Telecommunications

LGA Telecom Pte Ltd deploys Compiere ERP to handle rapid scale-up in business

Read this success story published in IDA Website

Congratulations to LGA Telecom to be the Top 3 finalist for National Infocomm Awards 2008

Founded in 1995, LGA Telecom Pte Ltd (LGA) is a 100% locally owned Singapore-based Communications Service Provider providing reliable and cost effective internet solutions to corporations and business users.

A one-stop Internet Communications Service Provider, LGA's extensive experience and infrastructure have resulted in an impressive and comprehensive product and service portfolio. With these, LGA has built up an impressive list of clientele and has emerged as a leader in the Infocomm industry in Singapore.

The company's three core businesses are: Unified Communications, Mobility Solutions and Network Security and IT Solutions.

But in its early phase of rapid business volume growth, LGA found the scale-up to be both a reward and a challenge as its processes at the time were not designed to handle larger volumes.

Rapid Growth – Process-based Challenges and Changing IT Needs

LGA's proven track record is evidenced in the growth of its B2B customer base (from zero to more than 2000) in a relatively new industry over a short span of time. About 20% of locally listed companies use LGA's services.

Rapid growth brought its own set of challenges. In its early days LGA’s workflow was mostly manual. Different departments – Marketing & Sales, Accounts & Billing, Contracts & Order Processing and Customer Support used multiple, disjointed legacy applications for their work processes and collaborated via email. Data was duplicated and sat in silos across the company.

When we were smaller in size, billing was manual – our CEO used his personal calendar to remember Re-Contract and Invoice dates. Billing was done manually using [a proprietary small business accounting software]

CFO Tan Tiong Chye, LGA Telecom

With rapid growth in business volume, LGA found it increasingly difficult to continue with this mostly manual workflow. New Customer Account Activation, Invoicing and Re-Contracts and Customer Support Management all had high turnaround times. Rapid scale-up was a reward and a challenge at the same time. The existing system grew increasingly slow, error-prone and effort-intensive.

The Next-Generation Open Source Solution – Compiere ERP & CRM

After several rounds of discussions with multiple vendors, using another monolithic ERP system that failed to remedy the situation and, finally, due diligence on part of internal IT ‘champions’, LGA decided to engage iZeno to implement Compiere ERP.

Like any other growing SMB, LGA was looking for a solution that delivered the necessary functionality with a high degree of cost-effectiveness. Cost-effectiveness was one of the primary concerns as LGA engaged iZeno, with the Open Source Solution having significantly lower Total Cost of Ownership compared to best-in-class proprietary solutions.

More importantly, Compiere delivered the functionality LGA needed.

As a single, unified system serving all departments, Compiere made the same data – or a single view of every customer – available to all departments within the company and helped fully automate the workflow. With all departments being able to access customer history, e-mail collaboration and manual record-keeping became unnecessary.

Faster Order Processing and Customer Management

Previously Service Contract Management, Order Processing, Billing and Service Activation required manual collaboration between different departments. Compiere ERP helped integrate all these processes so a single department could execute the entire process faster.

Multiple contract configurations are possible with Compiere with a few clicks unlike the earlier system where manual changes made the process far longer and error-prone.

Also, with direct access to the back-end technology infrastructure, the order-processing team itself is able to activate customer services. This has led to savings in time and manpower, removed inaccuracies and enabled faster customer service turnaround time.

Efficient customer Management was the key driver. Without Compiere, we would need double the support staff. Billing cycle is far faster now even though the volumes have increased by over 10 times. Scalability is very important and impossible without IT.

CFO Tan Tiong Chye, LGA Telecom

Empowered Marketing & Sales Teams

Compiere provides high visibility on product sales with analytical tools that make reporting much simpler. Marketing and Sales Managers can view timely sales information by product, by sales executive or other criteria.

Further benefits include faster Re-Contracts with the updated information available online 24x7, and automatic renewals where the customer contract has a provision for the same.

The integrated CRM application allows Marketing & Sales to collaborate seamlessly. Marketing can use mass mails and promotions to targeted customers based on their sales histories and then inform Sales on opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.

Compiere also provides mobile access to LGA’s busy Marketing and Sales team.

Faster Customer Support

With each customer’s history available online, the Help Desk is able to offer faster and personalized trouble shooting. All information is updated immediately, so any member of the team is able to access a customer’s case management history and address the problem.

Without Compiere, additional support costs would be up to $300,000 extra every year – with slower speeds and errors.

CFO Tan Tiong Chye, LGA Telecom

With a smaller team size managing Customer Support, LGA has redeployed resources to other departments and functions, optimizing use of its personnel.

Real-time Reporting

C-level executives and other senior managers are able to monitor business position at any time and can customize their reports to analyze data by sales executive or by products.

Implementation and Migration

The iZeno implementation team worked persevered to successfully unify and integrate a system (data and workflow) initially made up of multiple legacy systems with data in silos.

Change Management – the Human Factor

Per Sharon Tan, Senior Executive at LGA, there was some initial road bumps in adoption. The new interface made it somewhat challenging for the more senior staff, used to the older legacy systems. But gradually as they experienced the flexibility and advantages of Compiere, they adapted to the new system with the help of IT champions like Sharon herself.

As Sharon puts it, “first they learned to accept. Then they learned to appreciate. Now we can’t imagine going back to the older system. Compiere has transformed us”.

The Road Ahead for LGA

LGA has a clear vision of becoming a world class IP-centric Communications Service Provider, and is committed to providing business mission critical solutions and services which are closely aligned to the business objectives of its customers, allowing them to compete more effectively in a globally connected economy.

As in the case of its adoption of Compiere, LGA's corporate culture is built upon constant innovation, cohesive teamwork and unquestionable trust; and its most valued asset is the knowledge and skills of the team. In striving to stay competitive in a market where rapidly changing technology is a key driver, LGA is committed to continued investment into training, infrastructure and customer care to stay on the leading edge of technology.

Tan Tiong Chye stresses, “Compiere has done very well, and now we are looking at SugarCRM to add to the CRM functionality”