Cần Thơ – Hậu Giang Cement Company and the Challenge After 38 Years of Manual Operations

Cần Thơ – Hậu Giang Cement Joint Stock Company is a culturally and traditionally comprehensive enterprise specializing in cement production, established in 1986. Aspiring to become a leading business in production and trading in the Mekong Delta region, Cần Thơ – Hậu Giang Cement has continuously expanded in scale and stature. With relentless efforts, the company has grown to become one of the four largest cement producers in the southern region, achieving a total output of over 2 million tons per year. By 2023, with the rapid advancement of information technology, Vietnamese businesses have been actively joining the digital transformation race to increase their competitive advantage in the market. Consequently, Cần Thơ – Hậu Giang Cement decided to innovate its business model by officially partnering with Tekup JSC in August 2023. The collaboration aimed to develop two software solutions: an online ordering system for customers and cement warehouse management software for the enterprise.

During the process of understanding and consulting with the Board of Directors at Cần Thơ – Hậu Giang Cement, Tekup’s team of experts identified several challenges the company was facing:

• Difficulties in management, quality control, and cost oversight, along with delays in meeting market demands.
• Workflow disruptions due to the inability to automate certain management processes.
• The need to ensure the supply chain remains uninterrupted in the face of external factors such as pandemics and natural disasters.
• Constantly evolving customer demands and rising expectations, coupled with increased competition from rivals employing ever-more advanced technology.

The digital transformation needs of Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement Company to adapt and grow.

Tekup is extremely proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement on their journey towards sustainable digital transformation. During our meetings and discussions with the company’s leadership, our project team worked together to solve the complex challenge of developing and designing two software solutions for cement ordering and warehouse management, specifically as follows:

Objectives of the Cement Ordering App

With the aim of providing the utmost convenience for customers, the Cement Ordering App must have a streamlined design, allowing customers to easily place orders, track, and manage their cement quantities with the highest accuracy.

Customers who place orders through the App will also benefit from various promotions offered by the factory, which can boost revenue and increase consumer purchasing power.

Objectives of the Cement Warehouse Management Software

The warehouse department is responsible for managing thousands of product IDs with enormous quantities, making inventory checks and asset statistics time-consuming and often inaccurate. The company aims to find a simplified solution to this issue. By developing a system that can manage all warehouse materials and goods, it will facilitate efficient inventory tracking and faster import-export processes.

Additionally, for documents or orders that cannot be processed when managers are away and unable to approve, there is a need to automate the creation and approval process to ensure work continues seamlessly and efficiently.

For machinery maintenance, the company struggles to track the total investment value for repairs and upkeep. Therefore, a system is required to accurately record the costs of machine repairs and maintenance.

Challenges Faced by Tekup While Supporting Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement in Digital Transformation

Difficulty in Identifying the Objectives and Final Needs of the Company

During the implementation and development of the system for Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement, Tekup encountered a common challenge: the company had numerous needs that they themselves could not fully address. The lack of clearly defined goals for a long-term digital transformation journey left the company unsure about which solutions would be the most suitable for them. As a result, Tekup often had to spend a significant amount of time optimizing the system for the company.

Difficulty in Training Users to Operate the Company’s Software

After a long period of being accustomed to manual operations, guiding users to adopt and utilize technology posed a significant challenge for Tekup. Finding the right solution to satisfy both user groups—the end users of the ordering app and the employees using the warehouse management software—was not easy.

A common characteristic of both groups is their limited exposure to recent technology trends, making the software training process challenging and time-consuming. Additionally, the large number of software users made the implementation phase stressful and required a high level of focus and investment.

Tekup’s Solutions for Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement in Digital Transformation

Implementing an Online Ordering App for the Sales Process

Since August 2023, Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement has deployed an online ordering software (Ordering App) with support from Tekup to optimize the sales process and enhance customer experience. The app is designed with a simple, user-friendly interface, allowing customers to easily place orders, track, and manage their cement quantities accurately.

Key Benefits of the Ordering App:

• Convenience in Ordering: Customers can quickly place orders with just a few taps on the app, saving time and effort compared to the previous manual process.
• Smart Quantity Management: The app allows customers to track the exact amount of cement they have ordered, ensuring accurate and transparent inventory management.
• Online Promotions and Offers: Customers using the app will receive information about factory promotions, strengthening relationships and boosting customer loyalty.

Warehouse Management and Inventory Optimization

One of the major challenges faced by Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement is managing the warehouse, which contains thousands of product IDs and massive quantities of goods. This makes inventory checks, asset statistics, and stock management difficult and time-consuming.

