As we all know, Avex Asia Limited is a famous musical record company. They have various kinds of music, ranging from local to worldwide nations. Avex Asia is very serious about the control and monitor of cost since theproduction cost of disc depends on different aspects of cost calculations. Owing to the growth of the market of CDs, Avex Asia can no longer depend on manual recording and calculation of cost, selling price, and inventory level of each album. They need a complete solution that can accurately calculate the production cost and effectively control inventory in each lot.

What are the factors you consider when choosing an ERP solution?

The famous software- Sun System purchased by our parent company could not fit us. Therefore, we needed to look for another solution that can satisfy all our needs. We understood that the existing software in the market was unlikely to fit us perfectly, however, we were also aware of the fact that ordering a tailor-made software would incur unpredicted risks. As a result, we started to look for an ERP solution which could meet our requirements and could integrate with the database of our parent company.

We believed that we could not know whether the system could satisfy our needs unless the demonstrators show us how to handle our special tasks in a real time demonstration. In addition, functions, flexibility, accuracy, stability, security, performance, and interchangeability of data would also be considered.

How does EOA meet your requirements?

Why buy? It is because EOA does give us huge flexibility, and in general, take care of our special and unique needs. We are always focusing on the cost control of each CD or album. During production, we need to calculate different costs, such as the costs of the copyright, salaries of the singers, advertising expenses, as well as costs of production. On top of these, different costs calculations are resulted due to the categorization of each album.

Moreover, due to the huge amount of CDs we release, we urgently needed a solution that would help reducing inventory cost and keeping track of stock level of each album. We could not find any system that is able to solve our complicated operating problems until we met Eastop. We were confident at EOA because Eastop consultants could instantly answer all our questions during the demonstration session.

How do you feel about EOA after implemented?

Finally, we chose EOA. Until now, we are very satisfied with their performance, and we can really feel the flexibility and potential of the system. During implementation, Eastop consultants suggested ways we could have our work done in EOA, according to the workflow of our company. This helped us utilize those useful functions in EOA smoothly and efficiently. Apart from the reasons mentioned above, we do believe that we made a right choice of choosing EOA. This can be proved by the accuracy of cost calculation, real-time inventory level display, complete functionality and data interchangeability of sales and purchase management, T-codes of the accounting system, different types of sales, purchasing, inventory and accounting reports. We were never disappointed by the EOA system.

Furthermore, the T-code function is what we appreciate most. By using T-code, we can now work with the system of our parent company. On the other hand, we can also build up complicated, but valuable accounting reports for analysis. We have been using EOA for almost two years, and the performance is very stable. The accuracy of the data, the speed and flexibility of the system, and their after-sales support service satisfied all our complicated requirements.

Centralfield Computer Ltd, established in 1983, is one of the most successful computer system assemblers/ sellers in Hong Kong. You may have seen or tried a hardware price quoting system in the Sham Shui Po Golden Computer Centre. Did you find the screen of the system familiar? Yes, it is a product of Eastop.

What were the factors you consider when choosing business software?

Have you tried any other application software before using EOA?

We have tried a number of application software before the adoption of EOA system. Unfortunately, none of these software could centrally handle and manage the huge database. As a matter of fact, we could not stop using the software temporarily, thus we have to use several different application software at the same time to compensate each other's shortage. Data were not linked within different software, and even between modules in individual software. As a result, our employees needed to enter the data repeatedly into different software systems. It is time consuming and prone to errors. When inconsistent data were obtained from different software, our employees needed to chase back the reason and find out which software has gone wrong. This was not only time and human resources consuming, but also contrary to our principle of centralized management of data.

What make you choose Eastop ERP system?

We understood that using several software at the same time to manage our business was ineffective in the long run. Therefore, we determined to search for a new system that can handle and centrally manage our tremendous transactions and huge database. After attending two demonstration sessions, we were impressed by EOA's ability to centrally manage enormous data at a high speed. Another attractiveness of EOA System was the linkages between its modules. Once entered, the same data could be used in other modules. This could reduce the time and human resource for inputting data, and also the errors caused by the redundant entries. EOA System solved all the problems we were facing!

