Industry Noodle manufacturing Company Established in Singapore in 1970, Myojo Foods Company is a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of Myojo Foods Company in Japan. Employees 50 IT staff Relies on Stone Forest IT, a Singapore-based IT provider Annual IT Budget Not available

Unlike other noodle brands that are still taking down sales orders on paper and manually keying them into the computer, Myojo has kept pace with the business environment by leveraging personal digital assistants (PDAs) and business software tools which enable it to better track sales information.

Today, capturing sales orders into the corporate accounting system is a cinch, and everyone, including the sales representatives and management, are happy. Thanks to the business decision to automate the data capturing process, sales staff can concentrate on getting new business, while problems that used to arise from illegible handwriting and other human errors during the keying in of sales orders have been reduced.

Nelson Wong, general manager for Myojo Foods Co. in Singapore, said replacing the old pen-and-paper way of order-taking has also addressed product allocation issues. Staff are able to quickly get confirmation on the availability of stock, and do not need to check for pricing because everything is taken care of by the computer system.

Honored that Myojo has been named a ZDNet Asia Smart50 company, Wong said: "Investing in the right products at the right time is crucial, and this process should be reviewed constantly and in a timely fashion."

He also attributed business success to the company's management style of keeping an open mind toward using IT for business process improvement.

Wong added that some success should be attributed to its technology provider Stone Forest IT. "The success story should be credited to them who made it possible," he said.

On Myojo's future IT plans, Wong highlighted the importance of treating one's technology vendor as a business partner for long-term growth. Pleased with the return on investments so far, Wong said: "Without any hesitation, we will continue to invest.

"In 2006, we will focus on refreshing our technology. We plan to further cut down some overhead costs using the latest technology. Time will be saved and we hope to generate more sales. The overhead expense will be reduced in the short term, and well controlled in the long run."