VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

GRADUATION PROJECT

SOME APPLICATIONS OF OPENERP(ODOO) – AN ERP SYSTEM IN
ENTERPRISE BUSINESS AND FINANCE MANAGEMENT:
A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM MIKGROUP JOINT STOCK COMPANY

Student’s name: Vu Le Minh

Hanoi - Year 2020


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

GRADUATION PROJECT

SOME APPLICATIONS OF OPENERP(ODOO) – AN ERP SYSTEM IN
ENTERPRISE BUSINESS AND FINANCE MANAGEMENT:
A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM MIKGROUP JOINT STOCK COMPANY

SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hai Thanh
STUDENT: Vu Le Minh
STUDENT ID: 15071562
COHORT: MIS2015A
MAJOR: Management Information System

Hanoi - Year 2020

LETTER OF DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the Graduation Project “Some applications of
OpenERP(Odoo) – an ERP system in enterprise business and finance management: A
case study of Vietnam MIKGroup Joint stock Company” is the results of my own
research and has never been published in any work of others. During the
implementation process of this project, I have seriously taken research ethics; all
findings of this projects are results of my own research and surveys; all references in
this project are clearly cited according to regulations.
I take full responsibity for the fidelity of the number and data and other contents
of my graduation project.
Hanoi, 04/06/2020
Student

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I am using this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude and special
thanks to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hai Thanh who directly instruct and guide me
beside of his busy schedule during 9 weeks of graduation thesis period. Without the
teacher's instructions, I think that it would be very difficult for me to accomplish my
graduation thesis.
Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to our thesis coordinator- Mrs
Nguyen Thi Thuy who has given her valuable time to inform me of the essentials for
graduation thesis.
Finally, I would also like to extend special thanks to the staffs of MIK for their
full co-operation and support during my graduation thesis.
The thesis with the specific case of MIKGroup was a great chance for me to
learn and professionaly develop. Therefore, I consider myself a very lucky individual

who have been helped.I am also grateful for having a chance to meet wonderful people
and professionals who supported me through this graduation thesis period.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

SUMMARY OF GRADUATION THESIS ............................................................. 10
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. 12
Chapter 1. OVERVIEW .......................................................................................... 13
1.1 The necessity of the topic ................................................................................ 13
1.2 The goals of the thesis ..................................................................................... 14
1.3 Research subject.............................................................................................. 14
1.4 Scope of research............................................................................................. 14
1.5 Methodology .................................................................................................... 15
1.6 Main content.................................................................................................... 15
Chapter 2. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND RELATED WORKS ......... 17
2.1 Definition terms ............................................................................................... 17
2.1.1 Definition of business resources ................................................................. 17
2.1.2 Definition of business functions.................................................................. 17
2.1.3 Definition of business plan and planning .................................................... 18
2.1.4 Definition of ERP method .......................................................................... 21
2.2 Optimization and Customization of an ERP system ..................................... 21
2.2.1 Overview .................................................................................................... 21
2.2.2 ERP classification....................................................................................... 23
2.2.3 Factors in ERP selection ............................................................................. 25
2.3 Advantages of ERP system ............................................................................. 27
2.4 Applying an ERP adoption ............................................................................. 28
2.5 Literature review ............................................................................................ 30

Chapter 3. BUSINESS ACTIVITIES OF VIETNAM MIKGGROUP JOINT
STOCK COMPANY ................................................................................................ 33
& PROBLEM STATEMENT .................................................................................. 33
3.1 Overview of the company ............................................................................... 33
3.1.1 General information .................................................................................... 33
3.1.2 Business activities ...................................................................................... 33

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3.1.3 Current system situation of MIKGroup ....................................................... 38
3.2 Current situation of ERP in Vietnam and MIKGroup ................................. 40
3.2.1 Current situation of ERP in Vietnam .......................................................... 40
3.2.2 Current situation of ERP in MIKGroup ...................................................... 42
3.3 Research process ............................................................................................. 42
3.4 Problem statement .......................................................................................... 43
3.5 Proposed ERP system ..................................................................................... 45
3.5.1 Choosing ERP software .............................................................................. 45
3.5.2 Constructing to replace current system ....................................................... 47
3.5.3 Constructing comprehensive system ........................................................... 51
Chapter 4. RESULTS AND DISSCUSION ............................................................. 55
4.1 Results.............................................................................................................. 55
4.1.1 ERP software .............................................................................................. 55
4.1.2 Current system............................................................................................ 55
4.1.3 Comprehensive system ............................................................................... 57
4.2 Limitation and the next research direction .................................................... 60
Chapter 5. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................... 62
REFERENCE ........................................................................................................... 64
APPENDICES .......................................................................................................... 66


