SUCCESS STORIES
Holistic Healing and Medical Wellness: A Medical Network’s Mission to Improve Patient’s Well-being – SME Centre@SICCI
Crystal Chan
(Photo) Founding Director of Precision First Pte. Ltd. (previously known as Precision Urology Pte. Ltd.), Dr Chong KT (in stripe sweater), who is also the founding Director of Surgi-TEN Specialists Pte. Ltd. and Asia MD Pte. Ltd., holding an appreciation gift with Professor Dr Bannakij Lojanapiwat (in the blue blazer), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (Chiang Mai University, Thailand) for their future collaborations.
A Mission to Improve Patients’ Well-Being
Precision First Pte. Ltd. (previously known as Precision Urology Pte. Ltd.) is a healthcare consulting company based in Singapore that aims to build up a network that connects medical and healthcare professionals, healthcare services, and the public community to patients.
Precision First understands that many patients are concerned about the expensive medical bills needed for post-treatment rehabilitation and recovery, especially after spending quite a sum on hospital treatments and surgery.
Therefore, Precision First came up with plans to expand into overseas locations so that more patients can enjoy medical wellness programmes that are both reliable and inexpensive. The programme’s objective is to allow patients to improve their well-being through holistic healing and mental wellness after medical treatments.
The Uncertain Road Ahead
In the beginning, Precision First was uncertain about their business direction or even the various assistance they are eligible for in their overseas expansion plans. They were troubled about the obstacles and limitations of their market penetration strategies.
However, that changed when Precision First’s founder, Dr Chong KT was referred by an associate to SME Centre@SICCI‘s Senior Business Advisor, Mr Mike Krishnan.
After Dr Chong had a thorough discussion with Mike, the company was encouraged by Mike’s feedback and viewpoint on the overseas expansion of clinical services. Precision First was pleased with Mike’s excellent in-depth knowledge and vital business acumen that provided the company with confidence in their first overseas venture.
Reflecting on the positive ethos of the SME Centre, Mike was also outstanding in highlighting key strengths and weaknesses of the company’s internationalisation toolkit that seeks to support its regional expansion and market penetration plans.
Successful Grant Application and Venture into Overseas Markets
With Mike’s assistance, Precision First submitted an application for the Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant to Enterprise Singapore in preparation for their overseas expansion into Thailand market.
In March 2023, Precision First’s MRA grant was approved and they launched their medical wellness programme in Thailand called “Doctor Heals”.
“Doctor Heals” is an initiative conducted in collaboration with selected surgeons, medical specialists and medical doctors in Thailand. It hopes to improve holistic recovery for patients who have undergone medical treatments.
With the help of the MRA grant, Precision First’s goal of helping more patients from Southeast Asian countries became more concrete.
Being an SME, Precision First noted that overseas expansion plans are difficult without the confidence and knowledge provided by Enterprise Singapore and SME Centres. The support rendered enabled them to further their reach overseas, which could have been hindered tremendously by the high level of costs.
Positive Outlook for the Future
With positive re-enforcement and guidance from Enterprise, another of Precision First’s work partners, Asia MD Pte. Ltd. is also planning for expansion into the Chinese market.
Looking back, if the challenges and concerns were left unresolved, Precision First would have delayed their plans and missed plenty of opportunities that were available. The company was very happy to have Mike’s assistance in this and to have received the approval for their MRA grant.
Precision First hoped that more companies could benefit from the experience and encouragement of Enterprise Singapore and SME Centres.
About Surgi-TEN Specialists and Asia MD
Besides Precision First, Dr Chong KT is also managing two other healthcare companies. One of them is Surgi-TEN Specialists Pte. Ltd., a one-stop surgical clinic in Singapore that employs specialists from more than 10 sub-specialities. The surgeons’ expertise ranges from brain surgery, orthopaedics, plastic surgery, gynaecology, stomach, colorectal and urology.
The other is Asia MD Pte. Ltd. Asia MD works closely with medical doctors and healthcare professionals to provide reliable healthcare information and articles written or approved by medical professionals in order to combat fake medical news. Followers of Asia MD’s social media receive regular updates on new healthcare articles, gain opportunities to ask questions with the complimentary “Ask-A-Doctor” service and obtain information on how to keep away from avoidable medical errors in hospitals and medical clinics. Both English and Mandarin translations are available on the website.
From Manual to Automation: How a Household and Lifestyle Brand Revolutionised Their Business Process – SME Centre@SICCI
Crystal Chan
“In the past, it took more than eight hours per day to clear the backlog of sales fulfillment. Now, the company only takes less than one to two hours to do so, immensely improving the productivity cycle.”
A Leading Household and Lifestyle Brand
Sheldon Global was founded in 2014 in Singapore with a core business in retail and e-commerce sale of household and lifestyle products. The company has a broad portfolio encompassing home and lifestyle products with six major house brands under its belt; each with a different product focus.
