DAITOBEST AUTOMATES CRITICAL BUSINESS PROCESSES WITH MICROSOFT GREAT PLAINS


SITUATION
Since it was established in 1977, Daitobest Sdn Bhd has quickly become a major supplier of copiers, duplicating machines, printers, facsimiles and projectors to schools, colleges and government departments throughout Malaysia. The world-class brands carried by Daitobest include Duplo, Sharp and Brother.

Daitobest has a network of 10 branches throughout Peninsular Malaysia providing servicing, repair and maintenance services to it customers. To fulfill its vision of “ensuring our customers truly benefit by choosing our products and services,” Daitobest is driven to always put customers’ needs above everything else.

As its business expands, Daitobest has astutely invested in technology to enhance its business processes, and improve efficiency and productivity. This has prompted the company to upgrade its IT systems to take advantage of innovative technologies.

In particular, Daitobest saw the need to replace its existing accounting system which was deemed as “basic” and limited in functionality. This solution was developed by an India-based company and had been deployed in Daitobest for only about two years. As Daitobest’s business grew from strength to strength, the management saw that the system had difficulty coping with the increased business volumes.

According to Daitobest’s Financial Controller Lau Chee Hoong, the solution was prone to errors and it was limited in terms of the range and depth of its reporting. “We needed a solution with comprehensive and real-time reporting as we generate quite a number of reports,” he adds.

Because it was not integrated, the solution also required manual processes especially in the preparation of reports. The branches had to prepare reports for submission to the headquarters, and because it was not web-based the branches could not view reports online.

The management was also disadvantaged because information on business operations was not real-time. It usually took at least two weeks for vital business information and reports to flow to the headquarters from the branches.

The solution was not able to monitor and manage its servicing business. This was big problem given Daitobest’s growing list of over 4,000 customers nationwide and providing servicing and maintenance services was a major part of its business.

Lau explains: “We have 60 technical staff servicing our customers nationwide, and so without a suitable solution it is hard for us to monitor their work.”

Previously, the service information recorded by the technical staff on paper-based forms was sent to the headquarters where it was keyed into Microsoft Excel. And if the company needed to look into the service records of any customer, the staff would face the time consuming task of searching for the documents containing the customer’s service information.

“As our customer database grew bigger, it became harder for us to monitor the service calls made by the technical staff. And that’s why we decided to look for a more advanced system.”

Similarly, the staff also had problems keeping track of serial numbers and warranties of the thousands of products sold. All these issues impacted on the quality of service rendered to Daitobest’s customers.

“The difficulty of getting timely information about our business and customers meant that we were often uncertain about the market situation and what our customers thought about us,” says Lau.

SOLUTION
After a rigorous evaluation of several options to replace its accounting software, Daitobest chose an integrated business solution which best fit its needs – Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains.
Running on Windows 2003 Server, the solution was deployed in October 2003 on a server based at its headquarters in Shah Alam. Over the next year, the system was progressively rolled out to all it branches. Microsoft Certified Business Solutions Partner Dynamic Business Solution Sdn Bhd helped to ensure a successful migration to Great Plains. Daitobest currently uses the Accounting, Inventory and Field Service Management modules.

“Our staff and the management viewed the Great Plains demos set up by Dynamic Business Solution Sdn Bhd and were impressed with its capabilities and features.”

“It met our requirement for a total integrated solution, from accounting, inventory to field service management,” Lau adds.

The company is also able to take advantage of Great Plains’s flexibility by deploying it as a web-based solution leveraging on the Microsoft Terminal Services feature available in Windows 2003 Server. This allows its branches to access the system through Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections.

With Great Plains running on a web-based platform from its headquarters, Daitobest is enjoying substantial savings in its software licensing costs. It just needed to purchase additional client access licenses (CAL) which are shared by the branches.

“All the branches are connected to this system and they can do the data entry themselves. They can also view reports online in real-time,” Lau says.

“Nowadays, the branches no longer need to prepare reports by re-keying information into Microsoft Excel. As the reports are now generated by Great Plains, this cuts their work load by 50 per cent,” he says.

BENEFITS

Faster Closing of Accounts
By deploying Great Plains, Daitobest is enjoying a level of operational efficiency which far surpasses that derived from its previous solution. This has helped it to cut the time taken to close its accounts by about 70 per cent.

The beauty of the Great Plains solution is that it has tightly integrated and automated various business processes in Daitobest. For example, once a service call is complete, an invoice will automatically be generated. And once the invoice is issued, Great Plains will automatically update the accounts receivables and the general ledger. Unnecessary re-keying in of information has virtually been eliminated.

“From there, we can print out the profit and loss statements. This is total integration,” says Lau, who adds that the workload of the accounting staff has been considerably lessened.

The Great Plains solution also allows Daitobest to easily send out payment reminder letters to customers. On average, Daitobest sends out between 1,000 and 1,500 of such letters each month.

The old system did not have this functionality and it would have taken days to check the details and to individually type out the reminder letters. As such, Daitobest had decided against sending out the letters as it would take up too much time and resources. “With Great Plains, this is not longer an issue. We just need to click a button and it will automatically print out the letters,” says Lau.

Improved Decision Making
With its remote access feature, Daitobest’s management can also now access vital business information from Great Plains any place at any time.

And by providing real-time visibility into the company’s operations, Great Plains provides the management with comprehensive and up-to-date information to make the right business decisions. Great Plains also provides for a wider range of reports and more detailed data capture, Lau says.

“We have already train the top management to access to the system. They can now view reports and drill down into the system. Whether they are at home or traveling overseas, they just need Internet access to connect to the Great Plains system here,” he explains.

This is a major advantage as previously the management would usually have to instruct the staff to search for the relevant documents or manually prepare business reports.

With Great Plains, the time taken to prepare reports has been reduced substantially. Previously, it took several staff at least two to three days to re-key information into Excel to prepare reports on areas such as sales, inventory and service calls. Now they can just export the data from Great Plains to Excel with just a few mouse clicks, Lau says. “It will take less than a minute to get each report,” he adds.

Instead of being bogged down by having to prepare reports, the staff can be redeployed to handle more value added tasks such as monitoring the use of imitation products which will affect Daitobest’s sales or identify problem areas in order to improve customer service.

Better View of Customers
Great Plains’s Field Service Management module provides Daitobest with a better view of its thousands of customers and their purchasing and service details. “This gives us a better understanding of our customers’ needs,” Lau remarks.

For example, the system captures information such as frequency of service for individual customers, time taken to resolve service calls, product serial numbers and warranties. Previously, such information was written on paper and only submitted to the headquarters at the end of each month.

The deployment of Great Plains has contributed to greater accountability among Daitobest’s technical staff and improved customer service. With Great Plains, all service calls to the branches are immediately keyed into the system. “This enables us to monitor how long it takes the technician to attend to the service call. Previously, if they took one week, nobody will know because they keep the hard copy records.”

“The records could also be changed to show that calls were attended to earlier. However, with Great Plains, once the information is input into the system, it cannot be deleted without us knowing about it,” explains Lau. This promotes greater accountability and keeps the technical staff on their toes, ensuring that they provide improved levels of service to customers.

Enhanced Security Features
Great Plains provides Daitobest with greater confidence that the company’s financial information is not tampered with. Under the previous solution, anybody could access the system to modify the records. “Changes could be made without us knowing it,” Lau says.

However, Great Plains’ enhanced security features locks unauthorized access to financial records. “Great Plains also has user ID tracking that alerts us whenever unauthorized modifications are made.”

Lau says that Great Plains’ advanced security features were a key reason why Daitobest decided to deploy the solution.

End.