Comments after implementing EOA

EOA meets all our requirements and it greatly reduces the unnecessary tasks we did in the past. We can even implement EOA in our retail stores to provide a 'buffet-style' hardware price quoting service. The data is shown accurately, stably and quickly. In addition, the support team of Eastop is helpful in providing us professional opinion and technical support. In short, we greatly appreciate the overall performance of EOA.

Did you look for other software with similar functions after the maintenance period has ended?

We determined to terminate the maintenance service one year after the implementation of EOA System. There were mainly two reasons: Firstly, we had plenty of professional I.T. experts, who could monitor and maintain the operation of our database. Secondly, since our database was growing rapidly due to our enormous data, with the constraint of Assess Database (upper limit 1 GB) on a File Server, the system would soon be overloaded and eventually, affect the performance of the whole system.

During the 3 months we stopped maintenance, our management staff tried to look for EOA alike application software in the market, but we failed. Later on, we were acknowledged that there was a SQL version of EOA, so we immediately consulted Mr. Lewis Wong, the Principal Consultant of Eastop, and attended a demonstration session. We reckoned it as a perfect solution to us. As a result, we not only paid for the yearly maintenance fee, but also upgraded the existing EOA system into SQL version. To solve the performance problem caused by the expanding database, we implemented a server with a 3-Tiers architecture, which also support real-time updating. The system now fulfilled our requirements of centralized management and real-time updating at a high speed. Furthermore, SQL database had an upper limit of database size of 1,048,512TB theoretically, which implies no upper limits when comparing to the GB we were using. The security issues of the database were also improved as well. This version perfectly met all of our requirements.

Date of Interview: September 2000

**P.S: in year 2004, Centralfield has developed several retail shops in Hong Kong from one retail shop in Golden Computer Centre since adoption of Eastop ERP system. It is now a BTO (build to order) notebook provider.

Dragon Technology Distribution Co., Ltd (hereafter, Dragon) is an international company specializing in electronic trading. They have established branches in Asia, and several big cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Wuhan. Being a typical electronic trading company, the focus of Dragon are resource management, speed of information interchangeability, and message sharing. Following is extracted from the customer survey we had on Dragon six months after they adopted EOA

Increased efficiency with EOA System Management Before using EOA System, most of our employees were busy entering, updating or searching product information from those Excel worksheets. You had seen the exact situation and the messy desks when you came to our office. Every time they needed to look for an unfamiliar product, it would just be a nightmare. This was not the working environment we wanted. We wanted our employees to have a complete solution and get rid of those complicated and repeating torture. We wanted our staffs concentrating on the managerial tasks, put more efforts on expanding the market and increasing the working efficiency. We had a difficult time three months before the implementation of EOA system since we had to enter the basic data into the system. However, all these paid back eventually because we felt much comfortable and convenient in material management. The speed was also improved.

Furthermore, since all the data would be updated immediately in all modules after we had entered the data once, we could edit record browser anytime we want. Finally, the code of our electronic products would be as long as 20 characters as they were coded in international coding. EOA system could support fast searching and sorting functions for these products and we could find the data we need by inputting 1 to 3 related strings.

Flexible and Accurate Material Requirement Management

As we all know, the product types of electronic business are almost unlimited. Also, the inventory and supply / demand levels are varied among products, so a good control of material is very important. We have to deliver goods to customer on time as requested on one hand, and we have to control the material stock on the other hand as to minimize the tiding up of current capital, speed up the cash turnover and reduce the product costs.

EOA has tailor-made new functions related to Material Requirement Management for us. The system will base on the Estimate Delivery Date (ETD), Delivery Date and Purchase module Estimate Arrival Date (ETA) to calculate Required Quantity, Stock Quantity, On hold Quantity, Net Required Quantity, Estimated Received Quantity, Estimated Delivery Quantity, Minimum Stock Quantity, Minimum Order Quantity and Minimum Packing Quantity, and finally figure out the actual required quantities of material by loading the data from the unfinished production plans, sales orders, purchase orders, existing stock quantities. A series of Purchase orders can then be auto-generated and the inventory will be assigned to different warehouses.

