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. Overcoming the business challenges presented to Solomon Telekom, in terms of remoteness and logistics, is testament to the robust architecture and the flexibile service of the Greentree solution.

"We are 100% happy. Greentree is an excellent product and we are impressed with the standard of support."

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 their 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. Roger Gibson, Director of the Greentree Business Partnership, said the project was one of several they were engaged with in the Solomon Islands. "We have a number of clients such as Solomon Telekom who are located in remote regions located in Asia-Pacific. We 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 on-line 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 on-line 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. Should we require a change, or if a problem arises, the consultants simply log into our system, diagnose, and change it from their office in Brisbane."

"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 the 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. They recently increased the number of users from 8 to 12, to allow their managers to be able to simply log in and produce their own reports, run queries and interrogate the data. Milton explains, “We have just successfully completed our first financial year end using Greentree. The financial reporting in Greentree is pivotal to our business, as it provides a direct on-line connection to Excel giving complete control over formatting data and presenting reports. Being able to use Excel with Greentree is excellent as we use it so much. As a result our management have up to date and accurate reports to make informed decisions for the growth of the company.” The ability to perform quick and in-depth system enquiries in Greentree is a clear advantage over their previous system. Milton enthuses, “We are excited by Greentree as it allows easy access to data, 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.”

“The financial reporting in Greentree is pivotal to our business, as it provides a direct on-line connection to Excel giving complete control over formatting data and presenting reports. Being able to use Excel with Greentree is excellent as we use it so much. As a result our management have up to date and accurate reports to make informed decisions for the growth of the company.”

Greentree’s Payroll module is being used effectively to manage their 256 employees and they are currently in the pre-implementation discussion stage of using the full Human Resources suite. 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 their 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. “Greentree makes it easier to process all the purchase orders. It gives us greater visibility of our business and provides an easy process for our managers to review and authorise purchase orders,” says Milton.

The Greentree 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.

Milton describes how the team is pleased with their choice and progress to date, “We are very happy with Greentree as it makes us more efficient and using Excel has really helped. There are many more things for us to use in Greentree. It provides many opportunities for our business; it’s just finding the time to explore it more! Everyone is happy with Greentree and we have not had any complaints!”

About Solomon Telekom Company Limited

Solomon Telekom Company Limited is a joint venture company between Solomon Islands National Provident Fund (51%), Cable & Wireless Plc of the United Kingdom (41.9%), and the Investment Corporation of the Solomon Islands (7.1%). The company provides, develops and maintains the national and international telecommunications services of Solomon Islands.

For more information visit www.telekom.com.sb