Established in 1981, Mekim today employs 120 people serving more than 25,000 customers in Hong Kong as a mid-sized company. Its primary business focus is the marketing and distribution of quality healthcare products throughout Hong Kong. Today, top international brands marketed by Mekim include SebaMed from Germany, La Formula from France and Blistex from the US. The company has two warehouses and eight retail outlets that operate under the Meka brandname.

Why SAP?

As Mekim kept on expanding, the company repeatedly outgrew its accounting and inventory solutions. So Mekim began looking for an enterprise solution that would be capable of coping with its long-term growth. The solution has to be extremely flexible, possess a proven track record and credibility as well as enjoy solid R&D backing to ensure investment protection in future. "SAP R/3's integration capabilities offer real-time information access across all departments that keep functional barriers to a minimum," said Mr. Tsui

For companies of all sizes, and in particular, for mid-sized enterprises like Mekim, time and resources are limited. The fast implementation cycle that we achieved with SAP's R/3 system was a valuable asset. And as we wanted to invest in a long term and forward looking solution capable of meeting the ever changing requirements of modern business, SAP's R/3 System fitted the bill on every count.

Efficient and rapid implementation

SAP consultants worked closely with the implementation team to make the system up and running within six months, with four SAP R/3 modules including Financial (FI), Controlling (CO), Material Management (MM) and Sales and Distribution (SD) supporting Mekim's core business infrastructure. Mr. Tsui noted that SAP consultants have been proactive in giving valuable suggestions and project management guidance.

Said Mr. Tsui, "The project collaboration is a showcase of how teamwork and partnership between SAP and Mekim can contribute to a fast and affordable implementation that is achieved on-time and within budget."

SAP making waves in the mid-sized market

One of the reasons for SAP's suitability within mid-sized firms is the company's AcceleratedSAP implementation methodology. Known as ASAP, this presents customers with a proven, easy-to-follow road-map that can slash the implementation cycle from months to weeks. And Mekim has been able to draw on many of the templates within ASAP to accelerate its own implementation and thus, begin to enjoy a return on its R/3 investment very quickly.

Spectacular return on investment

Commenting on the installation of Mekim's R/3 solution, Mr. Tsui is overwhelmingly positive. "We have seen definite qualitative and quantifiable results using R/3," he said. General users find the software easy to use and senior management, like Mr. Tsui himself, can now make important decisions faster because SAP R/3 system puts all the information they need at their fingertips.

Mekim has enjoyed quantitative benefits from SAP R/3

Activity	Before R/3	After R/3
Issue purchase order	2 weeks	Same day
Identification of overdue payments	Difficult - overdue may be over 6 months without knowing	Real-time
Month End-Closing	One month	Less than 5 days
Check customer order status	1 - 2 days	Real-time

"We certainly made the right decision on R/3. It totally integrates and simplifies our business processes providing us with a quick return on our investment. The flexibility of the R/3 system means that we can reconfigure or add new functionality of the software as our business needs evolve." he said.