System will give users suggestions on delay PO, new PO, cancel PO in material requirement planning according to the priority of the orders. After we implement this function, we can easily calculate the actual material requirement daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Moreover, based on different unpredictable events, we can even rearrange the plans, schedules, and orders. Being senior managerial staffs, we can now monitor the status of sales, purchase, inventory and finance at anytime we want to. These helps us improve our decision making process, and enhance our competitive advantages.

Remote control management, instant security Since our branches are in different locations or cities in Asia and China, our products need to be allocated freely from time to time. Therefore, we needed to grab the information on sales, purchase, inventory, and finance at almost anytime. After buying EOA system, we adopted the solution suggested by Eastop consultants on remote location management. All data were inputted directly into the main server. When accidents, such as electricity or internet access problems, occur on the client side, no data would be lost. We were pleased with this feature since we could see exactly the same screen again despite we disconnected the internet access when we were using EOA. Moreover, we could now see all the message information from all the regions. This achieved our goal of instant information exchange and message sharing.

Furthermore, it could print out different kinds of forms and reports, based on our requirements. We might even export the data conveniently to Excel, dbase, RTF, HTML, SQL and PDF formats for later editing or sorting.

In short, we believe that suitable ERP software does help us improve our efficiency, save our time, and provide a well-planned operation workflow. On top of that, managing the corporation via ERP software has been a trend in IT. We are happy that we are on the track already.

Date of Interview: September 2001

**P.S: Dragon was a less than 100 staffs' company upon adoption of Eastop ERP system. In 2004, Dragon is a several hundreds people company and is now preparing to list on the stock market.

Tung Fang Mei Enterprise Co. Ltd (hereafter TFM) is the agency of various Japanese cosmetics brands, such as RMK, Kanebo, etc., who is also possessing cosmetics counters themselves. Supporting sales and inventory control, instant remote messaging computer system, and precisely control the cost of each counter are the indispensable functions they are looking for in a system. These made TFM chose EOA System among all other solutions. Let's see how TFM think about EOA:

Customization of the screen and User Authority Control

We were using a tailor-made system before purchasing the EOA system. However, we could not modify the input screen and all the fields had to be filled. Even though default values were provided, we still needed to press the TAB key to skip over in order to have the work done. As a result, we had to pass through several screens for making one invoice. This was time-consuming and could not match the future planning of our company.

The simplicity offered by EOA impressed us! It could divide the screens into groups and hide the unnecessary fields. For example, the invoice screen at the counters would be much simpler than that in the office. With a Barcode scanner, it now costs less than one minute to create an invoice. At the same time, the grouping of screens strengthened the company security. For instance, we can set only accounting, purchasing, or management staffs are permitted to see the cost field. Users can also define which fields are compulsory/ should be hided/ should be displayed, as to ensure the tailor-made form is a simple, clear, and accurate one. For example, inputting brand names and types of the products in the Product Maintenance Screen.

Fast and precise query of data

It was time consuming to make enquiry in the old system since we had to exit the current screen in order to get into another screen to look for the information we needed. As a result, time is consumed in repeating the steps. In contrast, EOA System allows double-clicking the fields on current screen to obtain all the relevant information of this specific field. More importantly, the content of this information could be added, erased, or even divided into groups. For instance, the Product Maintenance screen of normal users will not show the cost field.

The magic use of T-code

In the old system, we could only use the Sub-Ledger method to control cost, i.e. manually calculate the gross profit of each brand, and then get the net profit of them with the help of Excel. During the EOA demonstration session, we were introduced T-code to enhance our cost control. Eastop consultants setup the T-code and explained to us when we were uncertain about the usefulness of the T-code at the beginning. After a month, when we received the balance sheet of each counter and the tailor-made T-code profit and loss sheet, showing the net profit of different brands in each counter, we had no choices but to believe that EOA System could analysis the data in several dimensions in just a single data-entry. The profit and loss sheet of each brand and the balance sheet of each counter could be printed out for any past months/ years. These would definitely fulfill economic effectiveness of cost control.

We have been using EOA System for two years. We do appreciate the overall performance of the software. The quality consulting and supporting services provided by Eastop also established a close relationship between Eastop and TFM.

