Customer Success Stories Successful ERP Implementation - Hasil Karya
Hasil Karya Improves Field Service and Reputation with Acumatica
Download Case Study
Acumatica Cloud ERP solution for Hasil Karya
Headquarters
Balakong, Malaysia
Industry
Distribution
Apps Replaced
New to Cloud ERP

Hasil Karya

  • Gained an affordable, robust, modern distribution platform, streamlining operations
    for future growth
  • Acquired real-time reporting for better decision-making
  • Improved customer service, providing accurate and timely delivery information to customers
  • Connected remote field teams with mobile apps eliminating wasteful calls back to the office
  • Improved accuracy and timeliness of sales commissions, boosting employee satisfaction
  • Streamlined the 'quote-to-cash” process, saving time and improving cash flow
  • Improved scheduling, saving time and optimizing technician resources
  • Gained transparency into container movement, tariffs, landed costs, and shipping schedules,
    improving customer service
  • Implemented mobile access for the field service team, providing engineers access to project
    details including customer and equipment details
Robert Tee
"With Acumatica, there’s been a lot of improvement in our process flows and customers are more satisfied."
Robert Tee, General Manager
Hasil Karya
Challenges
ERP Solution
Outcome
Challenges

Challenges

Challenges

Hasil Karya is an ISO-certified operation with over 50 employees. The company imports over 100 types of machines globally from Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, and other countries. The Balakong-based business supports machinery sales with an in-house after-sales service team.

Hasil Karya was founded when Senior Mr. Tee recognized Malaysian cottage businesses were growing and transforming into original equipment manufacturers, realizing the country’s businesses would eventually need to increase productivity. Senior Mr. Tee began importing machines, including Chinese brands, and later expanded the business to include machinery repair and maintenance.

Today, Senior Mr. Tee and his two sons are taking Hasil Karya to the next level with a strategy based on long-term brand investments, disciplined sales execution, innovation, and focused cost management.

For 13 years, Hasil Karya used an ERP from US to manage the business, but as the company grew, the maintenance fees became overwhelming, says Junior Mr. Tee, general manager. The ERP system ran on-premises, didn’t support mobile access for sales or the field services team, and was not scalable.

In addition, “the vendor had outsourced the ERP support to an individual, which was not sustainable,” Junior Mr. Tee says.

When Hasil Karya launched the previous ERP system, the company had 15 employees and purchased 16 user licenses. Today, however, the company has 53 employees, including a 22-person engineering team that operates in the field. The engineers did not have access to critical information while on job sites.

“When the business grew and we added more people, the processes got much more complicated,” Junior Mr. Tee says.

 

Dedicated Scheduler Required

To manage the field service team, Hasil Karya needed a dedicated coordinator to schedule technicians and manually hand out information. The coordinator printed out job forms, handed them to technicians, and answered questions when needed. Engineers traveling to customer sites sometimes called for address verification, customers called asking when engineers would arrive on site, and the coordinator sometimes called engineers to learn when they would arrive at a customer job.

“We didn’t have any transparency,” Mr. Junior Tee says. “The process was quite tedious and annoying. If a customer had a question, they called the salesperson, who had to ask the coordinator about an engineer, which meant the coordinator had to call the engineer, then get back to the sales person, who would then call the customer back.”

Without remote access from the field, Hasil Karya was reluctant to purchase additional ERP user licenses. Instead, it hired a developer to write a custom field service application. “Our mindset during that time was we thought SAP was the best,” Mr. Junior Tee says. “We didn’t do much research, which was a big mistake.”

 

Disconnected Departments

Hasil Karya had other challenges with the old ERP system, Junior Mr. Tee says. When Covid hit and trade shows were canceled, the company turned to social media to find prospects. But there was no way to track leads after the initial contact.

Although they entered the information into a spreadsheet, leads were then emailed to sales, which had its own process. Follow-up statuses weren’t always recorded in the original spreadsheet. Managers had to call each salesperson to learn the results of a lead, which was time-consuming and challenging due to the substantial number of potential leads.

 

Lacked Field Services

Processes within the old ERP system weren’t connected, says Junior Mr. Tee. For example, purchase orders weren’t connected to sales orders, which led to several errors. Some sales orders weren’t fulfilled because sales forgot to tell the purchasing team, or when purchasing forgot to book a verbal order. Or, without insight into inventory, sales could take an order for an item that wasn’t in stock.

Locating specific inventory items wasn’t sufficient because information about each brand and item were housed in separate databases, he says. “We had to log out and log into another database to get information, and then log out and log back in.”

Meanwhile, the custom field service application developer failed to deliver a working product. “Then we started to do some research and found that complete field service modules are available and a lot of ERPs have them,” Junior Mr. Tee says. “We terminated the project because we realized the scope was too big, the app company couldn’t develop it for us, and it would not work.”

ERP Solution

ERP Solution

Cloud-Based Acumatica with Field Service

“When Covid hit, we realized that the old ERP system could not cope with our operation,” Junior Mr. Tee says. “We couldn’t access the system because it was on an in-house server and difficult to connect to with the VPN.”

In addition, Covid “really made us feel and realize the importance of cloud,” he says. The Hasil Karya team considered upgrading the old ERP system, but decided against it. They evaluated Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Odoo, Oracle NetSuite, and Acumatica Distribution Edition.

“We took four months to survey ERP applications because this was a change of our DNA and would be the backbone of the company. We couldn’t afford to make a mistake,” Junior Mr. Tee says.

