck going somewhere?

Charline: 12:24

No, we don't. Compensate is completely free of charge. We go to schools for a minimum of 50 students and up to 100 students. So we have average 75 students a day. We are booked every day, fully booked till a middle of June. And that means that we will train more than 10,000 students per year, I mean, per academic year. So I mean, it's huge. And if you think about it.

Olivier: 12:49

When you see a project like that, you expect that at some point there will be the fact that Odoo will gain money from it. Right? It's the goal of doing things like that usually, right?

Charline: 13:00

Yes and no. I would say no because we don't do that for money. You know, it's just when you think about it.

Olivier: 13:07

Then why do you do that?

Charline: 13:08

But when you think about it, okay, it's €400,000 for this project, but we will use this truck over ten years. And so when we have 75 students per day, over ten months of the year, all in all, the Labodoo costs like €5 per student. So it costs a bit more than a Google ad conversion. But students, they play with Odoo for an hour, actually. And so as I was saying, it's free, we don't do it for money, but at scale we know that the impact will be quite huge.

Olivier: 13:39

So you really thinking on long term, you what you are talking about ten years. So you're planning things ten year in advance?

Charline: 13:45

Yeah, maybe that's the longest term project we have at Odoo. So, yes, it's huge. And of course they see the Odoo logo and that we are a business management software, but at least they know what it is because most of the students, even after five years of of studies on the university level, they don't know what a business software is.

Olivier: 14:08

Yeah, it's true that at university, at least from what I remember from my own experience, even though I didn't study any management stuff, so it might be a bit different for them. But you learn the concepts, but you don't really learn the tools, you learn them afterwards. So indeed, it might be a first approach of the tool before they even really learn the concept. So it might be interesting.

Charline: 14:30

Exactly. At least we open their minds.

Olivier: 14:32

Plus, as you were mentioning, there is also just the fact that I mean, obviously because it's marketing, so it's the very goal of marketing. It's that you want people to think about your company when they need something that your company is doing. So in the future, if one of these students need something to handle, something that that Odoo can handle, which is honestly a lot, well, they might think that they could use Odoo simply.

Charline: 14:55

Yeah, I mean, fingers crossed.

Olivier: 14:59

Hopefully they will use it. They will remember the truck. Okay. So about the other projects of your team now, are there other educational projects like that at Odoo? I imagine that the first try was not to have a big truck like that and you were already working with things in the same direction before right?

Charline: 15:19

You know, obviously the truck is very brand new. But yeah, we have another project which has started already in 2019, but it's still going on. It's the Scale up! Game. The Scale up! Game, it's a game that helps students to discover business management with the help of a business software, which is Odoo. So, actually it's a card game. And on the cards you have the scenarios that tells you what's happening into the into the company.

Olivier: 15:50

Yeah, a bit like the ones you have in the truck now with the little booklets and the one we're seeing on the point of sale earlier.

Charline: 15:56

Except that here in the scale game you are the owner of the company and you want to implement Odoo to better run your company and get rid of all these papers and administration stuff that bothers you. And so on the front of the card, they have a conversation between a colleague and themselves as the owner and from the information they have, like they would have a conversation or a normal conversation, you know, in the office. You go on Odoo, you put all the information that you have. And once you think you've done what's necessary, you just flip the card and you have the answers directly there.

Olivier: 16:27

So that's interesting because it's really like in real life. So you're you're not even starting with the need. You're starting with the conversation that will illustrate the need. And then you need to understand the need and then realize how to do it here in Odpp.

Charline: 16:40

Exactly.

Olivier: 16:40

Okay. So that's a really nice approach. And how did you distribute that? How big is it exactly?

Charline: 16:46

Well, it's huge. So as I said, we've started in 2019 and so far, I've counted. We have distributed more than 29,000 games.

Olivier: 16:57

29,000!