Date of Interview: March 2002

Wing Shing and Man Shing Photo Supplies Co. Ltd. were founded in Mongkok over 30 years ago. Throughout the years, their famous brands have been built upon the reputation of selling professional photography equipments such as traditional film camera, digital camera and camera accessories. The 3-floor flagship store of Wing Shing Photo Supplies Co. Ltd. was established on 1st September, 2004 at Fa Yuen Street, Mongkok. In recent years, their business has been extended into modern AV and telecommunication consumer products such as mobile phone, MP3 player and AV equipments, etc. Wing Shing and Man Shing are ‘Homes of Dealer Goods’ in Hong Kong, which have been selling 100% dealer goods throughout the 30 years.

The 3 shops of Wing Shing and Man Shing started to use the Eastop ERP System on 1st September, 2004. The adoption of the system not only promoted the efficiency of office’s operation, but also guaranteed stable sales operations and superior customer services at shops. Now, let’s have Mr. Alan Chan - the person-in-charge of Wing Shing and Man Shing Photo Supplies Co. Ltd., to share with us the experience and benefit of using Eastop ERP System.

A truly effective solution, an integrated system

We have been using another POS software before the adoption of Eastop ERP system. Yet the old system could not provide a one-stop complete solution: the POS data need to be input in a separate accounting and inventory system for record and computation, which definitely complicated the working procedures. As our business is expanding unceasingly, we need an effective system to alleviate the heavy workload for our staffs.

Recommended by other companies, we approached Eastop Computer Consultants Ltd. We noticed that their POS system is able to feedback the retail circumstances to the ERP system on one continuous line, which integrates purchase, inventory control and accounting information in a single system. The unification of data makes sophisticated statistical analysis possible, which certainly helped us to maintain competitive edges in the market by delving into sales situations through detailed analysis and carry out varied purchasing and pricing decisions. Above are the main reasons why we purchased Eastop ERP System as soon as on 21st June, 2004 after we approached them on 31st May, 2004, and participated in the 1st system demonstration on 4th June, 2004.

Moreover, AR & A/P are auto-generated from invoices & GRNs by the system, thus preventing the lost of data between the sales & purchase and accounting departments. In fact, this function greatly cuts down the workload of the accounting department.

Instant update of data by working in the server Since tremendous sales and purchase records are entered every single day in the three shops, the stability of the system is pivotal. We employed the method of creating/modifying records directly in the server through remote desktop. As a result, accurate and timely stock information is achieved as every stock movement in shops/within warehouses are instantly updated. The instant update of data not only boosts our operation efficiency, but also improves the quality of customer services we provide.

User-friendly sales operation screen

Undeniably, a simple and user-friendly operation screen is an elementary, but the most vital feature of a POS system. We were attracted by the self-definable screen & field layout during system demonstrations. Throughout the system implementation, Eastop consultants defined the screen layouts, field names, field locations and field sizes, etc. for each module according to our requirements, and recommended us to set certain fields as compulsory or read-only based on their implementation experience accumulated from other POS customers. Their advice turned out to be very useful at reminding the users to input critical data and preventing some user groups from viewing sensitive data fields such as the inventory cost.

Different screen layouts are designed for different user groups as to facilitate varied operational procedures. For instance, our sales flow requires a cashier receipt process (carried out by the cashier) after a sales invoice is issued by a salesman. To cope with these two different steps, Eastop consultants established two user groups, accompanied by two screen layouts for the shops – one for salesmen and one for cashiers. These indeed reduced the input steps and accelerated the sales invoices issuance process.

Flexible multi-payment method

Ever since the ‘INDIVIDUAL TRAVEL’ for PRC travelers was put into practice, many of our PRC customers pay cash in RMB. The function of supporting multi-payment methods in one invoice, such as Unionpay and cash, matched up the current purchasing mode and trend.

Product information – clear at a glance!

We need to check and manage inventories of the three shops in unity as to perform transfer between shops/warehouses and update the prices altogether. We took Eastop’s advice of linking up the product data of the three shops, so user could have clear product information in all three warehouses no matter logging in which database. Apart from the warehouse information, every stocks’ movements could also be checked on screen or in reports instantly.

Tailor-made electric appliance POS functions

Due to the keen competition in the electric appliance retail industry of Hong Kong, prices of electric products are changing almost every second. To cope with this industrial characteristic, Eastop tailored the function for us to instantly adjust price and newly purchasing cost for products. As a result, we are able to response to market news immediately and maintain our competitiveness through pricing strategy.

