abas ERP is making information smooth

Growth creates new needs

“We carry about 1,000 products and have more than 6,000 enterprise customers in Hong Kong and Mainland China,” demonstrates Mr. Avan Cheung, General Manager at Sunny Chemicals, his enterprise. “This rapid growth had resulted in a complex, dense supply chain process and a very complicated data management system.” Without a comprehensive and reliable system to address this situation, Sunny Chemicals was at risk of losing business because of inefficient operations, workflow delays and poor communications.

Amid this challenge for structural change, Sunny Chemicals was also required to generate over 100 reports every month for its principal business partners. Containing mission-critical information for business evaluation, analysis and forecast, these reports utilized data from the company’s different branches in China, with a dedicated staff member in Hong Kong assigned to manually coordinate the collection, consolidation and production of the reports every day. Yet this laborious system was not only a waste of valuable manpower in both the company’s headquarters and its branch offices, but was also vulnerable to human error and data delays.

“What we needed to streamline and improve this process was a powerful and high-performance computing system,” explained Avan. “We really needed access to up-to-the-minute business information to make important time-to-market decisions. This was decisive for us to maintain our competitive edge and business growth.”

Quality in management

Driven by a management philosophy of ‘pursuing excellence in quality’, Sunny Chemicals not only achieved the internationally-acclaimed ISO9001:2000 certification, but also decided to implement a corporate-wide ERP system.

After evaluating over 20 vendors from Hong Kong, Mainland China and other countries, the company was still unable to find a suitable solution. At an event for prospective customers in 2005 we noticed the extraordinary power and functionality of the Linux-based abas ERP solution. Sunny Chemicals immediately recognized the advantages, which would help to usher in a new era of growth and profitability.

abas ERP fulfills the requests

“After reviewing the successful reference cases of abas ERP applications at the event, we realized the solution’s functionality, high manageability and robust flexibility perfectly matched our business and requirements,” said Avan.

Sunny wanted to operate and run the company’s increasingly complex and dense supply chain process. The management should be enabled to access mission-critical information and up-to-the-minute reports for business evaluation, analysis and forecast. A comprehensive data management system was to be established that can process and handle data from the company’s many branches throughout China.

Real-time critical data and business intelligence

After one year in development, the system was test-run in April 2006. Even during this test period, Sunny Chemicals found that the new system enabled significant improvements in operational efficiency and productivity.

“The new system automated our entire operations, from sales, purchasing, and inventory management to shipment and delivery,” explained Avan. “This greatly shortened our supply chain cycle. We have greatly benefited from the automated data management process. All reports are now generated with just a click. This not only saves manpower, but also speeds up our response-to-market capability by providing an instant view of real-time business intelligence.” The solution has also helped Sunny Chemicals maintain good relationships with its principals, who now use the company’s timely, comprehensive business reports and analysis to make more accurate business forecasts and develop more effective business strategies.“

• Automated workflow and streamlined processes improve both operational efficiency and staff productivity
• Innovative mobile escalation and sales approval procedure boosts the company’s competitive edge and revenue growth
• Centralized data processing provides an accurate, real-time window for data reporting and evaluation, improving response-to-market capability
• Improves relationships with principals by providing timely, comprehensive business reports and analysis
• Improves the accuracy of business forecasts and the effectiveness of business strategies
• Lowers TCO by enabling dramatic savings on licensing costs, long-term maintenance and future upgrade expenditure

Company profile Sunny Chemicals (H.K.) Ltd.

Sunny Chemicals (H.K.) Limited looks back on a quick growth. Founded in 1997, Sunny Chemicals started with 30 employees and now employs over 160 people.

Nowadays Sunny is the sole agent in Hong Kong and Mainland China for a variety of chemical products, including pigments, coatings and plastics additives, wax additives and coating resins.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, the company operates a network of 12 sales offices throughout Mainland China and Macau.