What ERP looks like in practice, not on paper
Most ERP success stories are told at go-live. We waited three years before telling ours.
Odlo, pioneers of performance layering since 1946, went live on Microsoft Dynamics 365 in April 2023, after 19 months of project work, a pandemic in the middle of it, and a complete overhaul of how the company operates. What happened after that is what this story is actually about.
We sat down with the people who know what this system means for the business from the inside. Julien Barbedette (CFO), Sebastian Strohmeyer (Director of Group Application Management) and Jonatan Westlund (Director of Business and Process Planning).
We asked them: what has actually changed?
Watch the full conversation below:
“Facts are friendly.” Julien Barbedette, Group CFO, Odlo
Before Dynamics 365, Odlo ran on a patchwork. Different systems for different departments, data that lived in silos, and a level of manual work that made end-to-end visibility almost impossible.
Every cross-functional meeting started the same way: a debate about numbers. Whose version was right? Which system was the source of truth? That friction did not just slow things down. It made real decisions impossible.
Julien Barbedette, CFO, put it in three words. “Facts are friendly!” When everyone looks at the same numbers, the conversation moves from debating data to acting on it. For Odlo, that shift became most visible in assortment management. With profitability now visible at SKU level, margin decisions moved from a quarterly exercise to something that informs daily planning.
“This was a transformation of people and the whole business as well.”
Jonatan Westlund, Director of Business and Process Planning, Odlo
The technology is one part of the story. Three years in, Jonatan Westlund is clear that the deeper change was organizational. Processes changed. Conversations changed. The way departments relate to each other changed.
That does not happen at go-live. It happens gradually, as a shared system creates shared language and shared accountability across the business.
“IT was kind of the fixing service department. Today, departments come to IT when they are rethinking their processes.”
Sebastian Strohmeyer, Director of Group Application Management, Odlo
That shift, from reactive to strategic, does not happen automatically. It happens when a system creates shared language, shared data and shared accountability across the whole organization. It is the clearest sign that an ERP implementation has actually taken hold. When IT becomes part of how the business thinks, not just how it runs.
This takes time, and an organization that is willing to work differently.
Built for what comes next
Three years in, the conversation at Odlo has shifted. The foundation is in place. Now the question is what to build on top of it.
Jonatan Westlund puts it directly: with a solid ERP foundation, you have all the data you need in one place, and the opportunity to build AI tools that automate analytics, reporting and decision support.
That is what good preparation for AI actually looks like. Not a separate initiative, but a natural next step from a platform that is ready for it.
Three years of partnership
After go-live, Odlo came back with new requests: reports that needed rethinking, configurations that needed adjusting, processes that had evolved. Julien Barbedette describes the post-go-live collaboration with xalution as “an extremely collaborative process,” with xalution being “flexible and creative” in finding solutions.
Sebastian Strohmeyer adds: “They got that view of retail business. They have the possibility to think in your processes. And they will challenge you when it comes to process changes.”
That kind of partnership does not end when a project closes. It looks ahead, stays engaged and helps turn the next business challenge into the next step forward.
Thank you
A special thanks to Julien Barbedette, Sebastian Strohmeyer, and Jonatan Westlund for the open and honest conversation.
About Odlo:
PIONEERING PERFORMANCE LAYERING SINCE 1946
Born in Norway and refined through Swiss precision, Odlo is driven by a pioneering spirit to elevate human potential and enjoyment in the outdoors.
Rooted in next-to-skin expertise, everything we create starts from the inside out. Comfort comes first, then building layer by layer to support movement, regulate temperature and remove distraction.
The result is performance apparel that works seamlessly with the body, so you can move freely and stay focused on the experience. Because when nothing comes between you and the outdoors, there’s always more out there.