HMN Technologies: Break dependency constraints and reshape the value chain through comprehensive self-reliance and controllability

Customer Profile
HMN Technologies, a leading global supplier, provides end-to-end solutions for new submarine cable systems. Its offerings cover system design, licensing, marine surveying, equipment manufacturing and integration, offshore construction services, as well as ongoing customer support for network operators. As a strong end-to-end submarine communication solution provider in the communications industry, HMN Technologies has delivered more than 100 submarine cable projects and serves customers in 78 countries and regions worldwide. It is recognized as one of the four leading manufacturers in the global submarine cable industry.

HMN Technologies is committed to becoming a globally leading, innovative integrator of submarine communications solutions. By leveraging centralized management platforms for supply chain, R&D, manufacturing, and finance, the company aims to enhance operational efficiency and deliver better services to global customers.

Due to equity adjustments triggered by external factors, HMN Technologies needs to completely reconstruct its IT platform within a short timeframe to meet management requirements, covering various IT areas such as ERP, PLM, HR, MES, OA, email, network infrastructure, PCs, and servers. In short, time is tight and the task is heavy.

Business Challenges

IT Restructuring Challenge: The Damocles’ Sword Over Business Operations
Before the IT platform restructuring, HMN Technologies’ existing IT systems covered all of its business scenarios. These systems not only supported in enterprise management but also supported the operation of various businesses. In fact, the IT systems were one of HMN Technologies’ core sources of productivity and competitiveness.

Meng Fangming also noted: “HMN Technologies once faced the challenge of migrating and preserving historical data within a short timeframe, while enhancing the performance of existing modules. At the same time, approximately 238 processes and 184 IT systems required optimization. Submarine cable projects also have distinct financial characteristics, all of which posed challenges to our business objectives.”

In the past, the IT systems effectively supported HMN Technologies’ business operations. However, the high maintenance costs and external technology dependency of foreign systems have become a Damocles’ sword hanging over HMN Technologies’ enterprise operations. With the drastic changes in the external business environment, these challenges have become even more pronounced, reaching a point where transformation became imperative.

IT Restructuring Challenge: Globalized Office Work Collaboration
From a business perspective, HMN Technologies delivers engineering projects globally, spanning all five oceans and four continents. At the same time, R&D requires multi-site collaboration, and HMN Technologies personnel often travel overseas for business. On the supplier side, HMN Technologies has selected many overseas suppliers to meet aerospace-grade requirements and 25-year reliability. Therefore, the need for globalized, multi-site collaborative business operations also demands domestic substitution and IT restructuring to support global project delivery, as well as the management and support of global suppliers.

IT Restructuring Challenge: The Daunting Task of Short-Term Reconstruction Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
Rebuilding do not mean starting from scratch. Business operations and project execution cannot be delayed. Restoring the IT platform’s ability to support business operations in the shortest possible time is the core goal of this restructuring project.

Under normal circumstances, a full-scale ERP implementation of this magnitude would take about six months. However, HMN Technologies’ requirements include not only ERP but also an HR system and collaboration systems, among others. The project must ensure business continuity, achieve rapid deployment in a short time, and support a smooth transition for core business operations. Besides, amid equity adjustments, data asset separation and migration had to be carried out.

This represented an extremely challenging task.

At this critical juncture, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. The project, already constrained by tight timelines and significant workload, became even more challenging. Ensuring business continuity had to be balanced with mitigating the impact of the pandemic on project teams and resources during implementation.

Solution
Given the tight schedule and heavy workload, HMN Technologies carried out repeated evaluations and on-site proof-of-concept (POC) validations with several well-known domestic software vendors. In the end, Kingdee won HMN Technologies’ trust with its technology and service capabilities.

Kingdee’s expert team quickly aligned with HMN Technologies’ strategic intent and business requirements, promptly providing customized solutions for each module based on their interpretations, while also considering new businesses such as submarine communication networks and smart cities. In the first round of POC, Kingdee proposed a comprehensive solution centered on engineering project management, spanning end-to-end supply chain and manufacturing operations—from IPD implementation, to engineering project lifecycle management, to manufacturing execution, and ultimately to global sourcing and procurement—establishing a clear transformation roadmap.