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TABLE OF NOTATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviation

Meaning

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning

MIKGroup

Vietnam MIKGroup Joint stock Company

HRM

Human Resources Management

CRM

Customer Relationship Management

SCM

Supply Chain Management

SLA


Service Level Agreement

ROA

Return Of Asset

ROE

Return Of Equity

ROS

Return On Sales

RO

Return On Investment

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2-1 Potential effects of ERP adoption (Carlo and Sara,2018) ............................ 27
Table 3-1. Business result of MIKGroup 2016-2018 (Unit: Million VND) ................. 34
Table 3-2. Source of revenues of MIKGroup 2016-2018 (Unit: Million VND) ........... 35
Table 3-3. List of projects has been carried out by MIKGroup ................................... 35
Table 3-4. Main partners of MIKGroup ...................................................................... 37
Table 3-5. Current software of MIKGroup ................................................................. 39


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LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES
Figure 2-1. Plan level ................................................................................................. 19
Figure 2-2 Flow of information in planning (Raphael, 2008) ...................................... 20
Figure 2-3 Planning process (Armstrong, 1982) ......................................................... 20
Figure 2-4 The full lifecycle ERP adoption reference model (Chuck, 2019) ............... 29
Figure 3-1 Organizational structure of MIKGroup ...................................................... 38
Figure 3-2. Research process ...................................................................................... 43

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LIST OF PICTURES
Picture 3-1. Module for human resource management (OpenERP) ............................. 48
Picture 3-2. Accounting module interface (OpenERP) ................................................ 48
Picture 3-3. Document-storage interface (OpenERP) .................................................. 48
Picture 3-4. Real estate and building management module (OpenERP) ...................... 49
Picture 3-5. Users setting (OpenERP) ......................................................................... 49
Picture 3-6. Group creation (OpenERP)...................................................................... 50
Picture 3-7. User creation and modification (OpenERP) ............................................. 50
Picture 3-8. Employee information by HR department (OpenERP) ............................ 51
Picture 3-9. Comprehensive system with full of modules (OpenERP)......................... 52
Picture 3-10. Menu of accounting user (OpenERP) .................................................... 53
Picture 4-1. Expense creation (OpenERP) .................................................................. 57
Picture 4-2. Cash reporting in Accounting module (OpenERP)................................... 57
Picture 4-3. Sign module with signing a contract (OpenERP) ..................................... 60


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SUMMARY OF GRADUATION THESIS
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hai Thanh
Student: Vu Le Minh
Code: 15071562
Cohort: MIS2015A
Major: Management Information System
Keyword: Enterprise Resources Planning, ERP, management system, information
system.
Summary content:
1. Rationale
For many decades till now, ERP has always been applied in many field of the
world in order to help companies to control and plan resources that leads to efficiency
in management. Even when ERP becomes a trend in every business in many develop
countries, there are just small number of businesses that have been applying this
solution. Hence, I selected the topic “Some applications of OpenERP(Odoo) – an ERP
system in enterprise business and finance management: A case study of Vietnam
MIKGroup Joint stock Company” with the purpose of studying specific cases to
understand deeper ERP and its applications.
2. The goals, the research subject and the research scope of the thesis
The thesis examines business and system situation at MIKGroup Joint stock
Company, states the problems and finds out the optimal solution from ERP provider, so
that in order to construct it with purpose to improve the quality of management and
operation of the company.
3. Methodology

The research methodology used in the thesis is the case-study analysis.
4. Main content and the novelty of the author
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The main contents of the study include a review of ERP system and related
applications, research about the IT system and operational status of MIKGroup Joint
stock Company, data analysis, and applications of the recommended ERP system.
The novelty of the research is a practical research to a specific business in Vietnam, so
that it proposes specific solutions to improve the business performance at management
and operation of the company.
5. Conclusion
In this thesis, the author clarifies business issues and factors to choose and build
an ERP system for the case study by Odoo/OpenERP.
However, due to the limitations in time and knowledge, the goal is to
constructing a comprehensive and integrated system with the purpose to faster the
business processes and help the company to manage its resources better.

