With more than 28 years of experience, Kim Seng Heng Holdings (KSH Holdings) is a well established construction, property development and property management group with operations in Singapore, Malaysia and China.
The group's activities are construction in Singapore and Malaysia, and property development and management in China.
Among its notable private sector construction projects in Singapore are The Coast, The Berth By The Cove, The Spectrum, Montview, the Mustafa Shopping Centre extension, and the restoration of Far East Square. Its public sector portfolio includes The Frontier Community Place, Choa Chu Kang Sports Complex, Nanyang Polytechnic, and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. KSH Holdings has also secured a S$32 million contract to build an assembly plant in Selangor and a S$7.2 million contract from Tan Chong & Sons Motor for the construction of a warehouse and office in Selangor.
With several concurrent projects in Singapore, the finance department of KSH Holdings need to keep track of all claims for payment for work completed by sub-contractors. This manual process involved the sub-contractor submitting a claim, the quantity surveyor verifying the work done, and the project manager and director's approvals. The form containing these details has to be passed from hand to hand across sites in Singapore as project managers and project directors could be at different locations.
As a result, there were inconsistencies in the progress claims, and management does not have visibility of project expenditure against original project costing until the finance department has processed it manually.
"We needed something to monitor the project cost at almost real time to ensure that there is no cost overrun. When insufficient or incorrect information is provided to the finance department, payment to the sub-contractor may be delayed. The manual process was inconsistent and we could not generate management reports," said Tony Tang, Chief Financial Officer of KSH Holdings.
The company wanted a solution that can streamline the entire claims process and deliver accurate, real time data that can be used to produce meaningful management reports.
"Users must be able to log in to the system from any location to input the data. This data will be stored centrally and the system must be able to compute the information and push back to the financial system. The system must allow project managers and directors to check on the current progress in development and payment. It must also be reliable and secure," said Tang.
With these criteria in mind, KSH Holdings decided to turn to Cxrus Solutions, a Red Hat Advanced Business Partner, to develop a Process Claims Systems (PCS).
Cxrus Solutions studied the construction company's needs and spoke to its quantity surveyors, project managers and director, and the finance department to understand their requirements and develop a solution that matches their needs.
The decision was to develop PCS to run on Red Hat Enteprise Linux, PHP and Apache.
"We handle a lot of data input on a daily basis and will require something stable and capable of handling the load. That is why we chose Red Hat," said Tang.
According to Alvin Teo, Business Solutions Director of Cxrus Solutions, the cost of using Red Hat is lower than other platforms.
"The solution also runs faster and performs better when deployed on Red Hat. Of course, Red Hat is renowned for its security, reliability and scalability," he said.
Cxrus Solutions conducted end user training for about 40 quantity surveyors, project managers and directors, and staff of the finance department. The system went live in October 2007.
Teo believes that taking part in the Infocomm Development Authority's (IDA) Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading Programme (iLIUP) has given his company a technology edge.
iLIUP is aimed at promoting mutually beneficial partnerships between local enterprises in Singapore and infocomm multinational corporations, leveraging the strengths of each party to bring about greater synergy and results.
"Cxrus Solutions has gained much from Red Hat's technological insights of the Linux operating system versus other operating systems. This has helped us to craft the best possible solutions for our customers. KSH is a good example of a customer that has benefitted from our participation in iLIUP," he added.
Switching from manual to an automated system took a little getting used to but once the staff caught on, they began to reap the benefits of the system.
"PCS is a means to record work done. The Red Hat-based solution has met our objectives of improving data accuracy, better visibility of project cost and prompt payment to our sub-contractors," said Tang.
Since the system was implemented, business has increased by about 70 percent but the financial department was able to handle the associated increased workload without needing to employ more staff.
Besides being more accurate, data is also readily available and easily retrievable so management reports can be produced quickly when required.
Claims processing time has been cut by 50 to 60 percent, enabling sub-contractors to be paid more promptly, which in turn, leads to maintaining good relationships and enhanced corporate reputation.
Quantity surveyors can check the status of their claims online wherever they are - either on site or in the office.
Going forward, KSH Holdings plans to link PCS with the financial system to be able to churn out customised management reports on the fly.
"We are also planning to add a document management system to PCS so that we can reduce the amount of paper utilised. By doing do, we will also have better security of our documents as well as saving of storage space," said Tang.