Tekup provided a warehouse management solution based on modern technology to address complex warehousing challenges:

• Automated Inventory Process: The system enables precise management of stock quantities, minimizes errors during inventory checks, and improves the efficiency of handling goods.
• Flexible Import-Export Management: Warehouse staff can easily perform import and export tasks quickly with just a few steps on the system, saving time and reducing paperwork.
• Detailed Inventory Reports: The system automatically generates detailed inventory reports, allowing management to monitor the warehouse status in real-time, thereby supporting faster and more effective decision-making.

Remote Request Management and Approval

Tekup implemented a feature for managing and approving requests remotely on the management system of Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement. This essential solution helps the company maintain continuous operations without disruptions when managers are not physically present at the plant.

Key Features of the Solution:

• Online Approval: Requests for materials, goods, or services can be created, approved, and processed remotely through the system, speeding up work implementation.
• Continuous and Seamless Operations: Remote approval ensures that work continues smoothly without interruptions, even when leaders or managers are not on-site.

Maintenance Management and Repair Cost Tracking

Another major challenge for Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement was the inability to accurately track maintenance and repair costs for machinery, making it difficult to evaluate the investment efficiency in maintenance activities.

• Detailed Maintenance Cost Tracking: The system automatically records and tracks all costs related to machinery maintenance and repairs, providing leadership with a comprehensive view of the money invested.
• Cost Reporting and Analysis: Tekup provides detailed maintenance and repair cost reports, helping the company evaluate the effectiveness of its maintenance investments and plan future maintenance accurately.

Quick Report Generation Support

With Tekup’s management system, Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement can now easily and quickly generate reports on warehouse status, production output, maintenance costs, and business performance. These automated reports help leadership make timely strategic decisions and optimize operational processes.

Training and Technical Support

For the end users of the cement ordering app—dealers and direct distributors of Hau Giang Cement—these groups typically have limited access to timely technological information. Therefore, Tekup’s support team developed a plan to guide users through the installation and app updates, ensuring a smooth user experience.

For the remaining user group—employees of the company—Tekup faced the biggest challenge in software training. Most company staff have worked there for many years and have limited exposure to new technology, coupled with their busy work schedules. To address this, Tekup was ready to provide on-site support, offering detailed consultations for each department at the company headquarters.

In addition, Tekup offers 24/7 technical support to ensure that any technical issues are resolved quickly, preventing disruptions in the production process.

System Maintenance and Upgrades

Tekup is committed to regular system maintenance, as well as providing upgrade services to ensure the system operates at its highest efficiency and remains adaptable to the company’s future changes.

Results Achieved After the Digital Transformation of Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement

After implementing the digital transformation solution, Tekup witnessed positive and impressive results from Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement. Notably, in 2023, the company achieved a significant leap in business performance and operational management:

• Total Orders Exceeded 16,000: This is a remarkable milestone, demonstrating strong growth in the plant’s business operations. With the support of the online ordering app, ordering has become faster and more efficient, enabling the company to process a large volume of orders accurately.
• Over 600 Dealers and Distributors Using the Ordering App: The online ordering app of Hau Giang Cement has not only optimized the sales process but has also been warmly embraced by dealers and distributors. Over 600 units are currently using this app to manage their orders, thereby strengthening collaboration and ensuring sustainable development in the relationship between the plant and its partners.
• Operational Efficiency and Time Savings: Thanks to the warehouse management system, inventory tracking, and remote request approval, Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement has significantly reduced the time spent on administrative procedures, ensuring that operations run continuously without interruption.
• Effective Maintenance and Repair Cost Management: The system has helped the company closely monitor maintenance and repair costs for machinery and equipment, enabling the plant to develop reasonable and cost-effective maintenance plans, while also enhancing the durability and performance of the equipment.

These results are a clear testament to the successful digital transformation of Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement, helping the company enhance its competitiveness, meet market demands, and be ready for new challenges in the future.

Conclusion

Digital transformation is not just a trend; it has become a decisive factor for the sustainable development of every business in the new era. For Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement, the digital journey with Tekup has brought about noticeable changes, helping the company improve management efficiency, enhance customer service, and optimize operational processes.

This success is not only the result of applying modern technology but also stems from the strategic vision of the leadership and the strong commitment to collaboration between Tekup and Hau Giang Cement. Impressive results, such as over 16,000 orders and more than 600 dealers and distributors using the ordering app, demonstrate that digital transformation is the right path for achieving long-term goals and continuing sustainable development in the future.

Tekup is proud to have accompanied Can Tho – Hau Giang Cement on this journey, and we are always ready to continue supporting the company in making even stronger strides in the next phase of development, ensuring competitiveness and optimizing all aspects of operations.

If you are a business looking for comprehensive digital transformation solutions, let Tekup accompany you. Contact us now to explore the most optimized solutions that will help your business break through and achieve sustainable growth in the digital era.