Ultimately, with the help of Kingdee’s intelligent manufacturing solutions, PLM R&D solutions, intelligent finance and taxation solutions, and engineering project solutions, HMN Technologies achieved digitalization, transparency, visualization, networking, and intelligence across all business scenarios, enhancing its digital capabilities and reshaping its value chain.

(Digital Solution Architecture of HMN Technologies)

Integrated Supply and Sales Platform Streamlining Procurement and Sales Processes
As a global enterprise, HMN Technologies has always faced pressure from global procurement, making an integrated procurement and sales platform particularly important. Previously, HMN Technologies managed procurement through iBuy and eBuy. Kingdee first built an integrated procurement management platform for HMN Technologies, integrating the original iBuy and eBuy into the procurement system of Kingdee AI Suite and seamlessly connecting it with the Kingdee Cosmic

SRM system, establishing an enterprise procurement management platform.
Then, through full-process control of procurement requisitions, BPA contract handover, purchase order execution, import customs clearance, goods receiving and inspection, and accounts payable, HMN Technologies achieved end-to-end PTP (Procure-to-Pay) process management. By integrating project contracts, sales orders, packaging and logistics, export customs declaration, warehouse outbound, and accounts receivable, HMN Technologies streamlined the entire LTC (Lead-to-Cash) process management.

Delivering Business and Customer Value Through Engineering Projects
The business of submarine networks differs from other types of business. For example, while HMN Technologies’ traditional project delivery model often involves multi-site delivery within a single country, the submarine cable business is intercontinental and spans multiple countries. Building a submarine communication network is highly capital-intensive, involving multi-country, multi-organization project operations and financial settlement models, with costs typically running into the hundreds of millions of US dollars. Therefore, project management of HMN Technologies’ submarine cable business is extremely complex and lies at the core of the IT platform implementation.

In the core area of engineering project management, the following objectives have been achieved:
1) Overall project management: Project financial management has been refined, connecting the integrated value chain of R&D, production, supply chain, sales, service, and finance to achieve comprehensive business-finance synergy.

2) Project lifecycle management: A full-process management system covering pre-sales estimation, contract budgeting, in-process accounting, and project closing and final settlement has been established.

3) Financial management: This includes defining eight revenue recognition methods, managing parent-child project cost and revenues, managing project collections and accounts receivable, and tracking full project costs, as well as leveraging financial tools to support business operations.

Rapid Deployment of IPD R&D Modules Through PLM
HMN Technologies operates a 12,000-kilometer system design and submarine cable system simulation and testing center in Beijing, as well as the world’s largest dust-free laboratory at its southern factory in Dongguan. Due to the high cost of underwater engineering repairs, HMN Technologies demands 25 years of uninterrupted operation — a stringent requirement for product lifecycle management. Given the unique characteristics of the industry and the critical importance of HMN Technologies’ quality assurance, Kingdee PLM helps the company achieve full product lifecycle management, from product design initiation to mass production:

1) Product market management: Kingdee helps HMN Technologies aggregate, analyze, and track product requirements through to implementation, while effectively controlling the creation and updates of product platforms, series, and versions.

2) Product R&D management: Kingdee enables HMN Technologies to integrate R&D project management, material management, and PLM+ERP. Detailed specifications are provided for new product development through a design criteria library and a testing criteria library. Through 47 cross-departmental, multi-specialty workflows, each technical and business review is sufficiently thorough, effective, and rigorous, minimizing repetition and errors.

3) Drawing and document management: Kingdee supports HMN in managing all design, process, manufacturing, and quality documents. Through Kingdee PLM’s document and change management capabilities, documents are efficiently circulated and controlled from submission and review to release and testing.

Intelligent Manufacturing: Securing a 25‑Year Zero‑Defect Production System for HMN Technologies
Kingdee’s intelligent manufacturing solution enables HMN Technologies to automatically transfer material and BOM data from PLM and the configurator to ERP and MES, ensuring a single source of data and reducing the risk of errors. The solution also facilitates sharing of the latest technical data between PLM and MES. The PMC uses intelligent tools such as material kitting and shortage analyses to prepare materials before production, making preparation simple and orderly while minimizing waste caused by material delays during production. Quality inspections cover the entire process, from material inspection to in‑process checks. All inspection results are digitized, and quality is monitored using control charts.