Strengthening Company internal control and management policies

The most obvious advantage of adopting the Eastop ERP System is strengthening our internal control and management policies. Eastop ERP system supports multi-dimensional security, including extensive user right maintenance, report/field/browser right settings, audit records and backup. Apart from defining the user rights for each module by ‘use’, ‘new’, ‘edit’, ‘delete’ and ‘print’, system administrator could also define the size, location, sequence, property such as read-only, compulsory and hidden for each field on the screen, in order to keep certain data confidential. All users could operate the system only within the given rights, with all activities being tracked and recorded. To control the access of reports, report levels could be set for different users. For example, a salesman could be prohibited from viewing those reports with cost information by report levels definition. Recently, we uncovered a case of stealing performed by our staff. Cooperated with Eastop consultants and our own security system, we gathered evidence from the audit records and backup data kept by the system and submitted the case to police.

Valuable advice shared by experienced consultants

Eastop consultants are experienced and professional. We built up a close partnership with them from the beginning of implementation. They listened to each of our requirements carefully during system implementation, and brought out many invaluable advices based on their experience. These certainly enhanced our workflow, making it more efficient and reliable. We have just purchased 10 more user licenses recently in order to match up our rapid business expansion.

The happiest thing

Our shops are operating efficiently and stably after the adoption of Eastop ERP. I could finally spend my time on managing other business matters instead of being besieged with the shops’ operations as before. 2006/01

Founded in Hong Kong in 1990, Worldwide Resin & Chem. (HK) Ltd. (WWRC) started as a distributor of global well-known brands of chemical raw materials. By providing a unique & single platform connecting to abundant chemical supplies worldwide, WWRC facilitates industrial users in sourcing and multi-products merchandising, thus creates a time and cost effective, yet efficient business environment to the industry as a whole.

Following its establishment, WWRC has expanded its outreach into the Mainland by set up of its first representative office at Shanghai in 1992. Since then, the company has built up a comprehensive supplies network in the region, with extensive and highly professional experience accumulated. By now, WWRC has over 100 employees in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chengdu providing extensive supports to clients throughout the region. Among them are all well-trained, experienced sales representatives that allow the company to promote its multinational services towards other regions of the country.

What are you prodded into changing the existing system after 5 years?

With increase in functional requirements and transactions database, the existing system was becoming a barrier on the road of our development owing to unacceptable slowdown on processing speed and inevitable weakness and limitation of functions. Therefore, we determined to change another system, and focused on flexibilities of functions, comprehensive approaches and sustainable development. For the sake of prudence, we invited ERP experts from HKPC to participate into our panel to setup the testing standards, and provide valuable advices and comments on the testing procedure. At last, Eastop ERP system (named EOA) depended on its outstanding plasticity, flexibility and diversity to be our first choice after several rounds of screen. It’s proved to be an intelligent choice by the practice. Since we signed the contract with Eastop on 11, 2004, we had spent about 6 months on EOA system implementation, and finally had succeeded in life-run. Over past 5 years EOA fulfilled the largest majority of our requirements and left firm steps on the road of our development.

What key advantages did you make decision of choosing EOA?

It was appreciated by us that Eastop pre-sale services are skillful and comprehensive not only a large supply of referred successful cases, but also enhancement of demonstrations based on our actual operating data many times. As a result, we had an objective awareness of future EOA life-run, and built up confidence to take over difficulties and avoided detouring. On the other hand, we were told at the 1st demonstration, that EOA depends on just a set of ERP system resource to support over more than 5,000 concurrent users from SME to large multi-nationals and listed corporations, serving companies across a broad spectrum of industries, including trading, manufacturing, wholesale and retail of apparel, electronics, chemicals, toys, plastic, textiles, food, metal products and medicines etc. Through full of practical experience of ERP designation and implementation, EOA has the ability to well understand questions and requirements of end-users, and put those into actions accommodating the unique technology without sacrificing ease-of-use.

It’s a great encouragement for us to know about that 80-90% of EOA functions are enabled. Would you mind tell us how do you cooperate and coordinate between EOA system and actual business?

