TAK Products & Services, a supplier to the furniture industry, adopted Sage CRM integrated with Sage 300 ERP to improve productivity and streamline customer management, achieving a 40% productivity increase. The integration allowed for real-time updates and a single source of information, enhancing visibility and operational efficiency across multiple countries. Eve Chong, the assistant manager, highlighted the system's user-friendliness and customization capabilities, making the organization more efficient without sacrificing profit margins.

1. TAK increase productivity
with a joined up CRM and
ERP solution
Sage CRM
Customer Success
The ultimate goal was for everyone to
work from the same system regardless
of location, with CRM tools that could
be more closely integrated with the
firm’s Sage 300 ERP system. The old
solution was a standalone application
which meant the company was working
off two different systems and lacked a
complete view of the business.
A long-standing relationship with Sage
business partner Comptrac proved
helpful when TAK considered various
upgrade options. “We looked at lots of
different systems and listened to
Comptrac. They know our business well
and understood what we wanted,” said
Eve Chong. “Being able to integrate so
easily with Sage 300 ERP was the main
reason we went with Sage CRM.”
TAK Products & Services has been a
supplier of laminates and finished
edgings to the furniture industry in Asia
since 1989. Headquartered in Singapore
the company employs around 80 people
and has offices in Malaysia, Thailand
and China as well as distribution
partners in Hong Kong, the Philippines,
Indonesia and Myanmar.
Business challenge
Over the last five years TAK has grown
by around 35 per cent, putting a strain
on the company’s CRM system, a
custom-built solution that tracked
customer engagements across the
various markets where it trades. “We
had customized and adapted it as far as
we could,” said Eve Chong, Assistant
Manager, Corporate Administration. “It
wasn’t that flexible at a time when we
needed to scale and have better
workflow.”
Customer
TAK Products & Services
Industry
Furnishing supplier
Location
Singapore
Solution
Sage CRM
Results
Integration between Sage CRM and
Sage 300 ERP has seen a 40 per cent
productivity improvement. The single
system has helped sales engage more
efficiently with customers and given
management a much better view of the
business.
Challenge
Fast growth across multiple countries
had pushed the capability of an existing
CRM system to its limit. The company
wanted better visibility of an expanding
business and closer integration with its
existing ERP system, Sage 300.
Solution
Sage CRM integrates ‘out-of-the-box’
with Sage 300 ERP, giving TAK a single
source of information for sales and
financials, with tighter workflow
between the two and a better reporting
capability.
‘Being able to integrate
so easily with Sage 300
ERP was the main reason
we went with Sage CRM.’
Eve Chong
Assistant Manager, Corporate Administration
TAK Products & Services TAK Products &
Services
sagecrm.com

2. ‘I really like Sage CRM, It
has made us much more
efficient.’
Eve Chong
Assistant Manager, Corporate Administration
TAK Products & Services TAK Products &
Services
Sales people automatically receive
updates on customer information from
the ERP system, which means they can
respond faster if there is an issue. This
may be the difference between retaining
and losing a client. “It has also helped
grow the business by helping sales
follow up on customer leads more
quickly,” said Eve Chong.
An added benefit is that growth has
been achieved without eating into
margins. TAK has set Sage CRM up in
such a way that sales people are only
authorized to offer a certain level of
discount. This ensures the bottom line
is always protected.
Eve Chong has been particularly
impressed at how easy it is to use. She
changes field names and carries out a
lot of customization without having to
pay for the partner to do it. Reports are
also easy to generate.
As well as making the company more
efficient and profitable, the integration
of Sage CRM and Sage 300 ERP has
given management much better
visibility of the business. Instead of
having to review reports from two
separate systems, a single source of
information allows Eve Chong to
analyse customer engagements in any
number of ways. “It’s very user friendly
and I can customize it to get the
information that I want based on
requests from the management team,”
she said.
Though there are plans to further exploit
the features in Sage CRM, particularly
the mobile module, Sage CRM has
already delivered on its promise and
made a big impression on Eve Chong. “I
really like Sage CRM,” she said. “It has
made us much more efficient.”
Solution
Sage CRM provides all the tools needed
to improve sales performance and
facilitate more targeted marketing
campaigns, but crucially for TAK it
offered a single database for retrieving
order and inventory information direct
from its Sage 300 ERP system.
This integration solved a problem that
existed with the two separate systems
that preceded Sage CRM. Every
product had two codes, one for each
system, which led to unnecessary
duplication and made it harder to
generate up-to-date reports for
analysing sales and inventory.
Now, the product code is created once
in Sage CRM. With a single database
and one code number for every item,
accessible from all offices in the
different countries, TAK had a much
more efficient system.
As well as bringing front and back-office
operations into alignment, Sage CRM
workflow also made it easier to manage
the credit approval process for taking
on new customers.
Benefits
With thousands of customers and
prospects on the system, TAK has
succeeded in its goal of providing a
scalable CRM solution to support a fast
growing business.
Since implementing Sage CRM, TAK
estimates it has seen a 40 per cent
productivity improvement as the
company’s 55 licensed users access
the exact same system from four
different countries. Automated workflow
has simplified tasks while the tight
integration to Sage 300 ERP has
centralized customer information and
made it easier to access more quickly.
Sage CRM
Customer Success
sagecrm.com

3. © 2013 Sage Group Plc.
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