User case study
He's a rare breed
By Eileen Yu
Jan 7, 2004
Qian Hu, Singapore's most well-known ornamental
fish supplier deploys knowledge management and voice recognition
technologies to enhance customer service.
He may be dealing in an old-world industry, but the man behind
one of Singapore's leading exporters of ornamental fish is more
audacious with regard to implementing new technologies than most
companies twice its size.
Dr Kenny Yap, executive chairman and managing director of Qian
Hu, is every bit the kampong boy.
He spoke fondly of the days when he grew up with his cousins in a
family-run pig farming business, which was later converted into the
thriving ornamental fish trade that it is widely known today.
But while Dr Yap remains deeply entrenched in his modest
upbringing, he is forward-looking and brash about the company's
involvement with technology.
'Information is so easily available... once you have access to
the Internet, the whole game changes,' he said. 'People know and can
compare prices and products with the click of a mouse.'
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| Dr Yap - kampong boy at heart, but
IT-savvy in business. |
'The only way to compete and make more profits is to ensure that
your productivity is greater than the next company. You do so by
getting your employees to multi-task or by adopting technology to
reduce labour cost and increase the speed of transactions.'
That he has done, sometimes by deploying technologies that few
have ventured into.
While knowledge management (KM) has been perceived by some as too
convoluted to implement, Qian Hu has boldly stepped up to embrace it
because Dr Yap wanted to retain knowledge in the company even after
an employee has left.
Its KM system is built using web-based services, and facilitates
the transfer and sharing of knowledge from employees to a knowledge
network, said Mr Chong Wei Khee, managing director of In-One
Technology. The company builds and manages Qian Hu's IT
infrastructure.
The system stores corporate information and records the company's
expertise and best practices which can be accessed securely via
e-mail and short message service (SMS), he said.
'Previously, a lot of physical documents were lost or misplaced
when an employee quit the company,' he said. 'With the KM system,
data can be stored in various file formats such as Excel, Word or
JPEG, and shared by anyone who logs into the network.'
Less manpower
Dr Yap noted: 'When you run a business, you need to look closely
at how to value-add. That can be fulfilled through customer
satisfaction or speeding up your processes and operations by using
less manpower.'
To answer that need, the flamboyant businessman has turned to yet
another road less travelled - that of speech recognition, a
technology once bogged by inaccuracy issues.
In-One helped public-listed Qian Hu develop a system that is
capable of converting text to speech.
Developed on an open architecture and using voice extensible
markup language (voice XML), the solution enables shareholders to
obtain Qian Hu's latest stock value from the SGX (Singapore
Exchange) website in real-time via the phone.
XML is an open standard protocol used to define data elements on
a webpage, based on tags classified by the developer of that page.
Likewise, voice XML defines voice segments and facilitates access to
the Web via telephones, mobile phones and other voice devices.
Mr Chong explained: 'The shareholder can call Qian Hu's hotline
and choose the option to check the stock price. The system then
accesses the Internet to SGX's site, checks on the value, converts
the text-based information to speech, and reads the information back
to the caller in English or Mandarin.'
The system is intelligent enough to prompt the caller to repeat
himself if the speech is unclear or too soft. It will suggest that
the caller try the keypad option after repeated failed attempts. It
also allows messages to be recorded and sent as e-mail attachments.
Dr Yap said: 'We try to provide our shareholders with reports and
an avenue for them to give feedback. For example, if they can't
attend our AGMs (annual general meetings), they can submit their
comments via snail mail, fax, voicemail or e-mail.'
There are plans to link the voice system with the company's
database to provide access to a wider range of information including
'death on arrival' reports or stock availability. Death on arrival
refers to the death rate of the livestock upon delivery.
Dr Yap said: 'As long as technology can help create value and
increase customer service, I'll try it.'
Facts and figures
Qian Hu has more than 550 employees in Singapore, Malaysia,
China and Thailand. Each subsidiary has its own server, all of which
are linked via VPN (virtual private network). Data is sent daily to
the central system here.
There are more than 60 computers in the local office, which also
serves as a test bed for any new technology before it is rolled out
to its offices overseas.
Exporting to more than 60 countries worldwide, Qian Hu supplies
over 30 per cent of the world's aquarium fish.
The company ships about half a million fish per month, from a
variety of over 500 species of ornamental fish.
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