// The situation

B2B/B2C that sells online (japonism/meditation/incense). Our sales representatives (field sales) visit our B2B clients (small shops and big retail companies) to assess whether they need products, to show them new products, or to educate them on how to use them. The representatives want the following: - To track their visits - Track the result of the visits - Track which days they booked - Plan the trip - Take notes from the phone - Upload images of the client's shop or from the trip - Be able to generate a report of all the previous information - Be able to view the information related to the client (this information is stored in an ERP) It would be good to have an open-source solution. We have a very capable IT department. Lead channels: Walk-ins, Phone calls. Inquiry volume: 10–50. Team size: 2–3.

The verdict · May 18, 2026

Yes.

You need a simple CRM — but a field-sales one, not a lead-intake one.

Why

Your "Inquiry volume: 10–50" and "Team size: 2–3" understate the real workload — the unit isn't an inquiry, it's a rep visit, and you're describing 7 distinct activities (visit log, result, calendar, route, notes, photos, ERP lookup) that no lead-pipeline CRM does well out of the box. You already have a capable IT department and a preference for open-source, which rules in self-hosted options that most small businesses can't run. Your real integration question is ERP ↔ visit log, not channel ↔ inbox.

What you actually need

  1. Odoo Community Edition (free, self-hosted) — install the CRM + Field Service + Contacts modules. Field Service gives you visit scheduling, on-site notes, photo uploads from the mobile app, and per-client history. Your IT team can run it on a single VPS in an afternoon.
  2. Odoo's REST API → your ERP — a read-only sync that pulls client master data (account, address, products bought) into the Contact record so reps see ERP info without leaving the app. One-time job for your IT team, maybe two days.
  3. A habit — Friday 30-minute route plan — every Friday afternoon each rep books next week's visits in the Odoo calendar with a one-line objective per stop ("show new sandalwood line", "re-educate on burner safety"). No visit goes on the calendar without an objective.

Do this today

On a spare server or laptop, run `docker run -p 8069:8069 --name odoo -d odoo:17` to spin up Odoo Community, then in Apps install CRM, Field Service, and Contacts. Create one pipeline stage set: Scheduled → Visited → Follow-up Needed → Closed, and import 20 of your top B2B accounts as Contacts. By tonight one rep can install the Odoo mobile app, log a visit with a shop photo, and you'll know if the workflow fits before involving IT on the ERP sync.

What to ignore

Skip Salesforce Field Service (~$165/user/mo), HubSpot Sales Hub Professional, and SAP's field-sales add-ons — all are massively over-priced for 2-3 reps and lock you into proprietary mobile apps. Also skip SuiteCRM and Vtiger for this specific use case: their field-visit modules are weaker than Odoo's, and you'd be patching gaps your IT team shouldn't have to patch.

What doing nothing costs you

With 2-3 reps and no shared visit log, you're paying for trips whose outcomes live only in someone's head — a rep leaves and the relationship history leaves with them. The compounding loss is institutional memory of which shop wants which incense line, which is the entire moat of a specialty B2B distributor.

When to revisit this

When you hire a fourth rep or open a second region where route planning stops being doable on a paper map.

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