“From a multitude of Excel files to one clear platform.” Virginie Vleirick, Group Financial and Project Controller at POC Real Estate, talks about digitalization, real estate complexity, and trust in your partners.
POC Real Estate develops high-end residential properties on the Belgian and Polish coasts, with a clear focus on quality, sustainability, and social impact. To streamline their processes and work with a future-oriented approach, the company partnered with Sofatech and transitioned to Odoo.
Building living dreams
“We develop residential projects in prime coastal locations,” Virginie explains. “At POC Real Estate, we consciously choose a wide range of options.”
That variety makes our approach flexible and customer-focused, but also complex. Each project has its own timeline, legal structure, and involved partners.
Structure is therefore essential. And that’s exactly why the need for a more powerful IT solution emerged.”
From Excel chaos to centralized overview
“Until recently, we were still working with an overload of Excel files,” Virginie explains. “Data was fragmented, information was often entered twice,
and reporting took a lot of time. We clearly needed more centralization and structure.”
Sofatech guided POC through the transition to Odoo.
“We started with a thorough analysis,” adds Peter Pyck from Sofatech. “It quickly became clear that data was stored in multiple places and there was no central
structure.
Our mission? To enter data correctly once and make it usable everywhere, using as many standard functionalities as possible.” They succeeded. “Today, we work with about 80% standard Odoo features and 20% customizations,” says Virginie. “For an organization with our complexity, that’s a nice balance, don’t you think?”
One platform, many applications
At POC Real Estate, Odoo is used broadly. We have a customized POC Real Estate app that, combined with the projects app, allows close monitoring of every phase of real estate development—from acquisition, trough sales, to delivery.
The CRM system is used both for sales and for tracking acquisition files. The entire sales and invoicing flow—from quotation to order—is now handled within the system, followed by automated and timely invoicing. Through the purchasing module, contracts with subcontractors are registered, progress reports are tracked and approved, and purchase invoices are processed automatically.
An automated approval workflow was set up within Odoo, while the reporting functionality generates important reports. Vragen aan ChatGPT
Everyone involved in the system, from purchasing to accounting
One of POC’s biggest successes is that everyone in the company now works with the same system (Odoo). “From purchasing, development, execution, and sales
to accounting—everyone is on the platform. That alone is a huge step forward.”
Still, it didn’t happen automatically. “Change management remains a challenge,” Virginie admits. “People are attached to Excel and to their own way of working.”
It’s familiar, fast, and a reliable crutch. Switching to a new system takes time and trust. The extra work during the transition phase is challenging, but the gains in efficiency and control far outweigh it.”
“We now have a structure that safeguards the quality and transparency of our process. Everything runs smoothly through Odoo, which helps us make faster and more accurate decisions.”
Reporting with vision
Reporting is an important focus area for POC.
“Good reports make progress and bottlenecks visible. But to generate reliable reports, it is essential that data is recorded timely, accurately and completely.”
With the help of Sofatech, they managed to integrate a crucial construction cost report into Odoo, something they initially thought they would have to do in another tool”. “Odoo turned out to be more powerful than we expected. It works, it’s faster, we keep everything within the same system and in this way we have real-time insight into our figures.”
Looking to the future
POC Real Estate looks ambitiously to the future with Odoo and Sofatech as strategic partners.
Key points of attention are strengthening data quality, migrating historical data, optimizing rights management, and eventually switching to the latest Odoo version. “Nothing earth-shattering,” says Virginie. “But they are things that require constant attention.”
E-invoicing is also high on the agenda. “It is a hot topic in finance. We hope that Odoo can support this smoothly without additional software or manual actions.
Where that used to be completely unfeasible, it now feels like a logical next step.
Furthermore, POC hopes to be able to use Odoo for reporting on sustainability in the future.
“Sustainability is becoming increasingly important. Not just for us, but for the entire sector. If we could manage this via Odoo, that would be a huge added
value."
The click with Sofatech
Why POC chose Sofatech? “We were looking for a local partner who knows Odoo inside and out, thinks along, can deliver customization and understands our business,” says Virginie.
“Clear price agreements, transparent communication, realistic planning and good support were also crucial.”
And have expectations been more or less met? “More more than less,” laughs Virginie, “Peter and his colleagues think along with us, challenge us where necessary and ensure that we continue to grow. That is exactly what you want from a digital partner.”