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ABSTRACT
In this technological age, every company would try to automate and systemize its
processes to easily manage and find new opportunities in business. Vietnam is no
exception where mostly enterprises are able to apply technology and information
system in management and operation. However, most of business are small and midsize, and many still cannot figure out a solution for managing and optimizing the
business processes, so that the number of enterprises suspending operation and
dissolution is quite high.

The research is motivated by the real world problem statement, especially in Vietnam.

The thesis makes a research on enterprise resource planning (ERP), which has existed
for a few decades and has not been a strange term for most business in the world or in
Vietnam. Beside popularity of ERP, it seems like this system is not widely applied in
Vietnam. Through this thesis, the ERP related problems are investigated and tackled by
the selection and construction of an ERP software for a specific company.

However, due to the limitations in time and knowledge, the thesis only aims to select
an ERP software, construct and customize an ERP system which lead to the better
performance of business in management and operation.

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Chapter 1. OVERVIEW
1.1 The necessity of the topic
Management, operation and development have always been the top concerns for
businesses in all fields. “Information Technology (IT) innovations, the advent of the
Internet, and the ease of finding and sharing information are all elements that
contribute to obtaining overwhelming amounts of data and information” (Carlo and
Sara, 2018).
Now, the competitors become more and more powerful, businesses expect
technology, that all allow them to be more productive, innovative, and accessible with
more opportunities, especially when compared to prominent competitors in the field.
“In order to sustain and grow further, an organization must deal with all sales holders
such as employees, stakeholders and the environment. The organization must design an
information system that would collect information as well as provide required
information to all these stakeholders.” (Anbuudayasankar, Ganesh, Mohapatra, and
Sivakumar, 2014)
In Vietnam, systematization and synchronization are no longer new concepts, but
most organizations use a lot of different platforms for different departments and

functions that seem difficult to be integrated and optimized. At the same time, not all
operation phases are systematized, there are manual processing and storage stages,
which can affect the optimization of the business process and management leading to
underdevelopment and difficulty in finding and recognizing new opportunities.
So, there is a necessity for applications of ERP system in enterprise business and
finance management, that aims to support controlling and optimizing in enterprise
resource management, thus helping organization to make optimal decisions, increase
profits and also reduce costs for management and operations in the business. “An ERP
addresses the abovementioned problems by bringing together all those involved in the

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value chain through integrating the application modules used by various functional and
business units.” (Chuck, 2019)
1.2 The goals of the thesis
This graduation thesis has a goal about the design, theoretical investigation and
practical investigation of ERP system which can be identified base on the main ideas:
Firstly, to understand about resources controlling and planning, the importance of those
concepts and how it relates to decision making and management operations.
Secondly, to learn about the ERP with the question: “How to evaluate and select an
ERP system?”. Also to conduct research to identify problems to solve in a company
which could use ERP.
Thirdly, to collect data and understand the real case of business then identify methods
for solution.
Finally, to propose an optimized ERP system for the business.
1.3 Research subject
Vietnam MIKGroup Joint Stock Company (MIKGroup)
The problem to be solved in this research is selecting, applying an optimized ERP
system and the way it benefits to a business.

Due to the limitation of knowledge, time and data collection, the thesis has only
conducted research on the business process, IT and financial aspect.
1.4 Scope of research
Space: Vietnam MIKGroup Joint Stock Company (MIKGroup)
Time:
Business data has been provided by the company from 2016 to 2018
Investment data has been provided by the company since 2016 counts 2018.
Management application or system in use and the performance has been provided by
the company from 2016 to 2018.
Content:
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To research the organizational, managerial activities and also the management and
storage systems of the company.
To study the application ERP system in the company.
1.5 Methodology
This study has applied the case study methodology that can be understood as a
method of using data or information, which are real or formulated from a real situation,
in purpose to prove or solve a problem. This methodology focuses on phenomena that
are happening in the actual context. In order to prove the research results, it is
necessary to use a lot of evidences (source documents, observations, interviews, ...) in
combination with the necessary data collection and analysis.
Case study: Vietnam MIKGroup Joint Stock Company (MIKGroup)
1.6 Main content
The topic layout consists of 5 chapters:
Chapter 1: Overview of the thesis
Introducing the research topic, identifying the objectives, scope and research methods
to implement the thesis.
Chapter 2: What are ERP systems and their applications

