Business Weekly Exclusive Report - Digital Pre-Deployment Against Labor and Material Shortages: Startek Grows Against Headwinds During the Pandemic, Revenue Jumps 7x in 3 Years

When it comes to Startek, the exterior wall is made of clear glass, dotted with illustrations. Once someone comes close to admire it, the entire glass automatically senses and is whitened in one second. For internal users, the privacy is instantly upgraded.

"Essentially, our company is an architectural aesthetics company that designs and applies 'Electronic Control Glass' technology partitions, focusing on interior decoration and replacing light partitions," said Winifred Chung, founder of JOSHUA STARTEK LTD. What is Electronic Control Glass? Electronic Control Glass, also known as "color-changing glass" or "energized glass", is simply a glass that has the functions of being transparent when electricity is turned on, atomizing when electricity is turned off, and can use electricity to adjust light and sight lines.

Through the Electronic Control Glass partition, it not only saves space, but also creates an aesthetic feeling.

The buttons on the control panel can be used to switch between the see-through and white fog functions of the glass.

From consumer side to manufacturer side
Strive to become the brand of Electronic Control Glass designated by customers

Startek, established in 2020, is the first Electronic Control Glass store in Taiwan. The biggest challenge it faces is that domestic designers and contractors are not familiar with the new material "Electronic Control Glass". "The decoration engineering industry is basically divided into three parties: A, B, and C," Winifred Chung explained. Party A is the financier, Party B is the designer or contractor, and Party C is the various engineering companies such as partitions, plasterers, and painters. Under such an industrial structure, Party B usually already has familiar materials and contractors who have cooperated with it for many years. As a start-up company with new materials as its main products, it faces a completely unfamiliar market for Party B in the early stage of its business. Winifred Chung’s strategy is to bring her brand and products from the consumer side to the manufacturer side (Business-to-Consumer-to-Business, B2C2B), making Startek the Electronic Control Glass brand designated by Party A, and then requiring Party B to adopt it. On this entrepreneurial road, digital transformation has become a powerful tool for Startek.

Deploy ERP system to efficiently dispatch manpower and materials
Overcoming the crisis of job shortage during the epidemic

To make Startek a brand designated by potential customers, in addition to product strength, first of all, Winifred Chung chose to introduce a system to achieve "lean management" to provide customers with efficient services and win over unfamiliar potential customers with professionalism.

Winifred Chung, who has worked for a major international company in the past, set up a fully digital enterprise resource planning (ERP) system when the company was founded. Everything from managing material costs and working hours to calculating gross profit and performance bonuses was digitized.

It is worth mentioning that most traditional ERP systems do not incorporate financial functions, but Winifred Chung specified that the customized internal control software should integrate accounting processes. Taking invoice accounting as an example, this exclusive ERP has a built-in automation mechanism that has the ability to interface with databases, allowing financial units to control the invoice issuance deadline, monitor abnormal conditions, etc. It can also streamline the lengthy routine of manually processing reports from stand-alone software such as Word and Excel.

Quoting customers, signing contracts, chasing accounts receivable, and processing documents and documents such as payment are the core tasks of business operations. However, the construction industry generally lacks a transparent mechanism for effective tracking. Winifred Chung believes that all company processes are carried out in the ERP system to avoid problems such as project delays and outstanding payments, which has become the key to establishing a good reputation for Startek.

What's more, in the three years since its establishment in 2020, construction projects have faced challenges such as city closures, material shortages, and labor shortages. This ERP system allows Startek to take advantage of scheduling manpower, materials, and funds. From customer information filing, planning requirements, discussing specifications, making quotations, purchasing materials, to recording construction hours, acceptance, and warranty, the entire process is executed through the system, helping to track and control progress in real time.

Winifred Chung explained that once the project is started, the ERP will automatically calculate data such as the time required for the project, the corresponding costs, and the construction period. After coordination, the downstream contractor will dispatch a team to carry out the work on the selected date. The project can be completed in half a day. It has maintained high efficiency during the epidemic and has accumulated a good reputation.

By turning on the computer and connecting to the ERP system, you can track the numbers on various forms to understand the progress of your work.

From being a small contractor to building brand visibility
Find potential customers through social media and SEO

To become Party A's designated brand, for a new start-up with only seven employees, how to increase its visibility and be seen by potential customers has become an important issue.

Winifred Chung admitted that setting up an advertising budget is not the first choice, because Electronic Control Glass doors are a demand-driven market. Clients have product needs and proactively seek further operators to promote market development.

In the process of customers actively searching for information online, the frequently used keywords are also very focused, and the content of professional skills is emphasized. Therefore, she uses social tools and cooperates with the search engine optimization (SEO) of her own official website to reach potential customers in need.

Take out your mobile phone and open the digital platform of Startek and scan the QR Code to link to the social web page.

She asked her colleagues to identify hot search keywords such as "light partitions", "decoration", and "glass partitions" that are being discussed online, and then bring them into articles published on the official website blog to satisfy users' "search intentions" so that her official website can obtain better search page rankings. She also used her professional knowledge to explain the advantages and features of Electronic Control Glass partitions to build consumer trust. The overall click-through rate exceeded 1,500 times a month, which is a very impressive result for a new building materials brand that has just started. Next, Startek built a quotation system on the official website, listing three specifications and corresponding prices for potential customers to evaluate, helping the business to understand the customer's needs before contacting them, reducing the time for back-and-forth communication between the two parties, accelerating the sales process, and improving service quality.

"Those who come through SEO are all direct customers, without contractors," Winifred Chung said that digital marketing has achieved remarkable results. The number of order inquiries has increased threefold, which has greatly increased the company's residential customers. Almost all of them come from online channels. Since its establishment, revenue has doubled every year, and revenue has jumped sevenfold in three years.

What’s next for the company’s digital transformation? Winifred Chung admitted that the ERP system still needs to be constantly adjusted. In her eyes, the more critical action is to keep up with the sustainability issues (Environment, Social, Governance, ESG) that global enterprises are preparing to deal with. The next step in upgrading the ERP system is to cooperate with product upgrades and align with the "Greenhouse Gas Inventory Standard ISO" expected to be introduced in 2024. 14064", hoping to take this opportunity to introduce digital modules, integrate with internationally advanced technology and environmental protection vision, and connect with the future development trend of green smart buildings through technological innovation.

Advance deployment of digitalization to combat labor shortages and material shortages Startek has grown against the epidemic, with revenue jumping 7 times in 3 years｜Business Weekly