By Insight Editor / 30 Jul 2023 / Topics: Microsoft 365 Collaboration
McCorry is an international wood product company based in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, with a strong presence across Southeast Asia, North America, and South America. Its main markets are the US, Canada, and Mexico.
The company acts as an intermediary between customers, timber and plywood providers and its contract manufacturers. This means it handles everything from sourcing of raw material, quality control, logistics, customs clearance, and international business negotiations to get the wood products from the mills to its customers, wherever they are in the world.
McCorry is equipped with a team of around fifty individuals who are committed to their work. Half of them are based in Malaysia, where the timber sourcing occurs. The rest are spread out across China, Mexico as well as the US, where McCorry has many customers. Collaborating efficiently across time zones is therefore a significant priority for the organisation.
McCorry engaged Insight to help it deploy SharePoint to allow employees to store, send, and receive documents and internal records efficiently. The new SharePoint system helps employees have better visibility over the customer journey, respond to enquiries promptly, and enjoy a smooth and secure document-sharing process.
Document sharing was the main priority for McCorry when IT Manager Jannie Chung approached Insight. Previously, McCorry had used email to share documents, often resulting in poor productivity due to time differences.
“In the past, it would take over a day for McCorry Malaysia team to receive a requested document from the McCorry US and Mexico team. This was because they had to wait for the US and Mexico team to send the document overnight when their working day began,” explained Chung.
Efficiency was a core reason for the company’s implementation of SharePoint. However, McCorry is also using the technology to improve its search function capabilities, along with its accounting, security, and compliance processes.
McCorry liaises with a range of stakeholders as it carries out its business operations. These include the timber mills where it sources timber to customer specifications, the agents who conduct quality control, the shipping companies that transport the product internationally, and the third-party agencies that provide services such as fumigation in accordance with international biosecurity laws.
SharePoint allows McCorry to store all customer documents in a single shared repository that enables team members to access live documents, regardless of their locations. This means everyone has the information they need to stay up to date with every customer journey. Collaboration is also made easier as multiple users can access a document and make edits in real time.
McCorry also has an external SharePoint site where third-party vendors and contractors can access documents. While this platform is more tightly controlled for data privacy reasons, it still allows for seamless collaboration with those outside of the organization. When an external user uploads or edits a document, the relevant internal user receives a notification.
Many of McCorry’s business processes and services require careful documentation. The timber quality control checks, for example, require many image files per shipment. These images must be taken by a McCorry quality control agent during inspection before the cargo containers are sealed. This is part of a heavily regulated process mandated by the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT).
The images need to be shared between the agent on the ground, the sales agent handling the customer’s request, and the customer itself. CTPAT certification also dictates requirements around the digital filing and data storage systems of companies that ship goods over international borders. McCorry is now able to meet these requirements easily by configuring its SharePoint to activate all the necessary compliance and reporting features. McCorry’s entire data bank complies with the built-in international standards of Microsoft 365.
Insight has also helped McCorry improve security by setting up controls so that access to documents is limited to those who need it. For example, the quality control team does not need to access purchasing information, while the compliance team does not need to access the costing details .
In addition, Insight enabled McCorry to improve its file organisation and naming conventions to streamline the process. Previously, users would create subfolders to share a specific set of documents. Now, staff store and create files with a unified, systematic approach aided by SharePoint.
Another key improvement has been the Search Center that Insight set up for McCorry as a subsite within the SharePoint Online Intranet Portal. With a sophisticated set of filters, users can now search for documents using keywords such as cost, location, client name, sales manager name, and more. This has dramatically improved efficiency as accounting teams no longer need to send several emails back and forth with the customer-facing teams to access client information.
As McCorry looks to explore the range of Microsoft 365 products and embed new tools and technology to improve business processes, it appreciates the support of a partner who can show them the best way forward.
