SK KAKEN(THAILAND)CO., LTD.

Tell us about your business

It has been 20 years since we started our activities as an architectural paint manufacturer in Thailand. Aiming to be the number one manufacturer of architectural coatings in Thailand, we are engaged in the sales and installation of high-design and stone-like paints mainly in all areas of Thailand and Myanmar. Our customers are mainly Thai local companies, local clients, developers, general contractors, and construction companies.

How did you manage your business before KANNA?

Before using KANNA, we used a free chat tool to manage photos.

We created a group for each property in the chat tool and managed construction within that group. We created albums in the tool and managed photos by the property, but we could only create up to 100 albums, and when the limit was reached, we had to delete past albums. This meant that we had to download a huge number of photos to our computer and manage them before deleting an album, which was another time-consuming task. One of the major disadvantages of using the chat tool was the inability to quickly find the photos we wanted. Since it is impossible to search by property name, we had to look through the most recently uploaded albums to find the photos we wanted.

How do you use KANNA?

Currently, we are using KANNA with our internal members. We have a sales team and a construction management team. There are 13 members in the sales team and 8 members in the construction management team and they all use KANNA as main users. In addition to Bangkok, we also have a Chengmai sales office, which we use it together.

We create and manage information on about 50 sites each month, and KANNA allows us to manage photos by site and progress, which makes searching much faster. There is no limit to the number of photos that can be stored, so we no longer have to make separate backups of photos.

Using KANNA, we feel that the time it takes to solve problems on-site has become significantly faster. Also, sharing photos within the team has made it easier to issue reminders to prevent similar mistakes.

After acquiring a new project, we enter the URL of the map application, so that all members of the team can quickly find the location. As a result, we are also able to keep track of which areas each construction management staff member is focusing on.

How do you use KANNA with other systems?

We use other systems until we approach the property and close a deal. Once the property is confirmed, we switch to using KANNA to manage the construction. The useful point of KANNA is that we can upload pre-construction status, test construction, samples, etc., so that we can see the progress of construction at a glance, and we can instantly create a final completion report that is satisfied with the client. This allows us to issue final payment invoices immediately, which helps to strengthen cash collection.
KANNA's strength is that it charges by the unit of data, not by the unit of user, which allows us to operate without any concerns to add many other workers since there are many transfers of workers happening in Southeast Asia.

Have you considered other tools and systems?

We considered several construction management applications in the past, but KANNA was the most suitable for our business, and we decided to use it because we found that it was simplified, but still allowed sufficient information to be entered. Other companies' products were quite expensive, and there was more to them than our business. Most of them only support Japanese, but KANNA also supports Thai and English, which we felt was an advantage when using it in Southeast Asia.

What kind of changes have you seen since using KANNA?

Using KANNA solved the problems we had been facing.
Since we started using KANNA, we have been able to increase the number of properties we can manage and prove that our products are superior to those of other companies in terms of quality.
In the case that the client points out a defect after the work has been completed, we can smoothly reply, "The groundwork was in this condition before, so we repaired it in this way" and the client will be able to see the difference. This has improved client satisfaction and led to repeat orders by gaining their trust.

Are there any other areas where you utilize KANNA?

By managing material sales and construction sales in folders, it has become easier to manage.　We also manage progress with several phases such as before start, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%.
Problems often occur in the "before handover" period, and we often receive additional orders or suggestions from the client even though we have completed the construction.
By keeping such information in KANNA, we can see how we have responded in the past, and this can be used as information for future countermeasures.
By making good use of KANNA, we are able to prevent mistakes in materials and colors. The best thing of all is that we can solve the problem from the field by operating the system with a smartphone.

What do you expect from KANNA in the future?

I hope to see more customization features added to the report function. Currently, I can include three photos and a comment next to each photo on one page, but I feel that if I can increase the number of photos or enhance the degree of freedom, I can create more professional reports. We would also appreciate it if the number of photos for each job site could be shown at a glance. We are very thankful that we were able to prepare and start using the system in about 3 days after receiving support over the phone from Aldergram's staff. We will continue to use the system on-site and hope to expand it to other overseas locations in addition to Thailand.