Sharpening Competitive Edge of Property Companies with ERP Applications

Addressing the seminar, Mr Vo Tan Thanh, Director of VCCI - HCM, said the Vietnamese real estate market is making positive progress. The year 2011 is opening up many opportunities for businesses as a lot of projects have been developed. This is a good sign but companies will face numerous difficulties arising from fiercer competition and heavier profit pressures. Hence, companies need advanced management instruments to build their own competitive advantages and earn best benefits, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is one solution.

 

The urbanisation rate of Vietnam now reaches 31 percent with 756 existing urban zones. On average, a new urban zone is built each month and 70 million square metres of houses are added each year. With the currently speed of urbanisation, the future of Vietnamese real estate is promising. According to experts, real estate and construction businesses in Vietnam are developing in size. To uplift their scales and optimise profitability, they need to apply advanced information technology solutions like SAP ERP to support the entire process of corporate governance and development, promote the sustainable development of the Vietnamese construction and real estate sectors, and enhance the competitive advantages of such companies, not only in the domestic market but also all over the world.

 

SAP ERP solution tailored for real estate companies have been successfully applied at realty projects like Bitexco Financial Tower (BFT) invested by BITEXCO LAND - the first smart building in Vietnam to apply the most advanced management technologies in the world. The BFT project, with SAP ERP applied by GCS and Bayan Trade, is targeted at integrated building management. This specialised management project requires the shortest time of deployment in Vietnam (less than four months).

 

Mr Vu Dinh Thang, Deputy General Director of Global Cybersoft Company, recommended that when companies start using specialised ERP software, they must have sufficient personnel resources and standard business processes. In the construction and real estate management system, data will be synchronised, connected with all divisions and operated uninterruptedly. With data provided, project managers will timely track the progress of implementation.

 

According to Mr Thang, when real estate companies start applying ERP, they should not use complex tasks but at the level suitable for management of investors. They will focus primarily on financial management and also on payments for suppliers. This scope will help enterprises to anticipate cash inflows and outflows and manage costs. After setting up a good operating foundation and putting it into use, they can extend to more complex and detailed tasks tailored for this industry.