Solomon Telekom strengthening the channels of communication

If you’ve ever wanted to get away from it, try the Solomon Islands, a scattered chain of 992 islands covering 1.35 million sq km. The Solomon Islands are the South Pacific’s third largest archipelago with a population of 400,000 throughout the 347 populated islands. With their headquarters in Honiara, the centre of government, commerce and tourism, Solomon Telekom is the telecommunications company in the Solomon Islands, with a large customer base serviced by the outstations on the six main islands of the Solomon Islands.

As a major institution, and joint venture company between Solomon Islands National Provident Fund, Cable & Wireless Plc and the Investment Corporation of the Solomon Islands, Solomon Telekom has invested significantly in the overall IT infrastructure to improve its business management and reporting capabilities. CEO Martyn Robinson says, “Our management team at Solomon Telekom had previous experience of Greentree and understood the Windows-based and advanced capabilities this system would deliver over our existing CBA financial system. Continued support from the Greentree Business Partner and Greentree was also an important factor, so we are able to deliver the best possible service to our customers.” 

After running Greentree’s CBA Financial system since 1988, they carried out a full review of their systems over a period of six months before selecting Greentree. Solomon Telekom extensively uses the Financial Management, Cash Management, Fixed Assets, Inventory, Purchase Orders, Job Costing, Foreign Currency and Payroll modules. 

The Brisbane-based Greentree Business Partner managed the project and trained the Telekom staff based in Brisbane and the Solomon Islands. They have a number of clients such as Solomon Telekom who are located in remote regions located in Asia-Pacific, and have developed systems and tools to assist these clients in implementing ‘best-practice’ accounting and business systems successfully. 

“Very, very, accessible!”

Solomon Telekom’s Brisbane-based team can easily connect to Greentree over the Internet, providing effective and complete online access to Greentree. This live access also provides Solomon Telekom with the ready availability of consultants from the Greentree Partner to provide ongoing assistance. John Bodkin, Financial Controller, comments on this service solution: “I like to tell it exactly how it is, and Greentree has been the best decision Solomon Telekom has ever made. To give credit where credit is due, Greentree is an excellent product and we are impressed with the standard of support. The online support is great for remote places like us and we have a good relationship with the team. We are 100% happy with the product and the service and are recommending the product within this region, so hopefully soon there will be more Greentree sites here.” Asked whether they perceived a risk from having remote support, Milton Aqorau, Finance Manager, comments, “We did not have that feeling at all. The CBA support was very good and we were certain that the level of service would continue to be good, and it is.” 

“Very, very, responsive!”

Milton believes Greentree has enabled Solomon Telekom to speed up its internal processes, and allows a more proactive and positive role within the Solomon Islands’ economy. “Whilst CBA is a stable and reliable system, Greentree is a vast improvement, giving comprehensive functionality, quick access to data, and allowing customised reporting.” Solomon Telekom has over its years of operation been positively engaged in the provision, maintenance and development of telecommunication services in the Solomon Islands. Milton continues, “Our company has a growing customer base. The way forward for us is helping the rural areas to update their channels of communication. Another major area of growth for us is digital.” 

Solomon Telekom needed a powerful financial reporting solution to provide clear financial management reports to its widespread management base, Milton explains. The ability to perform quick and in-depth system inquiries in Greentree is a clear advantage over their previous system. Milton enthuses, “We are excited by Greentree as it allows easy access to data, and has unique query tools and drill-down features that save us vast amounts of time. The range of tools within the General Ledger allows us to do so much more.”

Greentree’s Payroll module is being used to manage 256 employees. Milton comments, “There are a lot of new things we can do with it. It’s much quicker to process payroll with Greentree, and we believe that when the payroll module is used alongside the full Human Resources suite, then it should make it even faster.”

With Greentree’s Inventory module, extensive analysis, both on-screen and report-based, provides the Solomon Telekom team with the current inventory of its telecommunications equipment needed for management decisions. The Purchase Orders module allows for the entry of orders for inventory items, General Ledger purchases, Fixed Assets purchases and Job-related expenses, with all information being updated immediately. The Job Cost module provides an efficient and effective system for managing jobs, with strong integration with the financial system and other Greentree modules. Job Cost enables Solomon Telekom to record all staff debtors and manage the advances. A wealth of information is readily available, and the management team can see the staff and customer balances, showing what they owe in total and aging periods. “Compared to Greentree, CBA never provided access to this level of detailed information. We now are more equipped to manage the debtors, and management can make more informed decisions about advances.” 

With all procurement passing through the Purchasing department for approval, management can tightly monitor and control requisition spending. At Solomon Telekom this process is still currently done manually. They are just considering the internal changes and number of users required for the system to become automatic. “It will be better to be automated and we would like to rely on Greentree more and more,” says Milton.