Takebishi Trusts be one solutions with SAP Business One

How Takebishi Co., Ltd Implemented SAP Business One to Improve Their Business

Takebishi Co., Ltd Has Introduced SAP Business One to a sales base in Thailand, which is showing rapid growth, enabling strategic decision making of sales and sales management to be made possible by dramatically improving the level of management

As a technology trading company that started in Kyoto, Takebishi deals with industrial equipment, semiconductors, and other devices. With a mid-term vision of "expanding overseas businesses" Takebishi introduced SAP Business One to its sales base in Thailand, where performance data was managed via Excel. During the introduction project, be one solutions Japan, which has consultants who are familiar with the business requirements in Thailand, requested support and had the production up and running in about 4 months. By doing so it dramatically improves the level of management and enables strategic sales and marketing activities for further growth.

Introducing SAP at Our Thai Sales Offices to Expand Overseas Business

From its establishment in 1926 Takebishi Co., Ltd. has been growing as a technology trading company dealing with industrial electric and electronic equipment, mainly Mitsubishi Electric products, based in the Kyoto and Shiga areas. Takebishi Co., Ltd., which aims to achieve FY 2022 sales of 1,000 billion yen in its mid-term vision "T-Link 1000" is focusing on expanding its robot system business and developing its products which utilize AI and IoT technologies with the theme of further strengthening its strengths centered on FA.

Another important theme is to expand the overseas business. The development of new demands in China and Southeast Asia is a growth area with high expectations, but among them, there was the issue of the sales base system in Thailand. Among Takebishi Co., Ltd's major overseas locations, sales offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Europe (Netherlands) had already introduced SAP Business One corresponding to the tax and business practices of each country, the only place it was not implemented was Thailand. Nobuhiko Hirai, General Manager of the Accounting Division of the Business Promotion Office, said:

"Since our establishment in 2014, our sales office in Thailand has been using accounting software from local vendors and Excel to manage actual data and more. Due to the simple accounting software, there were many areas that had to be handled manually, and it took longer than other overseas offices to generate reports and do monthly accounting. Thailand's business is expanding rapidly around the FA component and we are anticipating a doubling of sales in 2020"

Since the first introduction of SAP /R3 at the head office in 1997 Takebishi Co., Ltd has been using SAP ERP for more than 20 years, so there is already a way to integrate the sales base in Thailand with SAP Business One. What ended up being a problem was the choosing of a partner that would consistently support the Business One introduction project in response to business in Thailand with many special requirements.

High Opinion of be one solutions Support Structure, Which Includes a Consultant That Is Familiar With Thailand's Requirements

After reviewing several Japanese vendors who had implemented SAP Business One overseas, Takebishi finally decided to request be one solutions for assistance. Katsunori Hirai, Information Systems Division Manager of the Business Promotion Department, explained the reasoning for this.

"The starting point was a session of be one solutions Japan I attended at the JSUG Conference In December of 2018. After that, when I asked for a specific proposal I was told that I could be assigned a consultant that was familiar with Thailand's business requirements and good at communicating in Thai, English, and Japanese. With no dedicated IT staff at the Thai office, talking to the local business representative and preparing manuals were important requirements. In addition, I had expectations for be one solutions to be a worldwide company that is involved in the very development of SAP Business One."

The project was launched in March 2019. After requirement definition, development, testing, user education, etc., we went live 4 months after July. During this process, the basic policy was to use standard functions and not add-on development, but about 10 reports tailored to Thailand's unique requirements were developed using the query function of SAP Business One.

In Thailand, where FA components are mainly handled, the business model is different compared to other overseas bases, which focus on electronic devices and semiconductors. While the other subsidiary handles electronic devices in large quantities at low unit prices, FA components are handled at high unit prices but in low quantities, parts are purchased from different suppliers for each issue, assembled in a factory, and shipped as units. Therefore, not only the cost of the products, but the income and expenditure management of each project is a very important requirement, and unified functions that could manage them in a unified manner were required. be one solutions has demonstrated how to respond flexibly to even these requirements by utilizing past know-how. As for the project itself, "it almost went according to schedule", Nobuhiko Hirai recalled.

"The skills of be one solutions’ consultants on SAP products were more than we anticipated. We went to Thailand from Japan to support on-site a mere three times, during the selection, requirement definition, and acceptance test. After that, a local business representative made progress with two consultants from be one solutions. As this SAP partner understands the language and business of Thailand, it is able to get a deeper insight into their intentions with feedback."