Company Profile
ZAL Elevators Limited is a Zimbabwe-based provider of elevator installation, maintenance, and repair services. As a subsidiary of Oti’s Elevators Company of South Africa, ZAL extends the group’s reputation for reliable vertical transportation solutions into the Southern African region.
- Sector: Industrial Services / Field Service
- Team Size: 20 employees
- Annual Turnover: 2M+ USD
- ERP Hosting: Self-hosted (Odoo Community)
- Operations: Installation & maintenance of elevators in commercial and residential buildings
Challenges Faced
Prior to adopting Odoo, ZAL Elevators was running on fragmented tools:
- A custom-built system handled purchasing but lacked integration with the rest of the operations.
- Excel spreadsheets were used for field service operations, including job tracking, maintenance logs, and scheduling—leading to a lack of real-time visibility.
- No proper margin tracking existed to evaluate profitability for elevator installation projects.
- Legacy data and contracts needed to be migrated into a centralized system without disrupting ongoing operations.
Odoo Implementation
To address these issues, ZAL Elevators transitioned to Odoo Community, implementing the following modules and custom flows:
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Core Modules:
- Sales & Purchase: for quotations, procurement, and supplier management
- Maintenance: to handle scheduled elevator servicing and inspections
- Field Service: for mobile field operations, technician assignments, and job tracking
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Customizations and Special Features:
- A project costing feature to compute real-time margin rates by comparing sales values with actual material and service costs on each installation.
- A custom QC inspection framework embedded into the Maintenance module, allowing elevator-specific schedules based on safety and performance criteria.
- Legacy purchasing data and active service contracts were migrated and restructured for consistency.
- Version: Odoo Community 16
- Hosting: On-premise server setup maintained by ZAL’s internal IT partner
Business Benefits
Operational Efficiency
- Technicians now receive job orders via Odoo’s Field Service app, replacing error-prone Excel sheets.
- Automated scheduling ensures that each elevator is serviced on time according to its unique maintenance plan.
Cost Transparency & Project Tracking
- The custom costing tool gives project managers immediate insights into margin rates for each elevator project.
- Real-time visibility into procurement costs helps procurement managers react faster to overspending.
Scalability & Centralization
- All operations—from quoting to post-installation service—are now centralized in Odoo.
- Legacy data integration ensures continuity without data loss, setting the stage for long-term scalability.