Introducing theoretical basis related to the research topic.
Chapter 3: Business activities of MIK Group and research design
Presenting the current state of business process, IT, finance and management of the
company (MIK Group).
Collecting data, identifying issues and constraints, optimizing purposes, presenting
research methods, research processes, build ERP system in the company.
Chapter 4: Results and discussion
Reporting the results of application after running the ERP system, and discussing the
limitations.
Chapter 5: Conclusions
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Summarizing key findings of the thesis and research contributions

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 1
Chapter 1 introduces an overview of the research topic. The author presents the reason
of the research that leads to the direction and the scope of the research. The topic uses
case study methodology to analyze and clarify the problem. Through chapter 1, the
author defines the practical meaning of the research topic.

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Chapter 2. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND RELATED
WORKS
2.1 Definition terms
2.1.1 Definition of business resources
Business resources is every factor which provide the means for a company to
carry its business processes or activities. Those factors are human, financial, physical

and knowledge which are also necessity to create value for the customers.
Business resources can be divided into four types:


Physical resources: Tangible assets of a company which are used to

create value offering to its customers such as raw materials, buildings, vehicles,
inventory.


Human resources: Employees or staffs with knowledge required who

provide services or directly produce product as value offering for the customers.
Example: engineers, developers, business analysts.


Intellectual resources: Nonphysical and intangible assets such as brand,

copyrights, patent or database of the customers.


Financial resources: Money asset such as fund, cash, credit.

Depending on the field of business, department and business function, necessity
business resources will be specified. Through business resources, a company can have
their own competitive advantages compared to other company. For example: Better
knowledge employee, innovative patent of product, modern factory. It’s important for
managers or administrator to understand business resources of their company so that
they can make the most of resources to bring maximum profit.
2.1.2 Definition of business functions


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Business functions are “specialized tasks performed in a business organization,
including manufacturing and production, sales and marketing, finance and accounting,
and human resources” (Kenneth and Jane, 2017).
It refers to a group of processes or activities which are performed regularly to carry out
a part of organization’s mission.
Business function can be divided into several areas:


Human resources



Marketing/Promotion



Customer service



Sales



Accounting and finance




Distribution



Research and development



Administrative/Management



Production



Operation



IT support



Purchasing




Legal department

Depending on the type of business, business functions are structured differently. It will
be separated to departments with specific focus in order to ensure that important
activities are performed effectively. Specific areas also take responsibility for
supporting specific types of objectives, for example: IT support will be involved in
upgrading system or improving the usability of end users. Understanding the business
functions is a basis but major necessity of manager or administrator especially when
they are in need of planning.
2.1.3 Definition of business plan and planning
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2.1.3.1 Business plan
“Business plan is any plan that works for a business to look ahead, allocate resources,
focus on key points, and prepare for problems and opportunities” (Berry, 2004). It’s a
document which describes the business goals, the methods of how to achieve these
goals and the time frame for these goals to be attained.

Figure 2-1. Plan level


Strategic plans: consider the entire organization with the document

about strategic goals, the determination of actions and resources to achieve the goals.


Tactical plans: are specific plans relevant to a distinct area of an

organization, which are concerned with the responsibility and functionality of lowerlevel department, with the purpose of supporting strategic plans.



