Enterprise Times met Kelly Simons, Director, Enterprise Systems, ODEKO at Oracle NetSuite’s SuiteWorld 2025 gathering in Las Vegas. ODEKO helps food businesses by building technology to lower costs and boost margins, with a purpose of supporting small businesses. ODEKO supplies cafes and restaurants with everything they need. This includes overnight delivery, and uses smart software to help establishments run and grow, saving time and money.
Simons discussed ODEKO’s business model, which leverages technology to streamline orders for independent coffee shops. ODEKO has grown through acquisitions, expanding from a local delivery market to a broader SaaS and equipment services market. They have integrated various systems, including NetSuite, for financials, inventory management, and CRM. Automation has increased efficiency, allowing for 40% year-over-year growth with the same staff.
Challenges include managing disparate data quality and employee resistance to technological changes. Simons says a playbook for integrations has been developed, and ongoing projects are managed meticulously. He provides his top five tips for any enterprises looking to implement a financial management product suite within their organisation.
1. Take the time to plan
Take time to thoroughly examine your company’s current state, identifying gaps, deficiencies, and specific needs before acting. He says, “Just take a moment to breathe and think before the business acts. Some companies tend to want to react, as opposed to act.” Enterprises need to fully understand and document their business processes and data.
2. Pulling together the team
Get the right people to the table at the right time – involve key stakeholders from different teams early in the process. This could include systems integrators, third parties, internal key managers or other stakeholders. It may be useful to get to together and bounce an idea among them.
3. Document requirements
Enterprises need to understand and document requirements carefully, using formalised tools like JIRA, or even starting with basic user stories to capture needs. Simons says he is a visual person and personally prefers to draft workflows using Figma automation tools.
4. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
Businesses need to consider challenges as opportunities to learn and improve your implementation process. Enterprises must be flexible and prepared to adapt businesses approaches as they learn more about specific organisational requirements.
5. Change management
Look for opportunities to automate processes and improve efficiency during the implementation. Consider the impact on employees and develop a change management strategy to support their transition to the new system. The key is to be strategic, collaborative, and patient throughout the implementation process.
