Do ERP functions really deliver optimal results for business management? Let's find out through the story of the difficulties faced by, and the way ERP functions were applied at, a large Vietnamese logistics business - SBI JSC, which operates in transport - shared below!

ERP functions

About the business

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Que Vo II New Urban Area, Phuong Mao Commune, Que Vo District, Bac Ninh Province, SBI JSC (SBI) provides service packages such as:

• Goods storage and warehouse leasing.

• Paperwork processing, customs procedures, and import and export of goods.

• All-inclusive freight transport and forwarding.

After more than 10 years of operation and growth, SBI has so far achieved outstanding results such as:

• Owning a large warehouse system with a floor area of up to 15,000 m2, fully equipped with modern equipment to best meet and support customers' needs.

• Working with more than 300 large, medium and small partners in many fields across the country, such as YCH, DEASUN, CANON, TAN CANG, GALTRONICS, FOXCONN...

SBI has steadily established its reputation and brand position, becoming a strong transport company in Bac Ninh province and the whole of northern Vietnam, and has received the Outstanding Enterprise award and many other prestigious titles.

SBI JSC is one of the strong companies in transport (logistics) in Bac Ninh province and the whole of northern Vietnam

The business's difficulties and challenges

Alongside its successes, SBI has also faced many difficulties and challenges.

Before applying ERP functions, the company's work processing was difficult because of inconsistent management software between departments (each department used different software), leaving SBI with fragmented, hard-to-manage information and unsynchronized data. This easily led to unwanted omissions and losses in operations.

Manual management methods made the company's work processing difficult

In addition, SBI's processing and dispatching of its vehicle fleet - managing transport operations, information and costs - was still entirely manual, based on paper ledgers or Excel. This no longer suited today's increasingly technological era and caused SBI major difficulties and challenges, such as:

• Managing transport operations:

  With large volumes of data on customers booking vehicles, dispatching, controlling vehicles in and out and changes during dispatch..., manual records in ledgers or Excel are very hard to control, prone to missing information, can't guarantee accuracy and take a lot of time when information needs to be found again.

• Information management:
  To work with large customers, a business needs to demonstrate its professionalism and provide all the information customers request about operations and schedules, such as drivers and times in and out and of pickup... However, with information recorded piecemeal and data not synchronized or consolidated in one source, as with traditional management, this is very difficult and time-consuming.

• Cost management
  Manually recording costs incurred while waiting to ship (such as waiting time) is often incomplete. This makes cost management, accounting and bookkeeping difficult and ineffective.

An ERP system implementation solution for logistics

To solve SBI's difficulties and obstacles, SmartBiz advised on and re-standardized SBI's operating processes. Through automated tools, the system can update operations in real time, helping the business run smoothly, reducing the management burden and delivering better sales and customer service.

Applying an ERP system helps solve the difficulties the business faces

The SmartBiz applications implemented:

Web-based dispatch management app: The software helps the business record, update and manage data on orders, customer lists, vehicle bookings, vehicles, drivers, vehicle status and booking history completely and in real time. This makes it easy for the business to track and manage transport effectively, accurately and quickly.

Dispatch management app login screen

The app provides detailed vehicle information

Detailed vehicle booking orders

Clear order status information

Easily track journeys

Mobile dispatch management app (for drivers): designed with a phone interface for drivers. It manages driver information such as name, address, phone number, email, driving license...

Sales management app: an app that helps the business manage everything from quotations to creating orders for customers. It records the entire history of sales orders and prices transacted, making management more effective and avoiding missed orders and mistakes in processing sales orders.

Contract management app: lets the business manage information on all existing contracts with customers and reminds it to renew or terminate contracts as they near their end date.

Accounting app: All the data on contracts, costs, orders... needed for the business's accounting is consolidated automatically and used across all departments. This helps the business keep good control of cash flows in and out, ensures high accuracy in transactions and prevents money from being lost.

The accounting app helps the business keep good control of cash flows, ensures high accuracy in transactions and prevents money from being lost

With these ERP functions, the business can:

• Automate business processes as far as possible, letting departments coordinate and interact on the same system.

• Track and monitor the status and progress of work specifically and clearly, from request to completion.

• Get real-time, multi-dimensional reports that provide accurate, unified data in one source, serving the management needs of many different departments.

• With its smart design, the software is very user-friendly and easy to use, and can be expanded or upgraded when system requirements change.

Learn more: The top 5 reasons ERP software dominates businesses

Conclusion

From this account of the difficulties faced by SBI and how they were solved by using ERP software with the ERP functions above, you can see the outstanding benefits this system brings - a convincing answer to the question of ERP's effectiveness.

With ERP as the solution's foundation, its modular architecture allows phased implementation or flexible customization of existing applications while making it easy to develop new business applications as the business grows and matures.

To experience a breakthrough in your company's management and lay the groundwork for further growth in the future, get in touch with SmartBiz now for advice and support from our experts as soon as possible!