“Microsoft Dynamics Business Central didn’t really have field service; it offered two different databases that we knew would be very hectic when we upgraded. Microsoft bought a field service company, but it isn’t integrated successfully,” Junior Mr. Tee says. “NetSuite doesn’t have (native) field services but had an app that was developed in Australia by a company in the same industry as us. It fit us perfectly, but we didn’t choose it because it was more expensive than NetSuite and doubled the price.”

Odoo, he says, was less expensive “but I heard it was open source and the upgrade might be tricky, so we didn’t go for it.”

Hasil Karya chose Acumatica because it was cloud-based, had native field service, offered unlimited user licenses, and was a connected, end-to-end comprehensive business suite.

Acumatica partner Awansoft Technology Sdn Bhd deployed Acumatica for Hasil Karya in seven months.

Outcome

Outcome

With Acumatica, Hasil Karya employees are more connected and well informed, Junior Mr. Tee says. The field service and sales teams are more productive because they can access the system anywhere the Internet is available.

Acumatica has digitally transformed the company and Junior Mr. Tee anticipates higher revenues and increased profits.

“I can access it anywhere on the go,” he says. “Last October I went to Germany and was quite frustrated when I couldn’t log in because something was wrong with the VPN. Everything was lagging and really a pain.”

“Once we went live with Acumatica, I grabbed an iPad when I was meeting a customer. The customer requested a price and, immediately in front of him, I did a quotation and sent him a bid. He printed it out and gave me an order and signed it.”

“That was impossible to do before.”

 

On-The-Spot Orders: A Game Changer

Taking and placing an order on-the-spot is an important game changer, he says. “A lot of time the purchase is on impulse, so when you are over that moment, they might change their mind. Even a half a day delay and the result might be different.”

The sales team has seen similar gains from access from the field. They can check pricing, inventory, create sales quotes, and book orders on the go, Junior Mr. Tee says.

Using information in the native CRM, company executives can view sales activities, which gives them a more accurate picture of the company’s pipeline. With access to shipping information, sales improved customer satisfaction because they can provide more accurate delivery dates to customers.

With access to more in-depth real-time data, sales commissions are more accurate and timelier. Previously, they were delayed by the company’s manual processes that took days to complete.

 

Field Service Saved Time

Hasil Karya’s field service engineers and the coordinator regained countless hours and are more productive now that they have access to critical information wherever they go. They no longer have to commute to the head office to gather paper-based schedules and information, nor do they attend a meeting where schedules are handed out.

Instead, they view schedules, check customer information, have access to equipment information, and can view the customer order status in real time from home or on the road. “No more printouts are needed,” says Junior Mr. Tee. “Before, our service coordinator needed to collect all the paper documents from each technician and re-key it into the system and do filing. Technicians now enter that information into the system. And the most wonderful thing is now everyone knows the schedule and the status of the appointment live.”

Using a digital technician calendar board allows the company to better plan its engineer utilization, which has allowed them to schedule employees efficiently and minimize downtime.

The number of phone calls from field technicians and sales has decreased considerably because everyone has access to customer information, including historical data on equipment maintenance, Junior Mr. Tee says.

 

Increased Productivity

Because they no longer are interrupted by field service or sales calls looking for information, the finance and administrative teams focus on more strategic tasks. The finance team uses dashboards tailored to their roles, gaining real-time reporting on critical KPIs like field service engineer performance, which Junior Mr. Tee says they didn’t have previously.

Hasil Karya no longer pays a consultant to create Crystal Reports and wait days for the information. Instead, employees can filter data instantly, which helps them make better and faster decisions. “Before we operated just by feeling,” says Junior Mr. Tee. “Now I can sort and have all kinds of information with all kinds of statuses. If I want to look at something, I can just filter the data and access the screen.”

Every department has been united and has access to the business platform according to their level of security access. In addition, the company automated many manual tasks and enjoys monitoring the quote-to-cash process.

With information all in one system and the ability to create alerts and automated processes, customers no longer miss warranty claims against manufacturers’ defects. Inventory is accurate and better controlled, and material requirements planning (MRP) helps the company restock when needed.

 

Third-Party Apps Added Functionality

Because of Acumatica’s open architecture and interoperability with other software, Hasil Karya deployed AcuContainer. This third-party solution allows it to view inventory in transit on the water, in customs, in land transit, or at a foreign dock. This helps the company understand and track expected and actual departure and arrival dates, payment due dates, and custom and duty information, which helps Hasil Karya keep customers informed of product availability.

“We are amazed by Acumatica’s third-party integrations, which allow us to find readily available solutions instead of having to build them from scratch,” Junior Tee says. He looks forward to deploying other third-party solutions, such as Shopify, which he hopes to use to digitize his paper catalog and allow customers to browse and purchase equipment from an online Shopifybased store.

 

Acumatica Increased Sales, Profits

Acumatica has allowed Hasil Karya to increase revenues and profitability, boost customer satisfaction and achieve many operational efficiencies in just a short time of use, Junior Tee says.

“I can see the efficiencies ramping up already,” he says. “With Acumatica, there’s been a lot of improvement in our process flows and customers are more satisfied.”

Discover Related Customer Stories

ComCenter successfully implemented Acumatica Cloud ERP system
ComCenter
Acumatica CRM Fuels 90% Growth and Market Expansion for Religious Book Distributor ComCenter
Mous successfully implemented Acumatica Cloud ERP system
Mous
No Limits for Tech Accessories Innovator Mous with Acumatica Cloud ERP
Cave Direct successfully implemented Acumatica Cloud ERP system
Cave Direct
UK Craft Beer Import Pioneer Cave Direct Conquers Brexit Taxes, Edges out the Competition with…

Ready to see Acumatica in action?