Interviewee: Mr. Warit Durongdej Position: Deputy Managing Director, Mazuma (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

BRID: Khun Win, could you introduce yourself and tell us about your experience working at Mazuma?

Khun Win: Hello, I’m Warit Durongdej, Deputy Managing Director of Mazuma (Thailand) Co., Ltd. I’ve been working at Mazuma for 18 years now.

BRID: We’d like you to introduce the background of Mazuma (Thailand) Co., Ltd. and its business model.

Khun Win: Mazuma was founded in 1993 (B.E. 2536) by my father, so this year marks exactly 30 years. I came in as the second generation to help run the business, taking over from my father.

In addition to manufacturing and selling products under the Mazuma brand, we have also been trusted to be the distributor for leading international brands:

ARISTON water heaters from Italy
Wilo water pumps from Germany
HONEYWELL air purifiers from the USA
TORAY Vino water filters from Japan

As for after-sales service, we have 18 service centres covering every region, with service technicians ready to provide full support. So customers don’t need to worry at all about after-sales service.

BRID: What were the factors that led Mazuma to start considering implementing an ERP system for the organisation?

Khun Win: Originally the data was scattered and not gathered in one place. Whenever we requested data or various reports, it took a very long time to compile.

On top of that, once we got the data, we didn’t know whether it was correct, whether the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were right — especially the inventory and cost data, which created a lack of confidence in the various accounting figures.

Also, because Mazuma’s factory and office are in different locations, it became necessary to find a program that could go online between the two sites. Eighteen years ago there weren’t many options, so we decided to implement an ERP system with PlanetOne.

BRID: How did you prepare your staff for starting to use the ERP system?

Khun Win: The main thing is to prepare so that there is no resistance to changing the system. Because I find that most implementations of any system fail due to resistance from users.

The preparation for this involved:

First, talking with the staff in the organisation so they would be aware of the change — especially the staff most affected, such as accounting or the warehouse. Talking with the staff is meant to persuade them to see the benefits of this system change.

Second, arranging training for the staff so they would understand the advantages of working in the new system.

Third, preparing a special task-force team during the period of running the old and new systems in parallel, so that data entry would be complete and accurate, and so the existing staff would not become too fatigued keying into both systems.

I believe that with this kind of preparation, users will not develop resistance to the system change, and the implementation will ultimately succeed.

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

Khun Win: The first clear thing is being able to call up various data reports quickly and accurately. This saves time in our work, and the by-product is that the company can close its books accurately and quickly too.

Currently, Mazuma can close the accounts within 7 days after month-end.

The last thing is that it helps protect data security. The PlanetOne system can set user permissions in great detail.

This lets us prevent confidential information from leaking — such as product cost data and production formula data — which only executives or a key group of people can access.

BRID: How has the after-sales service and technical support from PlanetOne ERP been?

Khun Win: Regarding support, PlanetOne ERP uses the JTrac system for users to report various issues, and users can also review historical records.

So when the same problems recur, users can apply the various solutions to fix them on their own.

There’s also a Line group that provides support for day-to-day problems, so if a user gets stuck on any issue, they can ask right away.

And something very important as well is the program updates, which PlanetOne ERP keeps doing on a regular basis.

BRID: What are your impressions of the PlanetOne ERP system?

Khun Win: The first important thing is that it’s a system developed by Thai people, so the accounting and tax programs are designed to support use in Thailand from the start.

The second thing users talk about a lot is that the commands and buttons are in Thai, making it easier to understand how the system works, compared to ERPs from abroad that are usually in English.

BRID: Could you give some advice for those looking for an ERP system as a tool to manage their organisation?

Khun Win: Preparing yourself before implementation — first is being ready to handle resistance from users to the program change.

And the second thing I’d like to mention to senior executives is that they should be heavily involved in the implementation. This greatly increases the chances that the implementation will succeed.

Interview: Mazuma (Thailand) Co., Ltd.