This post was previously published on 15 July 2016. For more up to date information on the PIC scheme and other budget initiatives, please refer to our most recent blog post on Singapore Budget updates, with the latest available information from IRAS. For the full details, visit the IRAS PIC site.
Everybody loves a success story, don’t they? Just a short while back, one of our very own team members won his second SAP Fiori app development challenge. This time around, we’re shining the spotlight on one of our customers, DPF Pte Ltd.
We headed down to DPF’s premises on a sunny Tuesday morning to gather some feedback on their experience working with SAP Business One over the past 3 years.
The Backstory
DPF is a fast growing Singapore SME (small/medium-sized enterprise). Together with two sister companies (Ductile Pte Ltd and Hiap Soon & Company Pte Ltd), the group has been recognised as a market leader in the General & Metal Trading industry locally and within the region.
When Finance Director Mr. Cheok Kai Weei joined DPF in 2013, most processes still involved a substantial paper trail. Yet like so many other SMEs, significant information still went missing all the time! While staff were taking phone calls and making verbal agreements over the line, there were no proper record-keeping systems in place.
Staff A might make arrangements with Customer B over the phone to modify an order, extend their payment period for the month, or offer an arbitrary discount, all without the knowledge of Kai Weei or other senior staff members. In the event that they were notified, it was usually in the form of a face-to-face conversation rather than a digital record that could be referred back to in future.
Foreseeing disaster if this kept on, Kai Weei and IT Administrator Thum Kim Yong proposed the adoption of an ERP system.
From R/3 to Business One
Coming from a large broadband network company, Kai Weei had experience with SAP R/3 (SAP ECC), and was familiar with the inner workings of an ERP System. Knowing the benefits of its vast features but also aware of the complexity and costs involved, Kai Weei sought an equally robust solution tailored for smaller businesses.
As Kai Weei went through his laundry list of worries with BOS, it became clear that SAP Business One would be able to meet DPF’s needs at a pocket-friendly price.
From SQL to HANA
On the eve of BOS’ meeting with DPF to sign our agreement and take our project forward, Managing Director Woon Tai Xhia caught wind of SAP HANA, and after hearing all about in-memory technology and real-time analytics, decided SAP HANA was the way to go instead.
30% Savings and a Ton of Improvements
With the implementation of SAP Business One version for SAP HANA, DPF was able to cut down on several outdated manual processes and save about 30% of costs associated with administrative activities. Paper approvals for transactional documents were significantly reduced, particularly with the help of mobile access allowing approvals on the go.
DPF was able to avoid considerable financial risks arising from manual monitoring of customer credit limits, manual calculation of transactional margins, and stock value discrepancies, particularly for imports with payment settlements made in multiple currencies.
Operational efficiencies were enhanced, reducing at least 80% of the time previously taken to locate documents in related transactions thanks to removing the need to search through multiple systems, reconcile stock value, and calculate sales costs.
All important business data is now stored and tracked within an integrated system across three companies, and the warehouse is more organized than ever thanks to the bin management capabilities of SAP Business One.
Overall, SAP Business One has helped DPF run in a more economical and effective manner.
“We implemented SAP Business One on HANA with the aim to improve the quality of our products, processes, and controls. With the help of our partner Blue Ocean Systems, resources are more economical with increased efficiency, resulting in highly effective outputs.”
Cheok Kai Weei, Finance Director, DPF Pte. Ltd.
Hear it from DPF yourselves!
Enough from us, hear DPF’s story straight from Kai Weei! We’re able to show you the polished video below thanks to the help of SAP and their talented film crew.
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