Golden Sector Argo-Development Ltd.

“ezTRADE™ has greatly improved the efficiency and reliability of our administrative work, and streamlined the information exchange between trading partners. The platform also helps us provide better customer servicewith improved cash flow, supporting our business continuity and growth to embrace the future technology development.”

Mr. Smith Chan, Business Manager

Background

Found in 2006, Golden Sector Agro-Development (Golden Sector) is specialised in trading and processing fruits and vegetables, as well as cold chain distribution services, with an ISO9001 and HACCP-certified vegetable processing centre in Mainland China. As the key agricultural produce supplier for a range of restaurant groups, as well as catering firms, retail chains, schools and hospitals, the company handles more than 4,000 orders every month, or 200 tonnes of food, which translate into huge manpower demand to manage customers’ orders, delivery and invoicing processes.

The company used to require 5 staff and several hours to handle some 150 orders every day in general, with each order containing more than 20 food items. The manual processes were sometimes prone to error, causing inconsistency when the team crosschecked the orders, delivery notes and invoices. This posed great issues to the payment procedures and schedule between Golden Sector and its many clients.

Solution

Golden Sector started using ezTRADE™ web-based version to handle B2B order transactions in 2016. Noticing the significant increase of transaction volume, the company decided to deploy ezTRADE™ Gateway solution and integrate to its ERP system, to meet the needs for its escalating business deals. ezTRADE™ Gateway solution is a B2B e-commerce platform based on GS1 EANCOM/EDIFACT standard, which enables electronic information exchange - like purchasing order, delivery note, invoice - between the company and its trading partners every step along the supply chain.

Upon connecting the Gateway solution and the ERP, Golden Sector can issue an Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) via the backend system to clients once an order is received, preparing clients to accept the shipment in an organised manner. The solution drastically reduces the average order and invoice handling time from a few hours to 60 minutes, boosting staff efficiency and accuracy.

By supporting the exchange of orders, delivery notes and invoices for transacting parties, the client side can easily validate the items quantity and amount between the ASN and the goods receipt record, and promptly receive invoice matching results. In case of deviation, both parties can take remedial actions swiftly and clearly that ensure transparency of the transaction.

Benefits

ezTRADE™ equips Golden Sector with heightened efficiency:
1. Saving time for handling transaction documents;
2. Enhancing invoice accuracy for better customers’ satisfaction;
3. Speeding up clients’ payment and increasing company cash flow;
4. Increasing efficiency for handling invoice and dealing with problematic documents

About the Company

The Company is engaged in processing and trading of fresh fruit and vegetables. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Heng Tai Consumables Group Limited. It is a one of the key suppliers to one of a large chained fast food restaurants in Hong Kong to provide fresh fruits and vegetables on daily basis.