With a vision of venturing into markets beyond Singapore, Sheldon Global came up with various strategic regional and global expansion projects in 2022. The intention of the projects was to expand its reach towards Singapore’s Southeast Asian neighbours: Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Afterwards, it planned to extend its network towards the U.S., the UK and other parts of Europe.
Despite its great aspirations, Sheldon Global has a critical issue it needed to resolve before it can continue with its expansion schemes.
Tedious Manual Process and Manpower Crunch
As one of the leading household and tableware companies in Singapore, Sheldon Global faces hundreds and thousands of orders daily. As the business expands, the manual process of order fulfilment was getting more difficult for the staff to complete.
It slowly culminates to the point where the orders cannot be fulfilled within a day. Issues such as the staff possibly being overworked and overwhelmed due to manpower crunch are areas that may impede the business growth as well.
Therefore, it is imperative that Sheldon Global’s sales orders are fulfilled quickly and efficiently to lock in sales in order to compete with their competitors who rival them in both online and offline platforms.
Consultation with SME Centre@SICCI
Sheldon Global first came into contact with SME Centre@SICCI in August 2020 when they were enquiring about the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) for strategising their warehouse operations.
Our centre’s Partners for Business Growth (PBG) Programme Team Lead and business advisor, Mr Aaron Wan first went through a consultation with Sheldon Global’s Managing Director, Mr Brien and assisted the company with their PSG application.
Throughout the period of working together, Aaron developed a close business relationship with Sheldon Global. He discovered that Mr Brien’s vision for the company didn’t just stop with improving work performance and efficiency in the field but he was also actively looking for ways to lead the company forward in the industry.
Thus, Aaron introduced the PBG Programme to Mr Brien after considering their needs and future plans.
Partners for Business Growth
The PBG Programme provided an in-depth consultancy for Sheldon Global by examining its key business problem statement. Due to this in-depth consultancy, Aaron was able to discover the dire need for automation in the company’s order process.
Mr Brien was later introduced by Aaron to Republic Polytechnic’s Robotic Process Automation Programme (RPA), where it assisted with the enhancement of Sheldon Global’s staff capabilities and resolved the issue of manual order processing.
In the past, it took more than eight hours per day to clear the backlog of sales fulfilment. Now, the company only takes less than one to two hours to do so, immensely improving the productivity cycle.
Sheldon Global implores other SMEs to get in touch with SME Centre@SICCI and learn more about the PBG Programme that can potentially help them build on existing capabilities and grow beyond Singapore’s shores.
Company Name:
The Singapura Club
Nestled in the cultural precinct of Little India and Haji Lane, is The Singapura Club – a heritage-style vintage bistro that serves as a taproom and a leisure dining spot. Set up in 2018 by their Founder, Mr Jerry Singh, they have now expanded with their third dining restaurant amongst the rich greens of Seletar Aerospace Club.
Mr Jerry, the founder of Singapura F&B Pte Ltd, met with Business Advisors Mr Rajkumar and Mr Stephen from SME Centre@Little India and SME Centre@SICCI. Competition was rife in the F&B sector. The amiable business owner was on the lookout for new hires for his new outlet. The roles required some relevant experiences but he was willing and open to training newcomers from service-related roles. Besides, there were certain gaps in his workflow process that needed attention. He wanted to leverage on digitisation and innovation to stay ahead and seize opportunities in a post Covid-19 landscape.
Through an advisory session with Mr Rajkumar, Singapura F&B Pte Ltd was brought through a number of pre-scoped solutions/equipment to implement a Point of Sales system and an automated dishwasher. With the required funding support from Productivity Solutions Grant, the restaurant was able to procure the respective solutions that were readily adoptable and could adapt to its internal business needs.
To ease the labour crunch in Singapore’s F&B sector, Mr Jerry wanted to introduce fully automated robots to address this pain point. Singapura Club is one of the first restaurants to bring in Robot Barista which is placed in their new outlet at Singapura Aerospace Club to prepare cocktails, mocktails and coffee. The company was supported in the investment cost through Enterprise Development Grant. Mr Jerry adds that the restaurant can cope with the F&B challenges by embracing automated robotic baristas.
Company Name:
Botani Pte Ltd (Tanglin Gin)
We had the opportunity to advise Mr Charlie and his co-founders on the formalities needed towards setting up a spirits manufacturing facility in Singapore. This involved inquiries with various government agencies on zoning and licenses. Botani Pte Ltd was registered in 2017 and Tanglin Gin launched the first Gin Distillery of Singapore in 2018. It is now sold in over 60 outlets in Singapore, is available in Australia, and working closely with us to explore government assistance to launch in more overseas markets. The brand has won several international awards including the prestigious Double Gold at the San Francisco Spirit Awards.
Company Name:
RASOOL SHOP PTE. LTD.
Rasool Shop has been operating in Singapore for over 50 years and has been in existence since 1962. The shop’s unique selling point is its spices and herbs.
The shop today is run by Mr Mohamed Shah, alongside his mother Mdm Ummal Faziriya. They received advisory and assistance from a Business Advisor at SME Centre@Little India on digitalising their business. Under the Little India Digitalisation project, merchants in the vicinity can sign up for e-commerce or e-payment solutions to upgrade their business capabilities.
