Open Source ERP every Malaysian Trading business needs

About

It is an international timber and wood trading organization with offices across the globe. The first subsidiary of the Group was incorporated in 1995 and began its business operations in 1996. Since then, it has steadily expanded and developed a network of trade routes with a reliable supplier base of over 499 companies in South East Asia, China, Brazil, Guyana and Peru. The Group now serves a customer base of over 169 companies in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, Middle East and West Africa

Challenges

Solution inaccessibility

McCorry traditionally used Orbix (Compiere 3.0) desktop application for managing their business operations. The server was located in Malaysia; and in order to leverage better network bandwidth, all transactions from branches across McCorry group were solely handled and entered into the system by Malaysian users. Since the solution access was limited to the Malaysian office, it led to high inter-dependency and made the entire process slower and less efficient. Additionally, the on-premise arrangement demanded continuous investment in infrastructure, making its sustenance unviable.

Frequent server hang issues

Due to heavy load of transactions, the server would often become slow and unresponsive, thus affecting performance. Furthermore, the application could not be used by multiple users at the same time.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) processing

EDI processing was handled manually by users and took a considerable amount of time to complete. This manual process had direct impact on cost, accuracy and efficiency.

COA (Chart of Accounts) restructuring

COA streamlining impacted several areas of business and there was a need for a reliable, proven solution that mitigated costs, risks while mapping old COA with the new.

Proposed Solution

To address the challenges faced by McCorry, Aptean Compiere Partner TenthPlanet proposed a detailed 90 Days Go-Live Plan that included:

Migrating application from Compiere 3.0 to 3.8.0

• Migrating from desktop to web client
• Cloud hosting to resolve network bandwidth and server issues

Outcome / Results

• Moving to Compiere 3.8.0, enabled the users across McCorry branches to easily and quickly access data, greatly reducing dependency and improving efficiency.
• Migration from desktop to cloud application eliminated the network bandwidth and server performance issues enabling the users to easily access the application without any interruption. It also allowed multiple users across geographies to access the application at the same time.
• Moving to cloud environment made the software scalable to meet the unpredictable spikes in application usage.
• 2nd layer authentication offered as part of the migration ensured additional security while accessing the application.
• Feature rich ERP empowered McCorry with the ability to quickly enable different modules for different departments-IT, Accounting, Sales and Purchase and processes.
• The new system offered improved data visibility and empowered the users to easily pull reports to track and improve efficiency on a regular basis. It also offered management a more reliable tool to make timely, informed business decisions.
• The latest version of Compiere 3.8.0 came loaded with features such as Blanket Order, Drop Shipment, and Inter Organization that allowed customers to automate all business processes providing opportunity for growth and cost savings in the future.
• Cloud hosting ensured that the system remained stable all the time improving user productivity. It required very minimal maintenance and also eliminated the need for infrastructural investment, therefore significantly reducing IT and product delivery cost.