DBS introduced Singapore’s first automated supplier procure-to-pay solution for the construction sector, developed by Singaporean fintech Doxa. Named Doxa Connex, the payments solution is a first for the sector in Singapore and it aims to help main contractors improve cashflow management with their suppliers as well as lift productivity and efficiency as they go all out to re-start projects after the extended circuit breaker. Main contractor Tiong Seng Group has signed up as the pioneer adopter.
Doxa Connex hopes to help main contractors eliminate often manual administrative processes that plague the construction industry. By automating payments from main contractor to supplier, Doxa Connex automatically tracks the entire process from a main contractor’s invitation to quote all the way to procurement orders to delivery orders to last mile payments.
Chew Chong Lim, Managing Director and Global Head of Real Estate, Institutional Banking, DBS said that the solution was conceptualised ground-up through several industry workshops organised with Tiong Seng Group and their supplier network at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in February this year.
“The purpose of the workshops was to understand and solve the construction industry’s pain points with a view to increase cashflow efficiency which is the lifeblood of the industry. Doxa Connex was also developed with a view to improve productivity and remove inefficiencies in the sector’s procurement and payment processes. These processes may look simple on paper but in reality are often cumbersome and fraught with missing documentation and patchy administration due to paper-based invoices and delivery orders having to change hands multiple times along the way.”
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Once the solution was conceptualised, DBS and Tiong Seng Group then worked with Doxa through numerous ideation and solutioning workshops, which were run using DBS’ in-house 4D (Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver) methodology to build Singapore’s first automated supplier procure-to-pay solution.
Accounting for more than 4% of Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product, the construction industry has in recent years taken steps to embrace technology along the construction value chain. However, a recent study by Autodesk and IDC[1] noted that only 2% of construction firms have automated most of their manual processes and the sector continues to rely heavily on manual and paper-based payment processes, with payments done predominantly using paper-based cheques.
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