KEPRO - Kenya Extended Producer Responsibility Organization
How KEPRO used ZOHO CREATOR & ZOHO BOOKS to streamline their membership management as well as related accounting.
THE CLIENT
KEPRO is an industry-led extended producer responsibility organization bringing together players in the packaging for the non-hazardous products value chain to address post-consumer waste in Kenya.
This includes:
1. Plastics
i. Flexible/Polythene Plastics
ii. PET Plastics
iii. Rigid/Hard Plastics
2. Papers & Carton
3. Glass
4. Aluminium
5. Composites
It helps increase national awareness to protect Kenya's natural environment from waste and pollution by strengthening our waste recycling sector & transition to a Circular Economy.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
"Managing membership statuses, payment records, and other essential information through email had become unsustainable, especially with our rapidly growing member base. Sifting through hundreds, if not thousands, of emails was an overwhelming and inefficient process. However, with Zoho, we can now focus on KEPRO’s core business, secure in the knowledge that our information management needs are effectively addressed. The technology gap has been closed, and we are exploring the deployment of additional Zoho apps as our requirements continue to evolve."
- Isaiah Mumo, Operations Officer, KEPRO
PROBLEM STATEMENT
KEPRO, after inception, went through adoption of a couple of IT platforms in an attempt to digitize it’s very unique member requirements. They started off on Excel but after member registrations increased, it became untenable to manage via a spreadsheet. KEPRO then migrated to a system that seemed to meet all of their requirements but over time, proved to be inflexible to their ever changing and expanding regulatory and member requirements. And they found themselves managing members and their various submission on email. It was a tall order.
At the same time, they could not establish a clear, transparent and reliable accounting mechanism which would enable them charge membership fees appropriately among other finance requirements. Excel accounting in the end proved too tedious.
PROPOSED SOLUTION(s)
1. ZOHO CREATOR – It was selected because KEPRO needed a bespoke solution that would entail all their unique features and functionalities. It was not going to be an off-the-shelf solution for KEPRO. Zoho Creator enabled the:
-Creation of a Admin Portal & Dashboard for the total administration of member items including submission of MVDs (Monthly Volume Declarations), Annual Membership Renewal plus auto generation and sending of the Annual Certificate as well as Quarterly MVD Certificates and tracking of member finances.
-Creation of a Member Portal & Dashboard where members can find a summary of their quarterly compliance status, annual membership as well as payments made to date.
-Generation of various Admin-side and Member-side reports for efficient decision-making.
2. ZOHO BOOKS – as a complete end-to-end Accounting and Finance platform, ZOHO BOOKS was implemented for KEPRO (and synced with KRA eTIMS) to ensure that KEPRO remains compliant with KRA tax requirements.
The native eTIMs integration on BOOKS ensures that invoices are raised within BOOKS but auto-validated by the eTIMs system. KEPRO could now fully and ably manage it’s sales, purchases, COGs, expenses and generate relevant reports.
IMPLEMENTATION
Duration it took to implement the solution(s):
The project took a total of 3 Months, with a phase approach that saw Zoho Creator implemented first, followed by Zoho Books
Bottlenecks, and how they were mitigated
The project faced a bit of lengthy approval curve on project matters because initially after inception, KEPRO was nested under KAM (Kenya Association of Manufacturers) and thus it took longer than anticipated for items to be approved at KEPRO level and then finally at KAM level. The mitigation for this was submission of upcoming requests way ahead of time to accommodate for the unique 2-entity approvals and authorizations.
Additional services provided- e.g. migration, customization & integration
KEPRO required migration of it’s old data from the previous IT system to the new. This was effectively handled with correct mapping from old to new system.
RESULTS: BENEFITS & ROI
After implementation of ZOHO CREATOR & ZOHO BOOKS, on their ZOHO ONE subscription, KEPRO achieved:
Centralized Management: A unified platform enabled real-time tracking of members, memberships, MVD Submissions and member payments.
Centralized Data: The solutions implemented eliminated data fragmentation, across various or inefficient platforms, providing a centralized access, storage and retrieval of key records.
Efficient Collaboration: Centralized information allowed KEPRO teams to work together more effectively, boosting internal synergy.
Advanced Reporting & Analytics: Detailed reports and dashboards improved data-driven decision-making, improving overall company performance.
Client Team Onboarding & Training: We believe ultimate success when it comes to systems is "not in implementation, but rather in adoption of the system". As such, Mediacent Interactive, through its mantra of "walking with the client team every step of the journey", provided thorough team training to relevant system users, ensuring they not only grasped, but became prolific in the use of the implemented solutions.