The WaterMan Co., Ltd. ( Shanghai )

Company Background

To depict WaterMan as a large mainland manufacturing and distribution company is no exaggeration. It is currently the second largest pure water vendor in Shanghai. It has got an extensive network, with 150 water stations (distribution points) in mainland China.

Challenges

In this Internet age, speed and responsiveness to market is of paramount importance. However, the antiquated system that WaterMan employed could hardly fulfill the above criteria. "In the past, it took several minutes to update a sales order. The standard time needed to generate an Account Receivable Report was 4 hours. Though we wanted to hasten the processing speed, we did not have the resources and know-how to do so." explained Mr. Ambrose Ng, the Finance Director of WaterMan. Mr. Ng found it hard for them to trace the actual amount of sales and inventory level of individual outlets, overstock or shortage arose due to miscommunication with distributors. "We are feeling the heat of intense competition in the market." said Mr. Ng. "If this drawback remains unchecked, our profit margin could no longer cover our loss in wastages of water supply. Counter-measures are certainly needed to remedy the current situation."

Solution

With the help of ESP, the central management of Waterman could now keep track of the number of end users and the inventory channels. Mr. Ng said, "The business-to-business module of ESP is very helpful to the kind of distribution business that we conduct with our distribution outlets. We could now centralize all our customer orders at our headquarters."

"Previously, the distribution channels kept on placing orders for water with stock in hand. Thus, we often identify a substantial amount of surplus inventory at the distribution points at year end," stated Mr. Ng. Certainly, ESP enables WaterMan to closely monitor the amount of stock (water) that each distribution point stores. Mr. Ng continued, "After deploying the B2B module of ESP, we would supply water to the distribution channels only if we verify that there is a need. The number of sales orders assigned to each distribution channels is used as a crosscheck for the actual inventory status. Therefore, optimization of water supply is achieved."

Expenditure on communication for WaterMan also decreases as information is being transferred through the low-cost Internet. Furthermore, ESP offers real-time remote access of information. This facilitates instantaneous information update and retrieval. Mr. Ng concluded, "The revolutionary change B.E.L. Solutions Ltd. brought to our company has a profound impact on our sales and distribution operations. It surely takes our company to a new horizon."

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