Interview with a PlanetOne ERP user — Best-Pac Concrete (2) Co., Ltd.

Khun Phuttaraksa Tansukchai Position: CSO Best-Pac Concrete (2) Co., Ltd.

BRID: Could you please introduce yourself?

Khun Phut: Hello, I’m Phuttaraksa Tansukchai, CSO of Best-Pac Concrete (2). I’ve worked at Best-Pac Concrete (2) for 12 years now.

BRID: Could you tell us about the company, its background, and its business model?

Khun Phut: The company is Best-Pac Concrete (2) — a branch that expanded from Best-Pac Concrete (1) in Nong Bua Lamphu.

The line of business is the manufacture and sale of prestressed concrete products — piles, bridge segments, various floor slabs, and also ready-mixed concrete.

The company today grew out of Best-Pac Concrete (1) in Nong Bua Lamphu. Best-Pac Concrete (2), with sales in Buriram at 300 million baht a year, has grown every year, most recently to 500 million baht a year.

And we’ve now expanded a branch to Chachoengsao province. Combining the two branches at Buriram and Chachoengsao, we can do sales of around 700 million-plus baht a year.

We feel there’s still room to grow further after COVID — we should be able to develop to 1,000 million baht a year.

BRID: What were the factors that made you start considering implementing an ERP system for the organisation?

Khun Phut: The factor that made the organisation start looking for an ERP was that previously our company was in the form of a family business.

After the children finished their studies and grew up, they started coming back to help with the family business.

Mum and Dad were looking for a system that would let us manage our business as a family business with transparency, auditable by everyone, to prevent disputes among siblings in running the business.

Beyond that, it was because we started expanding the business — from Nong Bua Lamphu we began expanding a branch to Buriram, so our business grew and got bigger, and a system would help make it easier to manage.

BRID: How did you prepare the staff in the organisation to start using the ERP?

Khun Phut: Before implementing, we made the staff understand how the old manual way of working takes time, and that the accuracy of the data might also be lower.

And we pointed out that when we use an ERP, once we input the data we can generate reports in many formats suited to our use, which saves staff time.

BRID: After deploying PlanetOne ERP, how did the system make managing the organisation easier?

Khun Phut: Once the company deployed PlanetOne ERP, management could gain quite a lot of benefit from the implementation.

Whether it’s managing various data to use in business decisions, including on the accounting side — which can be audited from every angle — it helps management quite a lot.

After we implemented PlanetOne ERP, because we have several branches, using the ERP lets us see the overall picture more easily.

And staff at different branches working together can join the same data with the same goals more easily. It also lets management use the data to support business decisions more easily, by consolidating data from many branches and using it to decide.

BRID: How were the after-sales service and technical support you received from PlanetOne ERP?

Khun Phut: The support of PlanetOne ERP is quite fast. Because we use a group Line chat, users can report problems immediately via Line when they get stuck during work, and there are staff looking after customers at all times.

As for what impressed me about the system — first is the flexibility of the system, which we can customise to the users’ needs.

For instance, we’re a manufacturer, which may differ from manufacturers in many ways in the industry, and we can adapt it to suit our organisation.

And second, even though the system is flexible, at critical points such as the accounting and purchasing data, things cannot be altered — which lets management be confident that the data we use, or the data entered, is accurate and precise.

BRID: Any advice for those looking for an ERP system as a tool for managing their organisation?

Khun Phut: For those looking for an ERP to use in their organisation, investing the budget may seem quite high. But compared with the return on investment we put in, it pays back far more than it costs.

Whether it’s being able to control losses, control production, or use data to make business decisions accurately and quickly.

Doing business today is no longer “the big fish eats the small fish” — it’s only “the fast fish eats the slow fish.” So an ERP can help operators a great deal.