Science Arts Co., Pte Ltd
Integrated system as a remedy for manual and repetitive work.
Company Background
Science Arts Co. Pte Ltd was set up in 1969 and has been dealing with Chinese herbal and health care products for almost 30 years. Science Arts’ products are mainly marketed under its own ‘Mei Hua’ brand. At the same time, the company is also the sole distributor for some renowned brands in Chinese herbal products such as Beijing’s ‘Tong Ren Tang’, Yunnan’s ‘Yunnan Bai Yao’ as well as Guangzhou’s ‘Yang Cheng’ brand. The company started with selling medical accessories and equipment and subsequently entered the Chinese herbal remedy market in the mid-seventies when Chinese herbal remedy became a thriving industry.
Today, Science Arts has become the industry leader with a catalog of more than 1000 products including imported, processed and repackaged items. The company has a workforce of 40 staff and operates from its own building which houses the admin office and a production plant for processing and packing products under its own brand, ‘Mei Hua’ (blossom plum), a brand name which it is actively building up.
Science Arts has an annual turnover of nearly 10 million dollars and derives most of its revenue locally through established channels including traditional Chinese medicine shops, Chinese medical halls, provision shops, department stores and pharmaceutical chains. Some of its products are also exported to neighboring countries as well as Europe.
"Mei Hua" brand by Science Arts
Management Foresight
With increase in products and business transactions, the company’s visionary founder and managing director, Mr. Tan Lee Huak who is also a council member of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SCCCI) felt that Science Arts should not rely on manual processing in the long run as this will increase the its overheads and limit its growth. Tan’s long-term plan is to introduce modern management into his traditional business and the implementation of an integrated IT solution is part of this plan.
Science Arts started using computerized system to manage its accounts in the early 90’s. With rapid growth in the business, the computerized system which was put together on a piece-meal approach no longer meet its business requirements. Efficient sales force management becomes crucial to the expansion of the business.
Tan, recognizing a lack of IT knowledge within the company, engaged an external IT consultant to study its requirements and to source for a suitable solution for his company.
Business Challenge
Science Arts operates under a bilingual environment. Like any company, it uses English for accounting and reporting. However, due to the nature of its products, it has to make use of the Chinese language for more appropriate product description. Additionally, as it sells its products to traditional Chinese medical shops and physician, the ability to print product description in Chinese on delivery orders and invoices is also crucial to the company’s business.
Inventory is also another concern for Science Arts. It wanted an inventory management system that is integrated to its accounting module. As the company processes and packages products under it own label, product assembly feature is also required to management manufactured products and their components. Also, for most products, tracking of batch numbers and expiry dates is another challenge for Science Arts due to their perishable nature.
Science Arts hires a team of field sales representatives to service its local customers. Revenue from its local sales accounts for a considerable part of its turnover. It is therefore necessary for Science Arts to also integrate its local sales activities to its back-end system in order to provide customers with prompt and reliable service.
Every sales reps at Science Arts is equipped with a HP PDA, installed with the bilingual biz-e-Motion MobileSale program.
Implementation
After evaluating solution proposed by several vendors, Science Arts eventually adopted the e-Solution financial management and distribution management system at the back-end and also a mobile sales automation solution for management of van sales. The developer of the solution, Silk Technologies did the implementation and conducted training for its staff.
Silk Technologies also set up the entire network, consisting of a HP server as the enterprise server and several HP workstations for order processing and inventory management tasks.
Back-end Solution
With the e-Solution Business suite in place, Science Arts is able to save manpower due to elimination of duplicated work. The system has integrated sales, purchase and inventory modules that are linked to the financial modules including payables, receivables, general ledger and cash management. Science Arts no longer need to manually update its accounts as sales, purchase and inventory transactions can now update the respective financial modules. Management of inventory has also improved significantly with better reorder triggering as well as enhanced picking and delivery processes.
e-Solution Business suite comes with superior language feature allowing Science Arts to enjoy the convenience of having both the English and Chinese languages in a single copy of program. Users can switch between English and Chinese version with a single mouse click. Important fields such as product description and customer name are stored and printed in both languages.