Operational plans: are the highly detailed plan of day-to-day tasks

required to run a company, which focused on the specific procedures and processes
that occur within the lowest levels of the organization.
2.1.3.2 Business planning
According to the overview of Berry about business planning in “The book on business
planning” (2004), business planning is the process of identifying resources,

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determining the activities required and deciding the best way to accomplish a desired
goal.
Information flow from strategic to operational planning (Raphael, 2008)

Figure 2-2 Flow of information in planning (Raphael, 2008)

Step of planning process (Armstrong, 1982)

Figure 2-3 Planning process (Armstrong, 1982)


Step 1: Set Objectives for the long run



Step 2: Generate Alternative Strategies




Step 3: Evaluate alternative strategies by comparison



Step 4: Monitor strategies implementation and results



Step 5: Obtain a high level of commitment among the Stakeholders during each

step of this process
Planning is important and also the most basic function of an administrator. It
establishes the basis and direction for the implementation of organizational, leadership
and inspection function, which are based on business field, company’s commitments,
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assessment of environment’s opportunity and threat, strength and weakness. Although
the administrator has all the resources: finance, people, technology, but without the
understanding of what his/her business will achieve, where to go or who to become, all
those resources will be useless. On the contrary, organization which has good planning
will able it to recognize new opportunity, foresee and avoid future uncertainty, outline
effective actions, be aware of the operational risks and improve, innovate to enhance
competiveness. Thus, it ensures the organization operates effectively in an everchanging environment.
2.1.4 Definition of ERP method
“Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems refer to suites of application systems
comprising multiple integrated software modules that help organizations to manage
their resources. With the ERP, the same worker is empowered with information to do a

lot more in a more effective and efficient manner. In short, the ERP helps the company
realize the benefits of eliminating data entry errors, reducing order fulfilment cost and
cycle time, enabling speedy delivery of goods and services, and raising customer
satisfaction levels. Generally speaking, ERP deployment is not solely a game of system
implementation and process automation. Its potential benefits can be maximized only if
those involved are willing and committed to take advantage of system capabilities to
innovate and improve the business practices and processes of the company on an
ongoing basis.” (Chuck, 2019)
2.2 Optimization and Customization of an ERP system
2.2.1 Overview
“ERP systems can be defined as Business management systems, which are modulebased integrated software packages, control the seamless integrated information flow
and process across functional areas within the organization and include at least the
financial and accounting module and any other module as a single system with a shared
database.” (Hany and Ahmed, 2017). It is a unified, multi-functional software that links

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all business activities, from planning, statistics, control to supporting the in-depth
analysis reports in order to help a business operate effectively.
“ERP systems are treated as independent products capable of initiating socio-technical
organizational change process affecting the organizational actors’ practice and
structures.” (Hany and Ahmed, 2017) ERP system can be customized base on specific
process of a business. Typically, an ERP system can cover many key business
processes which are based on various modules:


Human resource management (HRM)

Featured tools such as time tracking, timesheet, database for employee records,

performance evaluation, payroll system, etc.


Financial management

It include accounting and finance transactions such as expenditures, tax management,
payments, etc.


Sales and marketing

This module carries sale business processes like orders, sales invoices, etc. It may also
feature taxations rule and shipping tracker


Customer relationship management (CRM)

It’s a module which provide a multi-information profile of customer by using data such
as purchase history, feedback or past interaction in order to improve customer services
and profit per customer.


Manufacturing

This module aims to help business to manufacture more effective. It includes functions
such as materials sourcing, product planning, product monitoring, etc.


Supply chain management (SCM)


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In purpose of managing product flow from production to customer, SCM module is
about automatic processing, streamline supply chain to be able to adapt with any
sudden change of the market.


Inventory

Inventory module, which generally uses serial numbers to track and locate items, helps
the company to ensure the stock measurement, replenishments determination or other
inventory goals.


Purchasing

Including supplier listing, purchase order, stock updates, etc., this module control the
processes of materials procurement.
In addition, there will be more advanced ERP systems which include asset
management, e-commerce or more. Basing on specific business, ERP can be vertical
with specific features. In order to select an ERP software, an organization also needs to
know about ERP classification and many necessity factors to consider an ERP system.
2.2.2 ERP classification
The flexibility of ERP functions and the diversity of factors which make it difficult to
classify the category of ERP software. It can be grouped by functional levels, business
size, and deployment. To simplify it, ERP system can be grouped as four types (Louie,
2017):



Generalist ERP

Including legacy and cloud ERP software, they adapt to business processes in many
fields and industries. This solution of ERP system is the most expensive one. It can be
strongly customized and integrated to meet the requirements in different industries.
This is the largest type of ERP system because it has broad application when it is able
to adapt to processes in various industries. One example of this ERP type is NetSuite
ERP (Oracle).

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