Interview with a PlanetOne ERP Customer: Global Flow Tech Co., Ltd.

The interviewee

Mr. Suppapong Kitiwatanasak Position: Owner and senior executive Global Flow Tech Co., Ltd.

Could you introduce yourself?

Hello, I’m Suppapong Kitiwatanasak. I’m the owner of Global Flow Tech.

What kind of business is GFT in?

We’re a trading company. We import automation equipment from brands in Taiwan, China, Japan, and the United States.

What was the starting point that led you to look for an ERP system?

We founded this company more than 15 years ago, and we’ve grown the business over time. In the early days we used simple systems, simple accounting systems, until at a certain point, when we wanted to see the company’s performance more clearly, we started looking for something that could manage the company’s transactions, the inventory system, and customer data in a more systematic way. So we started looking for a tool to help us, and that’s the story of why we went looking for an ERP system.

What were the reasons for choosing PlanetOne ERP?

We had our own challenges. The nature of our business has many kinds of difficulty. For example, we have a large and complex range of SKUs. First, we have many complex SKUs. And even though it’s a buy-and-resell model, there are many parts that can be separated, changed, and swapped in different combinations, which adds complexity, because the moment each part changes, the specification changes too. So we looked for a system that was flexible, as well as a system that could work with many different kinds of transactions.

In what areas has PlanetOne ERP helped the business?

Brid came in to help us. The first thing it did was make all the data sync online and in real time. With our old system, which couldn’t separate branches or might not have been real time, the data ended up reaching the front line. In sales, where you compete on response time and on how quickly you give customers information, even being half a day or a day slower at that time had an impact. But with the Brid system, we could see the data, respond to customers, and support them quickly, because for automotive customers, downtime has a cost, there are penalties. That’s where we benefited from implementing this system.

After using PlanetOne ERP, what has impressed you?

We’re now into our 8th year using Brid. One of the things that impressed us most is the speed of response in solving problems, because this was an issue we had faced before. I mean, we had run into problems using other software. When we had a problem, we didn’t have our own IT team, so we couldn’t fix it ourselves. And when the system couldn’t run, and if other things were affected, that was one of our worries. But over more than eight years of using Brid, they seem to understand this pain point, because for a company that has no IT and no staff to look after and solve problems, Brid has ways to help us handle immediate issues. There are several channels, whether tracking, or a LINE room we can reach out through, and there’s also a team that can remote into the system. This means the company doesn’t need to have its own IT team. And as for the worry of implementing and using the system, the users feel at ease too, because when they run into a problem, there’s someone to answer and solve it for them. That makes the users willing to adopt the system; they’re quite at ease and trust Brid on this.

Any advice for those currently looking for a system?

In the end, for anyone thinking of bringing an ERP into their organization, today business moves fast and changes fast, and executives surely want data that is real time and accurate. But one thing I think everyone shares is that it’s a large, long-term investment. This is where I think Brid is flexible. They have several package options that suit the scale of the business, and each package can ultimately be upgraded as our company grows. That makes it possible to implement first, to try it out, at a scale that suits us. And if our team is ready to grow, Brid is ready to expand the work too, and the system itself is flexible enough to work in many forms and adapt. In the end, that makes the return on this investment come back faster. I think Brid can help with that.