How Hai Soon Leong Replaced Spreadsheets with Real-Time Visibility Using Oracle NetSuite
Hai Soon Leong Sdn Bhd (HSL), a Selangor-based F&B manufacturer producing the Mama’s Delights range alongside private-label production for other brands, had outgrown the mix of local accounting software, spreadsheets, and manual processes it was running on. Growing SKU counts, rising import/export volumes, and the need to consolidate reporting across multiple business lines meant management was always looking at yesterday’s numbers, reconstructed by hand. Over a 7–9 month implementation with iDynamics, HSL moved onto Oracle NetSuite — and management reporting that used to take a day or two of spreadsheet work now comes together in hours, with near-real-time inventory visibility across the business.
At a glance:
- 🏭 Industry: F&B Manufacturing (private-label & branded — Mama’s Delights)
- 📍 Location: Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
- ⏱️ Implementation time: ~7–9 months, kickoff to go-live
- 📈 Headline result: Management reporting cut from 1–2 days of manual spreadsheet work to same-day/on-demand
- 📊 Additional results: Month-end close shortened by several working days; an estimated 30–50% reduction in manual reconciliation between finance, purchasing, and inventory records
Figures above are per iDynamics’ internal project records and account team observations — see the note on this page about client confirmation before publishing final figures.
📌 Key Takeaways
- The problem: Spreadsheets and local accounting software couldn’t give real-time visibility across multi-brand F&B manufacturing.
- The solution: Oracle NetSuite — Financials, Inventory, Manufacturing/BOM, Procurement, and multi-currency.
- Timeline: Roughly 7–9 months, Q3 2022 kickoff to Q2 2023 go-live.
- The result: Management reporting went from 1–2 days of manual spreadsheet work to same-day, on-demand.
Table of Contents
Client Background
Hai Soon Leong Sdn Bhd is an F&B manufacturer based in Semenyih, Selangor. What started as a family trading business supplying marine and agricultural products has, over the decades, grown into full-scale manufacturing — today HSL produces curry pastes, sambal, soup concentrates, and food ingredients under its own Mama’s Delights brand, as well as private-label and contract manufacturing for other FMCG food brands. With meaningful import and export activity — sourcing ingredients internationally and shipping finished products to overseas markets — HSL’s operation spans procurement, multi-ingredient production, and multi-channel distribution.
The Challenge
HSL’s move to a new system wasn’t triggered by a single breaking point — it was a gradual “we’ve outgrown this” realisation. As transaction volumes grew, the SKU count expanded, and import/export activity increased, the systems that had served the business well for years — a combination of local accounting software, spreadsheets, and manual processes — started creating more work than they saved.
The core issue: a lack of real-time visibility across finance, inventory, and operations. Getting an accurate, current picture of the business meant manually reconciling data from multiple sources before management could see where things stood. This showed up in a few specific ways:
- Multi-brand reporting was a manual exercise. Consolidating results across private-label production, the Mama’s Delights brand, and other business activities required pulling numbers together by hand rather than seeing them in one place.
- Inventory and production complexity was outgrowing manual tracking. With multiple raw materials, packaging components, and finished goods in play, keeping BOMs/recipes, stock consumption, and production costing accurate was becoming harder to manage without a dedicated system.
- Compliance and traceability needs were growing. Better product traceability, audit-readiness, and SST reporting were all becoming more important as the business scaled — NetSuite would go on to provide a stronger foundation for these, and for the Malaysian compliance requirements (like e-Invoice) that emerged in the years after go-live.
The Solution
iDynamics implemented Oracle NetSuite for HSL, configured with:
- Financial Management — for consolidated reporting across the business
- Inventory Management — for real-time stock visibility
- Procurement / Purchase Management — to manage sourcing across HSL’s international supplier base
- Sales Order Management — for order-to-cash processing
- Manufacturing / BOM Management — to handle multi-ingredient recipes, production costing, and stock consumption
- Warehouse & Fulfilment — for warehouse-level inventory and dispatch visibility
- Multi-currency support — reflecting HSL’s import/export transaction volumes
The implementation also included Malaysian localisation (including SST), along with customised management reports and production/inventory reporting built around HSL’s specific manufacturing setup.
Why this fit: With multi-ingredient BOMs, cross-border sourcing, and the need to report across more than one business line, HSL needed a single system that could handle manufacturing complexity and financial consolidation together — rather than stitching the two together by hand every month.
Implementation Process
HSL signed with iDynamics in Q3 2022 and went live in Q2 2023 — a project spanning roughly 7 to 9 months from kickoff to go-live, run in phases:
- Discovery & Requirements — mapping HSL’s existing finance, purchasing, inventory, and production processes
- Solution Design — designing the NetSuite configuration around HSL’s manufacturing and multi-brand reporting needs
- Configuration — building out the modules, localisation, and custom reports
- Data Migration — migrating item masters, BOMs/recipes, and opening balances
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) — validating the configured system against real HSL scenarios
- User Training — bringing finance, purchasing, warehouse, and production teams up to speed
- Go-Live & Support — cutover and post-go-live stabilisation
The project involved stakeholders across HSL’s finance, purchasing/procurement, warehouse/inventory, and production/operations teams, along with ownership/management, working alongside the iDynamics consulting team throughout.
The main hurdle: as with most manufacturing ERP projects, data cleansing and migration took real effort — making sure item masters, units of measure, BOMs/recipes, and opening inventory balances were accurate before go-live. Getting this right up front was what made the post-go-live reporting improvements possible.
Measurable Results
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Management reporting | 1–2 days of manual spreadsheet preparation | Same-day / on-demand |
| Month-end close | ~7–10 working days | ~4–5 working days (after stabilisation) |
| Manual reconciliation (finance/purchasing/inventory) | Heavy, spreadsheet-based | Estimated 30–50% less manual effort |
| Inventory visibility | Periodic/manual checks | Near-real-time |
| Multi-brand/entity reporting | Manual spreadsheet consolidation | Single, consolidated system view |
Figures above are per iDynamics’ internal project records and account team observations, and should be confirmed with HSL’s finance team before this page is published — see the checklist at the top of this document.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a NetSuite implementation take for an F&B manufacturer?
For a manufacturer with multi-ingredient BOMs and multi-brand reporting needs, a mid-sized implementation typically runs 7–9 months from kickoff to go-live, covering discovery, configuration, data migration, testing, training, and go-live support.
What NetSuite modules matter most for F&B manufacturing?
Financial Management, Inventory Management, and Manufacturing/BOM Management are usually the core, alongside Procurement and Sales Order Management — with Warehouse & Fulfilment and multi-currency support added depending on the business’s distribution and sourcing footprint.
Does NetSuite help with Malaysian compliance requirements like SST and e-Invoice?
NetSuite supports Malaysian localisation including SST, and provides a strong foundation for evolving compliance requirements such as e-Invoice/MyInvois — though specific compliance features should be verified against current LHDN guidance at the time of implementation.
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