Having partnered with ANSI Information Systems Inc., the company sought to streamline its business operations and optimize its performance by acquiring German software giant SAP’s flexible and customizable software designed for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

"What’s unique about our business is we’re tasked with servicing both our customers and our customer’s customers," said Jade Mendiola, Columbia Digital IT manager. "We’re most known for distributing Nikon, Aigo, KIS Photo Me, Doli and Fujifilm locally, but we have other products in our line-up, such as memory cards, inkjet papers, mp3 players, speakers, spare parts, papers, chemicals, films and photo mini-lab printing machines. We work closely with photographers, as well as photo printing companies such as Island Photo, Picture City and Kameraworld. In tracking our inventory and following through on deliveries then, it’s important for us to have a comprehensive view of how our business is running so we can better satisfy our own customers, while enabling our other customers to run their respective businesses with little to no problems."

Prior to the installation of SAP Business One, tasks related to accounting, marketing, invoicing, purchasing and doing inventory were all conducted manually. In generating basic end-ofday sales reports, for example, MIS Officer Nerissa Geanga says it would take the concerned departments another work day to key in, validate and collate their numbers. Microsoft Excel was commonly used back then to store Columbia Digital’s important business data, but it could not give the company a holistic and clear view of how business was running because sorting through all the encoded data proved both tedious and confusing. In keeping track of Columbia Digital’s inventory, on the other hand, the company often had to wait for customers to order specific items before realizing the need to re-stock or re-order. This often resulted in frustration on the customers’ end, which went against Columbia Digital’s goal to best cater to the needs of its valued customers.

The company’s acquisition of SAP Business One heralded in a new era of competitiveness and overall efficiency in its operations. With the system in place, employees found that work that once required two days to accomplish could be finished in one afternoon. The system also enabled employees to better monitor the thousands of spare parts stored in the company’s warehouse, with some parts as small as 10-centavo coins, as each item’s description and corresponding serial number were already encoded.

SAP reseller and distribution partner ANSI worked closely with Columbia Digital to customize SAP Business One according to the latter’s primary business operations. A unique forecasting feature was soon integrated into the system, which serves the function of alerting officers on what specific items in the inventory are low on stocks. Another customization to Columbia Digital’s system focused on keeping employees, particularly those from the sales and marketing department, constantly motivated. The system instantly calculates the commission that comes with every sale as soon as transactions are encoded, giving sales officers real-time updates on how much they are earning, and how much more they need to make to meet their respective quotas.

"SAP Business One is a unique application because its primary features can be extended using basic software development," said Jennifer Ligones, SAP Philippines country manager. "We are delighted to see how Columbia Digital has streamlined its business operations by making full use of Business One’s functionality and customizability."

Columbia Digital attributes much of its success with SAP Business One to ANSI, which according to Mendiola, was present during every step in the project, from pre-project planning to Columbia Digital’s go-live date and beyond. One year into using SAP Business One, Columbia Digital has observed various improvements in the several departments linked to the system, calling its project of implementing the worldrenowned business solutions software in their systems with ANSI’s assistance a worthwhile investment. "SAP’s stellar track record in the Philippines and worldwide convinced us that choosing Business One would benefit our company the most. With the highs that we’ve achieved following our implementation of the system, we truly look forward to growing our business further with Business One." Mendiola said.

To date, the increased efficiency of business operations in Columbia Digital trimmed necessary company manpower by 50%, resulting in lowered total cost of ownership. Columbia Digital also observed a 30% increase in its revenues since implementing SAP Business One, and looks to get its return of investment in the coming months.

Moving forward, Columbia Digital wishes to connect its eight other offices in Metro Manila to SAP Business One, in order to make inter-branch transactions faster and easier for Columbia Digital’s customers and employees. The system has served Columbia Digital’s main office well, and company officers look forward to introducing the same brand of efficiency, competence and work proficiency to its other branches soon.