Science Arts uses the product assembly module to manage its production. It allows definition of components and packaging materials for each item as well as caters to absorption of production overheads, reducing the need for manual costing. This module is integrated to the inventory module which eventually updates the financial modules. Coupled with the use of batch number and expiry date tracking feature, Science Arts has achieved better management of production and inventory control for products under its own ‘Mei Hua’ label. This is certainly in line with its plan to build up the brand name.
Reports generated by the system have also enabled Science Arts to better manage its inventory level. Managers now make replenishment based on sales performance and inventory reports rather than on incremental estimates.
Field Sales Automation
Automation of field sales activities was achieved by the implementation of the biz-e-Motion MobileSales solution. With this system, Science Arts was able to achieved further reduction in manual work.
biz-e-Motion makes use of PDAs to record transactions as well as access information. Each sales rep is equipped with a HP PDA for this purpose. The PDAs exchange data with the back-end database through online or wireless synchronization. With the PDAs, sales reps are able to check product and customer information when they are out in the field. Availability of information such as customer’s outstanding orders, invoices, credit available and product availability are helpful to sales reps.
In addition, sales reps are able to enter sales orders, sales returns, collections and other transactions in their PDAs. The system’s support for multiple addresses allows sales reps to indicate the delivery address for each sales order. Staff at the back-end need not key-in these sales transactions again as they are uploaded into the system through synchronization. Once processed, logistic staff can pick and delivery the orders according to the delivery address.
With smoother field sales operation, sales reps are able to provide customers with better services leading to increased sales. At the same time, friction between the back-end staff and sales reps are reduced with elimination of manual processing.
Transactions can be entered into the PDA.
PDA used by outbound salesperson.
Post Implementation
The back-end system was well accepted by its users. It has helped them acquire new skills while reducing the need for manual work. Field sales reps though skeptical about using PDAs initially, have become more dependent on their trusty devices as they have proven to be a handy tool in account servicing.
With the complete system in place, Tan is able to focus on pursuing overseas markets for possible business opportunities. “Silk Technologies offers more than just software and hardware products. It helped us to apply for government grants, arrange with HP for a leasing program to lighten cash flow, identify suitable mobile equipment as well as set up a total network for us.” Tan said in an interview with a local IT magazine.
Science Arts selected the total solution from Silktech as the latter adopts a long-term partnership approach and is committed to creating a win-win situation for the partnership. As the developer of the solution, Silktech is able to provide Science Arts with continuous program updates as new requirements are identified. Also, Silktech has the capacity to cater to Science Arts’ IT needs, and hence served as an IT outsourcing partner for Science Arts.
Financing
The expenditure on the project was financed by a HP leasing program arranged by Silk Technologies. This has helped Science Arts to reduce the impact on its cash flow.
Silk Technologies also submitted the application for Science Arts to claim part of the IT investment cost from the government under the Local Enterprise Assistance Scheme (LETAS) upon completing the project. This scheme is designed to help Science Arts and other qualifying companies defray the cost of their IT investments. Qualifying companies can claim part of the stipulated costs under the scheme.
For more information on Science Arts Co., Pte Ltd, please visit www.sciencearts.com
Science Arts Co., Pte Ltd
150 Macpherson Road
Science Arts Building
Singapore 348524
Tel: [65] 6744 2651
Fax: [65] 6745 1235
Overview
Company:
Science Arts Co. Pte Ltd
Industry:
Chinese Herbal Remedy
Business Activities:
Import, manufacture and distribute Chinese herbal remedy products.
Business Challenge:
1. Integrate inventory management with finance to reduce manual
work.
2. Toggle between English and Chinese languages.
3. Better management of manufactured products under own brand name.
4. Integrate field sales activities for smoother operation.
Solutions Implemented:
Financial Management
Distribution Management
MobileSales Automation
Program Used:
e-Solution Accounting
e-Solution Distribution
biz-e-Motion MobileSales
Hardware:
HP server
HP workstation
HP PDA