Charline: 16:59

For a budget of like 128K. So and we distribute that to our own Odooers once they start to have their onboarding at Odoo and they start with the Scale up! Game, it's a nice way to dive into the subject.

Olivier: 17:14

It's like it's kind of a welcome goodie.

Charline: 17:16

If you want. Then we have all our community. You know, as I told you, we had this e-learning platform with the videos. And the idea is that each time you have watched enough videos, you have some common points that you addition over the time, over the videos. And at some point when you have enough karma points, you can order the game. And what we do is that we send the game. We ship the game for free to this ambassador with a little handwritten thank-you card and they love it actually. So we have pictures on Twitter and everything creates a connection.'Oh look what I've received it's so nice!'. Again, about you know fostering this community.

Olivier: 17:56

So it's entirely a gift.

Charline: 18:00

Yeah.They learn through the videos and then they have this game.

Olivier: 18:03

They have to unlock it. But you don't pay for it.

Charline: 18:05

Exactly. And also, obviously, we distribute it on the on the fairs. We go on some education fairs to promote the game, then to the schools and universities. We go ourselves to schools and make the activities. Or we also train teachers and actually we ship it all over the world. And as soon as you are a teacher and you want to use Scale up! In your course, you just contact us and we ship you the game for free. If you need 50 for your 50 students, then we ship you 50 games.

Olivier: 18:35

And how big an investment is that? Do you have numbers that you can give us?

Charline: 18:40

Yeah. Uh, so,so far we have, uh, spent more than 128 K on this, and that's without the shipping costs actually just for the production of the game. We've distributed so far 29,000 games all over the world.

Olivier: 19:03

Cool. So I imagine that education like this is paramount in supporting the Odoo community. So all this network of partners and people working with Odoo and deploying it to other people, how would you say that this interacts with with your project? Is the plan to make this grow through education?

Charline: 19:22

Yes, definitely. The idea is that we want to give as much content as we can to our users so that, the more they can use Odoo and know how it works and dive into it and work with it, the more they will want to stay with us and continue working with us. And the idea is really to turn users into fans. And to do so, we have many initiatives. We have the Scale up! that we send after the e-learning with the little notes. We have those all those videos. We have also all these conversations that we are having with our community through the LinkedIn votes, even Fabien Fabian it's not his place to do that, he sends the little mockup that we have.

Olivier: 20:05

That's saying something.

Charline: 20:06

Yeah, he asks people to vote, etc. As you said, that's from the philosophy and that's our values. We still have it and it comes from the open source. You know, open source is about sharing your knowledge. And that's what we want to do. The more we share our knowledge and the more we can pass on it to our users, well, the more they can grow and obviously the more the community grows and then the more Odoo grows. We don't want to to do push marketing, really want to bring added value with it.

Olivier: 20:35

And then at the end of the day, it profits to everyone.

Charline: 20:38

Exactly.

Olivier: 20:38

So that's a very interesting way to see marketing actually, like more of a long term investment on things around the company that will support it to grow. Indeed, and sadly we are reaching the end of the episode before really finishing it. Charline, maybe could you give us what's coming for you in the near future?

Charline: 20:59

A second truck.

Olivier: 21:00

Woo! Congratulations.

Charline: 21:02

Thank you. Yes. So we are on the second truck. And also we would like now that I have a team working with me on education, I'd like to go more into the training of our teachers so to train them on Odoo so they can really use it with their students in class.

Olivier: 21:16

Cool. So it will grow even more.

Charline: 21:18

Oh, yes.

Olivier: 21:19

And move even more around.

Charline: 21:21

I hope so.

Olivier: 21:22

Super cool. So thank you for all your answers.

Charline: 21:24

Thank you. Olivier was a pleasure!

Olivier: 21:25

And that's a wrap for this episode. I hope you enjoyed our discussion about smart ways to do marketing and educate people. I recommend you listen to the second episode, which was about recruitment. It gives great insights and tips on how to recruit great talents and scale your company. See you soon. Cheers.