Frankly, the success of ERP implementation is based on bilateral reasonable compromise and undoubted cooperation. EOA customer service staff is skillful in not giving varies of professional optional advice according to our questions, but instructing us to repeat the error cases, finding the causes, and providing the detailed solutions. In addition, our end-users spent more time on collecting, analyzing and reflecting data and requirements to EOA customer service staff, who patiently discussed with us about the practicality and feasibility, issued the solutions and simulated the implemented results. There is no doubt that kind of friendly interactions are the most efficient catalyzer for us from the management to the end-users to use EOA system by focusing on details, responsibilities and self-motivations.

Although you have no I.T. experts stand-by, your staff implemented EOA system by themselves successfully, that is coincided with our promotional concept 'Self-designation'. Would you mind share the valuable experience with us?

One of EOA system advantages attracted us is they offer special and feasible function 'Self-designation'. Firstly, we provided related training. Secondly, EOA manual offered clear instructions for us to easily tailor made some tiny functions and/or did modifications to accelerate daily operations. For example, we re-formatted modular screens for different user groups according to different user rights and requirements, which quietly simplified the daily business running. Besides it, all of our staff, especial EOA system action group, put all efforts on success of implementation and live run, although we had no profession I.T. team. They were encouraged to issue and share their opinions and advice from the beginning of system selection to the end of live-run successfully, up to the later enhancement of functions. In a word, cooperation and coordination are indispensable to implementation of EOA system in success.

As a successful enterprise in chemical industry, you company extends business from China, HK SAR to South Asia. Would you mind to share the experience how do you balance business among regions by EOA system?

Eastop provides ultra thin client technology with higher speed and security, Taxxi, which demands the least bandwidth consumption, to help our domestic colleagues to remote run EOA system easily and safely. By sharing, browsing, checking the data of product, procurement and other databases in EOA system, domestic colleagues are capable of mastering updated logistic information comprehensively to follow-up transactions. On the other hand, our HK headquarter not adjusts our marketing strategies according to consolidated financial data and situation, but leads domestic colleagues up to grasp business opportunities, and bring customers newly comfortable and refreshing experience services. Professional EOA system and customer service provided by Eastop are appreciated by us.

Before the end of this interview Ms. Lee emphasized: 'Besides zealous cooperation from our staff, not is EOA system flexible, powerful, highly feasible, but is it proficient at customer services, that push us ahead with EOA system life-run successfully and make use of its functions up to 80-90%.'

Thanks for recognition of Ms. Lee from Worldwide Resin & Chem. (HK) Ltd.

(interview date: 2009/07)

Zodiac Lighting Limited is one of the major leading lighting companies in HK, which experienced impressive growth over these years. They are the sole distributor for a number of famous brands all over the world. Besides, they manufacture a series of custom-made products at internationally recognized standard. Moreover, two showrooms furnish every custom need in the retail sector. In the legend of the business expansion, Zodiac has cooperated with Eastop not only as the system provider but also a strategic partner in the field of information technology.

In the stage of choosing our right partner, I have contacted many famous software house and solution provider, such as Jardine One Solution, Sunevision, etc. Actually they can really provide a total solution. However, I think that Eastop can bring us a more comprehensive system in a reasonable cost among all the suppliers.

In fact, EOA System brings us many innovations in the automatic system. For example, the screen modify functions, immediate report modules, security level setting are all beyond our expectation.

Moreover, as our business unit is in remote location, Eastop also provide us reliable connection environment between head office, showroom and warehouse, as well as factory in China for future expansion.

In order to adapt our business needs, Eastop has customized a few function and these modules are totally solve our complex and flexible problems. At the same time, in configuration with tailor made reports, it can exercise a more powerful analysis in all aspect.

Besides, the experience system consultant makes me understand the theory and logic of the system on the whole. It is very important so that the person in charge can generate more valuable ideas to fine tune both the system and work flow in the implementation stage.

Last but not least, I think Eastop System have a great potential for future development, I forecast Zodiac will adopt on the Palm Solution and bar code system in near future to maximize benefit derived from the Eastop System.

Written by Mr. Winkle Lee, Marketing Manager of Zodiac Lighting Ltd.
(Person in Charge of the implementation project) in July, 2002