Company Name:
Iconic Wines Singapore Pte Ltd
Iconic Wines Singapore Pte Ltd is a wine distribution business since 2011. Mr Steven informed that they specialise in Spanish wines which they distribute to Asia including Thailand.
Iconic Wines Pte Ltd wanted to change their business model from B2B to B2C. However, they did not know what to do or how to go about doing so. They were currently distributing Spanish wines in Asia and they would market their wines through wine pairing dinners. Most sales were done by word of mouth. They intended to expand their market by introducing E-commerce to their business so that they can sell their wines online and thus this way, they can reach mass market.
SME Centre Business Advisor advised Mr Steven on EDG as he was looking at branding and transforming their business model for their business. He informed that they have been in business for 5 years and they are now looking at branding to make better profits. Walked Mr Steven through his proposal for the application of EDG and followed throughout the application process. Eventually, Mr Steven was awarded EDG for branding and marketing he was given the Letter of Offer by ESG.
Company Name:
CS Consulting Engineers Pte Ltd
CS Consulting Engineers Pte Ltd was incorporated in 2008 and they provide professional consultancy services in building engineering, architectural design, project management and project feasibility studies. The clients faces competition with other engineering consultants. Their employees needed to be trained in keeping personal data of their clients safely. The business lacked leadership and commitment; arising from poorly defined and miscommunicated roles, responsibilities and authorities.
Business Advisor from SME Centre met up with business owner and informed them on Data Protection Trust Mark Certification where the framework upholds resilience in the company and provide assurance to their major clients. The Business Advisor also recommended Enterprise Development Grant to support their consultancy and certification fees to help defray the cost.
With the right advise from the Business Advisor, CS Consulting Engineers Pte Ltd trained their employees to be aware of DPTM requirements; so that they can assist the business units to identify areas for improvements and progressively strengthen the DPTM , as well as ensure they remain abreast of changing threats and business requirements. Thus DPTM certification demonstrates to CS Consulting’s customers that the organization has robust data protection and loss prevention policies and practices which will safeguard the business and its client’s personal data and confidential information. This enhanced CS Consulting’s reputation, build trust and foster confidence in their clients. This ensures that the business establishes and maintains a sustainable business competitive-edge both locally and overseas.
Company Name:
Greenology Pte. Ltd.
Greenology Pte. Ltd. was incorporated in 2008 by founder Mr Veera. The company provides sustainable greenery solutions services in Singapore. The company had reached out to SME Centre@SICCI and our Business Advisor had met them to discuss their HR capabilities, growth plans which included expanding into international markets.
As the company grows and expand overseas, the company decided to look into upgrading their HR capabilities to match their world class technical standard. After working with SME Centre on a business SMART analysis and a HR diagnosis by Enterprise Singapore, the company had identified the areas for improvement. Armed with the new knowledge, the company engaged a HR consultant to improve their HR capabilities.
Company Name:
Sri Vinayaka Exports Pte. Ltd
SME Centre @ SICCI’s Business Advisor met with Mr Manickam, Managing Director of the company to discuss his interest to globalise.
Enterprise Singapore’s role and resources were discussed with Mr Manickam and introductions to partners were made for preparatory understanding of market regulations. This allowed the company to be aware of the demands of the selected market and to embark their journey. They were walked through the Market Readiness Assistance and the company was able to offset supportable costs.
Company Name : Springleaf Prata Place Pte Ltd
SME Centre@SICCI’s Business Advisor offered advice to Mr S.V. Gunalan, founder of Springleaf Prata Place to purchase automated machines and to get consultant’s assistance so that they can improve the restaurant’s productivity and processes.
An Indian restaurant specialising in South Indian and Indian Muslim food was facing insufficient manpower and weak time management. SME Centre conducted a business diagnostic and understood the company’s strength and weakness. Mr S.V. Gunalan was able to automate his processes and as a result, he significantly benefited from them.
Mr S.V. Gunalan was featured in Straits Times, Business Section on August 11, 2015.
Company Name : Kovan Learning Centre
SME Centre@SICCI’s Business Advisor informed about assistance available which allowed the tuition centre to roll out required new technology to innovate its service proposition.
Additionally, the adoption of new technology allowed for slower-learning students to visualise their subject content and have a clearer understanding of the topic.
Mr Thayalan was featured in Straits Times, Business Section on August 11, 2015.
Company Name : Just R Enterprises Pte Ltd
SME Centre@SICCI’s Business Advisor team conducted business and productivity diagnostics to realise the preparedness of the company in embarking on their growth strategies.
In doing so, it was understood that the company required an understanding of the market that they were planning to enter. They were walked through the Market Readiness Assistance provided by Enterprise Singapore and were able to hire a consultant to study and provide insights into the market, and link up with potential partners in entering the market with a unique service proposition.
Just R Enterprises was featured on local Chinese daily, Lianhe Wanbao on 2nd February 2016
