The company has succeeded in making operations paperless: 350 orders and 1,500 applications in a year, which has reduced input errors, labor, and management costs by 50%.
Q. What do you use Questetra for?
We, Sanshin Electronics Co., Ltd, purchase electronic components including semiconductors from domestic and foreign manufacturers, selling them to home appliance manufacturers in Japan. We also develop embedded software and solutions. In the solution business, we mainly construct secure network environments for mission-critical systems. Our main customers are Japanese public offices and municipalities as well as home appliance manufacturers in Japan.
We use Questetra for order management related to embedded software development and for application work including overtime and telecommuting within the development department.
For order management, we estimate development costs, outsource development, manage the purchase of embedded electronic components, any progress on development, delivery, and sales. In addition to staff responsible for development, sales, purchase, and department heads, subcontractors are also involved in these operations.
Q. What kind of challenges did you face with order management?
We had used paper for tasks involved in the order management: applications, estimates, orders, and deliveries. That consequently caused errors in transcription due to entering the same information, such as the amount of money into multiple systems and Excel files. Also the printing and storage of documents were costly and time-consuming. In addition to that, we had an issue with the slow speed of internal approvals: sometimes the applicant and the approver were outside the company, which caused the rubber stamping process to take several days.
We had to check the status of all departments involved in the issue together with each representative to manage the progress of the issue. Therefore, it took us time and effort to grasp the overall progress.
Q. How did you solve it?
For applications, estimates, orders, and deliveries that used to be done on paper, we are now able to simply enter data into Questetra. In addition to that, we set preset numerical values such as unit price to be automatically entered. As a result, unnecessary entries, input errors, and work duplication are reduced. We set estimates, order forms, and invoices to be automatically generated as PDF files. Since Questetra is a cloud service, submission and approval of applications outside the office become possible. That eliminates the need for application forms to be retained in the company, reducing the amount of time required from application to approval.
For progress management, data is centrally managed within Questetra, in which the progress of each issue and the status of the Task in which issues are retained, can now be graphically checked.
From the viewpoint of management and efficiency, we are promoting the creation of workflows for various operations; we use Questetra for the management of applications and approvals for overtime and telecommuting in the development department.
What are you planning to do via Questetra in the future?
We’d like to use Questetra for issue management before receiving an order.
After receiving an order for an issue, we need to secure staff members within the development department. Therefore, if the status of the issue can be grasped within the development division beforehand, it will be easier for us to prepare the system. Now we use spreadsheet software to manage the size and stage of issues and the probability of receiving the order.
In the future, we’re planning to use Questetra for this kind of issue management to further improve operational efficiency.
