Sunplus Technology accelerates the procurement process

Suboptimal internal processes

With established customers worldwide and a growing global demand for sophisticated media electronics, Sunplus needed to carefully manage its supply chain. By implementing a “wafer bank” strategy, Sunplus shortened delivery to fulfill a wide range of orders, helping its customers go to market more quickly and stay competitive. However, the critical approval process for procurement was time-consuming and prone to miscommunication. The approval functionality provided in the ERP system used by Sunplus did not adequately address the more complicated processes and delicate negotiations encountered in most Chinese corporations. For example, it is common for procurement to move through steps including joint approval, joint execution and further approvals in a complex loop. The Sunplus ERP system did not support this kind of give-and-take activity, causing significant procurement delays.

Unifying and optimizing systems
Fifteen years ago, Sunplus implemented IBM Lotus® Domino® and IBM Lotus Notes® software to help manage a large number of processes inside and outside the company and establish a platform for future web enablement. The small Sunplus IT team uses the comprehensive Lotus software functionality, intuitive interface and ease of integration among disparate systems to develop applications in-house. Despite frequent Lotus software upgrades over the years, backward compatibility among the releases means that the applications created by Sunplus developers continue to run smoothly, without needing extensive rewrites. “Each and every upgrade accommodates previous versions, enabling us to reuse our existing IT assets while benefiting from the latest features,” says Shi-hong Chang, Sunplus chief information officer.

Using the newest Lotus software development and integrative capabilities, Sunplus tackled the front end of the purchasing process. Developers programmed the purchasing application to accept requests and automatically initiate the approval processes within the ERP system. The ERP application now picks up a request, fills in asset account information and calculates depreciation without human intervention. Sunplus sales representatives and engineers at multiple locations can use the IBM Lotus Notes Traveler mobility solution to email requests or needs from a range of platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian.

Greater efficiency and flexibility

• Boosts competitiveness by improving procurement flexibility across the supply chain
• Streamlines the procurement process with automated approval workflow for better tracking and reduced manual errors
• Helps optimize communication and collaboration, laying the foundation for future enterprise mobility and web applications