Scattered data, repetitive tasks, manual processes: the hidden cost of digital fragmentation in SMEs

An order arrives by email, is recorded in a spreadsheet and then entered into the management system; the sales department updates its own database, the administration department consults another, and the warehouse checks stock availability using yet another piece of software. If the data do not match, it is necessary to retrace the information’s path and determine which version is up to date. This is a sequence that is repeated in many Italian SMEs, often regarded as a normal part of the job because ‘that’s how it’s always been done’. However, the value of digitalisation does not, however, depend on how many technological tools are adopted, but on how these fit into the organisation and facilitate the flow of information. For less structured businesses, rethinking practices and processes requires time, skills and resources; and when a new application is added to meet every new requirement without streamlining existing ones, fragmentation increases – and with it, the work required to link data and activities. This leads to inefficiency.

Digital investment is not for everyone
Rather than proceeding at a uniform pace, the digital transformation of SMEs is progressing at different speeds. According to the 2025–2026 study by the Digital Innovation Observatory for SMEs at the Politecnico di Milano, 51 per cent are investing heavily in digital technology (compared with 54 per cent in the previous survey), but only 24 per cent are doing so across all areas of the business, whilst a further 27 per cent are concentrating their investments on functions deemed to be priorities. This figure suggests that the presence of technologies within a company does not necessarily mean they are adopted across the board. Added to this disparity is the difference in available resources: in 2024, only 26 per cent of firms with 10–249 employees achieved at least a high level of digital intensity, compared with 83 per cent of large companies. The presence of ICT specialists is also much more limited in SMEs. For businesses with fewer in-house skills and capabilities, ensuring that tools and information work together can thus become a daily challenge: the handover between departments remains reliant on people, and manual work tends to pile up.

When inefficiency piles up
When the applications fail to communicate, the link between one task and the next is left to people. A document sent by email or data copied out may seem like minor steps, but when repeated every day, they take up time and increase the risk of errors and misalignments. To minimise these, checks and confirmation requests are added, lengthening the process and driving up costs that include corrective actions, the hours spent double-checking orders or reconstructing information, delays for the customer, and higher-value activities being postponed. Lead management clearly illustrates the scale of the problem. If a potential customer’s history is scattered across emails and files, the sales representative must work out who is handling their account and what conversations have already taken place, to avoid the risk of having to repeat questions that have already been addressed or, worse still, that two people might both contact them or that no one follows up in time. As long as volumes remain low, informal procedures hold up; however, as orders, customers and the number of people involved grow, it is inevitable that interdependencies and checks (and the associated burdens) will increase. Reducing duplication and waiting times therefore requires a more streamlined flow of information and clear operational responsibilities, as well as appropriate digital tools.

Integrated process management: Odoo’s solution
Odoo, a Belgium-based IT company, meets the needs described above with a ERP platform comprising software for various areas of business management: CRM, sales, e-commerce, stock control, production, invoicing, accounting, marketing, customer support and projects. The applications are designed to operate within an integrated environment, ensuring that information supports business activities and minimises the need for manual data entry. In the case of leads, for example, the CRM enables you to track contacts and opportunities, organise the sales pipeline, plan activities and record interactions. The ability to collect contacts from multiple channels helps to centralise information useful for sales follow-up, and when an opportunity becomes a quotation (and then an order), the link with the sales module allows the workflow to continue seamlessly and keeps the customer history accessible, making it easier to direct resources towards relationship-building activities and opportunities to be pursued.
The integration with other management processes provided by the Odoo platform addresses and resolves the issue of fragmentation. Information relating to a sales order can, in fact, be synchronised with stock data, providing visibility on product availability and delivery status. This reduces the need to switch between separate systems to piece together the full picture for that specific order.

A platform that grows with the business
Modularity is a central feature of Odoo’s offering and allows companies to select the applications they wish to use based on their specific needs and the processes to be managed, expanding the operational environment over time as activities and priorities change. For an SME, this approach can be the most accessible solution to support the evolution of its organisation, starting with the most urgent functions and gradually adding those that need to share data and workflows, whilst always maintaining an overview. The platform’s scalability is therefore linked to the ability to extend its use to multiple business areas without having to start afresh with a set of unconnected tools. All business workflows can be adapted and, with Odoo Studio, for example, it is possible to customise fields, views, modules, documents and automations. Where requirements are more complex, customisations come into play, allowing the software to be tailored to the procedures and information relevant to the business, with full freedom to choose which apps to integrate and in what order. Every SME therefore has a wide range of options to consider in light of its objectives, budget and available expertise, with the full support of those guiding the software’s implementation.
For businesses that do not have extensive dedicated IT resources, the option of using a platform such as Odoo can make it easier to adopt a comprehensive management system. However, the risk to avoid is introducing a new technological tool into processes without adequately training staff and without addressing the steps that lead to duplication, thereby simply shifting the same inefficiencies elsewhere. Moving beyond the ‘that’s how we’ve always done it’ mindset means identifying the processes that waste time and reorganising the flow of information into clear workflows, from the first contact with the customer to the order, from delivery to administrative management. After all, the value of an integrated management system is measured by its ability to help processes and people work more effectively.