Intelligent Finance and Taxation: Creating an Integrated Business and Financial Platform
Kingdee developed a thorough understanding of HMN Technologies’ business needs. The latter requires international business support, including the application of accounting standards across multiple countries and regions, multi‑currency support, and multi‑country chart of accounts, to flexibly meet the financial management requirements of its global strategy. The solution must also achieve financial intelligence to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Through Kingdee’s intelligent accounting platform, online banking integration, invoice management services, and other automated tools, HMN Technologies’ finance team has transitioned from accounting to management‑oriented support. In addition, revenue and costs are accounted for on a project‑by‑project basis, and financial data supports project decision‑making, realizing comprehensive financial management for projects.

Cloud Hub Portal: Creating a Unified Collaboration Platform for All Employees
HMN Technologies currently has more than 500 employees. Through the integrated Cloud Hub portal, corporate documents, company news, leadership approvals, and other information can be aggregated into a single personalized portal. Unified identity authentication provides seamless access to the Kingdee AI Suite, Kingdee AI Cosmic, and s‑HR systems, empowering employees to collaborate efficiently for business operations.

Project Value
After 68 days of intensive efforts in collaboration with the Kingdee team, HMN Technologies successfully replaced 184 foreign systems. The full-scenario collaboration solution based on the Industrial Internet platform was successfully launched on February 29, 2020, ensuring the continuity of HMN Technologies’ business operations.

Ensuring Business Continuity and Supporting Strategic Implementation and Operational Decision-Making
HMN Technologies successfully restructured its IT systems and migrated historical data, ensuring business continuity. It established a unified end-to-end management platform, enabling enabling strategic implementation and informed business decision-making.

Meng Fangming of HMN Technologies noted that drastic external changes posed major challenges to localizing the 184 foreign IT systems that had taken over 10 years to build. HMN Technologies needed to rebuild its critical IT systems within a short timeframe, covering four core business processes—LTC, PTP, ITR, and IPD— and all business scenarios: R&D, sales, engineering projects, manufacturing, supply chain, after-sales service, finance, human resources, and office management. Ultimately, after 68 days of hard work by HMN Technologies and Kingdee team, the replacement of 184 foreign systems was completed, and the full-business-scenario collaborative solution based on the Industrial Internet platform was successfully launched, ensuring business continuity.

Comprehensive Collaboration for Upgraded Management
Meng Fangming explained that HMN Technologies’ customer support and supplier management systems are both built on the PaaS platform of Kingdee AI Cosmic, and the company has a deep understanding of its superior performance. By enabling collaboration with over 5,000 domestic and international suppliers (from Germany, Norway, the United States, Canada, Japan, and China), and facilitating multi-site R&D and manufacturing collaboration (Beijing, Tianjin, Dongguan, Wuhan, London, and San Jose), the company has met the basic requirements for multi-site collaborative office work and internal business control. In addition, HMN Technologies leveraged Cloud Hub to achieve collaboration among the three major platforms, unifying the messaging, intelligent collaboration, and mobile office platforms. This enables digital collaboration across the full lifecycle of sales, R&D, procurement, manufacturing, and service, as required by project-based manufacturing.

He also stated that the PaaS platform of Kingdee AI Cosmic provides basic support. As more ecosystem partners join, collaboration will be further enhanced, and HMN Technologies will continue to exploring related applications with Kingdee.

Reconstructing Connections to Empower Business
Throughout HMN Technologies’ IT system restructuring, the concept of “connection” has been a consistent theme, with the goal of empowering business operations. During the IT system construction, HMN Technologies reengineered its IPD R&D process with Kingdee’s guidance, restructuring R&D workflows. On the financial front, a new financial system based on new accounting subjects was established, achieving closed-loop and comprehensive business control, as well as business-finance integration.

In engineering and services, global after-sales maintenance and support were realized, meeting customers’ self-service needs. In HR, information-based management of enterprise human resources was achieved, supporting full-lifecycle employee applications covering selection, employment, training, and retention. Ultimately, through the reconstruction of connections across multiple links, the IT system better empowers business operations.