Beijing Tong Ren Tang Science Arts (S) Pte Ltd

Bilingual Retail System for the Chinese Medical Store

Company Background

Beijing Tong Ren Tang Science Arts (S) Pte Ltd is a joint venture between local TCM company, Science Arts Co., Pte Ltd and Beijing Tong Ren Tang, a Chinese medical company that has more than 300 years of history. The joint venture company currently runs a retail store at Chinatown, an ideal location for promoting its traditional Chinese medicine and reaching out to the public.

In China, Beijing Tong Ren Tang manufactures it own products using traditional techniques combined with modern science and technologies. To date, the company has more than 300 retail stores throughout Mainland China.

Since 1993, Tong Ren Tang has set up joint ventures and wholly companies in Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, Korea, Canada, the UK and US. In line with its globalization process, a new company, Beijing Tong Ren Tang International Company Limited was set up to handle international business activities such as marketing, developing new markets, channels and launching of new retail outlets, etc.  The new retail store in Chinatown, Singapore was the first retail store launched by Beijing Tong Ren Tang International since its formation.

Business Requirements

Although Beijing Tong Ren Tang Science Arts started off with only one store in Singapore, the joint venture company’s requirements went beyond that of a simple point-of-sale system.

Besides the ability to keep track of its daily retail sale, inventory movement and accounting function, the company plans to offer medical consultation as well as traditional Chinese massage (Tui na) in the near future. This would require the POS system to be able to handle such forms of transaction and at the same time keep track of customer records and history. Additionally, the system should also cater for additional stores which may be set up in the future. 

Chinese language support is another crucial requirement for the company as most products come with Chinese name and would be more convenient to operate in a Chinese environment.

Implementation

Science Arts has been a user of the e-Solution Suite for the past 3 years, using the distribution, finance and sale force automation subsystems. With the setting up of the joint venture, Science Arts evaluated the Retail subsystem and found it has the features required for the retail operations of Tong Ren Tang.

After deciding on the e-Solution Retail system, the joint venture company went ahead to implement the e-Solution Suite. The developer, Silk Technologies did the implementation and conducted training for its staff.  

The front-end consists of POS system and workstations located at the retail store. The distribution and financial systems are located at the backend server housed in Science Art’s building at McPherson Road. Data exchange between the front end and back end is carried out by the system through dial up networking.

Front-end Solution

The shop front solution consists of 3 workstations for transaction processing, DO printing and printing of reports respectively. There are more than one thousand products in the retail store and the system keep track of the inventory and records all products sold and payment received with sales receipts printed in Chinese characters. 

Besides handling the retail sale transactions, Tong Ren Tang makes use of the sales order feature log in orders received from resellers.

At the end of the day, the staff in-charge would print the daily reports and carry out a cash reconciliation to ensure that all transactions and all forms of payments are properly accounted for. The front-end system is schedule to upload the day’s data to the server at the back-end at the end of the business day.  The front-end system is also updated with new products and prices during the data exchange process.

Beijing Tong Ren Tang's outlet at Chinatown.

Back-end Solution

The backend system consists of distribution and financial subsystems located in Science Arts’ office at McPherson Road. Data received from the retail store is automatically merged into the main database. With the back-end system, staffs are able to support the retail store with efficient purchasing and inventory management.  Management staffs are able to monitor the performance of the retail store using various management reports provided by the back-end system.

Transactions recorded in the distribution and retail subsystems are captured into the financial system on a periodic basis for financial reporting.

Post Implementation

Tong Ren Tang was able to get the system up and running within a short period of time as their Science Arts counterpart is already an existing user of the e-Solution suite. The bilingual toggle feature has not only helped to shorten the learning process for the staff but also proved to be a useful feature in the Chinese medicine industry. With this feature, Tong Ren Tang was able to name their products as they were named in Chinese hence avoiding confusion of similar products.

Overview

 
Company:
Beijing Tong Ren Tang Science Arts (S) Pte Ltd
 
Industry:
Chinese Herbal Remedy
 
Business Activities:
Import, retail Chinese herbal remedy products.
 
Business Challenge:
1. Retail point-of-sale with consultation and service billing.
 

2. Need to cater for future expansion.
 

3. Toggle between English and Chinese languages.
 

4. Integrate retail with backend systems.
 
Solutions Implemented:
Financial Management
Distribution Management
Retail Sale Solution
 
Program Used:
e-Solution Distribution
e-Solution Retail
e-Solution Financial