Idalko

With activities and colleagues in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, Idalko has grown rapidly over recent years. Growing across countries, teams and services requires not only strong delivery work, but also a scalable internal organisation: finance, administration, tooling and hiring all need to keep pace. Idalko therefore needed support across several areas. And when you think of cross-disciplinary support, you think of Unikoo.

From administrative support to a CFO at the table

The collaboration between Unikoo and Idalko started modestly with purely administrative support. The organisation can still count on Unikoo's admin support for monthly billing and invoicing, but it quickly became clear that more support was needed. The combination of different services across the Belgian, Dutch and French markets results in numerous financial flows within Idalko, as well as varying tools, requirements and regulations. We helped Idalko map and optimise it all, and are now also guiding them through the centralisation of accounting, invoicing and the CRM package across the different countries in Odoo.

Financial governance was soon taken on by our team:

• Monthly reporting
  Each month, we validate the figures, communicate them to the accountant and analyse the results to improve reporting to management.
• Budgeting and forecasting
  We map cash flows, budgets and future scenarios so that Idalko can invest with purpose and maintain a complete overview across all subsidiaries and business lines.
• Cost analysis
  We regularly take stock of all costs to reallocate budgets where necessary and operate more efficiently.

What began as administrative support evolved into something more fundamental. Our Unikoo professional now fulfils the role of part-time CFO: presenting figures to the board of directors, providing the necessary context and relieving the CEO of concerns around financial management.

Think of questions such as:

• How do we ensure correct revenue recognition in reporting (deferred vs. non-deferred)?
• What proportion should consultancy services represent relative to licence distribution in Idalko's operations and revenue?
• How is the margin evolving, and where can we make targeted adjustments to improve it?

From optimising financial processes to finding the right people to carry them out, Idalko can turn to Unikoo for all things finance. And it doesn't stop there: Idalko now also draws on Unikoo's CTO service for the implementation of Odoo, as well as for the optimisation and management of Idalko's technology landscape.

The technical foundations of growth

Idalko's way of working had grown organically in many respects: tools and workflows evolved quickly in response to clients and projects, often on a per-entity basis. That works… until it doesn't.

Idalko was facing a number of significant challenges:

• Multi-entity complexity: Multinational teams require consistent reporting and standardised operations.
• Manual steps in critical chains: The flow from licence quotes and orders → invoicing → cash contains many manual steps. This costs time, increases the risk of errors and makes the process fragile.
• Tooling overlap and inconsistencies: Historically grown choices had led to overlap, unnecessary complexity and a lack of standardisation.
• Key-person dependency: Critical knowledge was too often held by specific individuals rather than embedded in the system.

To address these challenges, we began with a targeted tech audit to map Idalko's technology landscape. This formed the starting point for a workable plan that management and teams could act on immediately.

We followed a proven approach:

1. Intake: We refined the scope and key questions. What are the most important value streams? Where are the priorities? Where is the greatest pain?
2. Assessment: We analysed tooling, data flows, integrations, processes, security/risks and ownership. Are there duplications? Which manual steps can be automated? Which tools serve the same purpose and can be consolidated?
3. Validation: We tested our findings with management, finance, admin and operations. Because if the team doesn't stand behind the roadmap, it remains stuck in theory.

We translated all of this into a clear overview, centrally documented. We also produced a gap analysis: where are we today, where do we want to be, and what is needed to bridge that gap? As a final step in the audit, we drew up a concrete roadmap with quick wins and structural improvements, including owners and dependencies. What can we tackle tomorrow? And what steps require strategic investments?

The analysis revealed typical growing pains seen in many scale-ups and SMEs, but ones that carry extra weight at Idalko due to the multi-entity context:

• Inconsistencies in processes and definitions (e.g. margin, billable, project status)
• Data duplication and manual consolidation for reporting
• Fragile handoffs between delivery, finance and administration
• Tooling that was "added along the way" but never standardised or phased out

The goal? To evolve towards a scalable foundation: standardised where necessary, flexible where possible.

Odoo as the central tool

That scalable foundation? That's Odoo. Even before the collaboration with Unikoo, Idalko had wanted to make the switch to this multidisciplinary management software, and the tech assessment confirmed that this tool not only aligns with Idalko's ambitions, but could also resolve several of their pain points (eliminating manual handoffs, centralising data and streamlining tooling). Our CTO therefore worked with Idalko to find the right Odoo implementation partner, guided by a clear vision of Idalko's technology landscape and the role Odoo should play within it.

A CTO keeping everything on track

Just like our CFO, our CTO also earned a seat at the table at Idalko. Because a tech audit is one thing, but ensuring that the envisioned outcome is actually achieved is quite another. Our fractional CTO keeps the vision clear:

• Setting the standard: which tooling do we use, what may deviate, who decides?
• Identifying integration and automation opportunities in critical flows
• Roadmap governance and alignment between management, operations and finance

The right people in the right place

Growth also demands additional talent. And here too, Idalko relies on Unikoo. Not to bring more on-demand profiles on-site, but to fill open vacancies. We support Idalko with the recruitment and screening of new candidates across the different countries. From sourcing to initial interviews, our HR support searches for promising profiles and presents them to the hiring manager.

One point of contact for support across the board

It is clear: with our CTO-as-a-service, CFO-as-a-service, and our HR and admin expert supporting Idalko, the digital transformation partner has found its way to pragmatic and accessible support that fits a company in growth.

Also looking for a flexible growth partner who thinks alongside you? Discover what  Unikoo can do for you.

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