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EnglishAfter years of operation, a frustrating reality has emerged for enterprises’ CRM, ERP, SRM, OA, and other systems. These once-million-dollar “heroes” have gradually turned into disconnected “silos.” Data lies dormant inside them, processes are fragmented into isolated islands, frontline employees are exhausted from switching between a dozen systems, and management receives delayed and conflicting information. As the market changes rapidly, these cumbersome legacy systems increasingly hold enterprises back.
Where is the way out? The practices of three industry leaders—Far East Holding, You Ling You Shi, and Dingli New Materials—all point to the same answer:
A “living” system that integrates low-code, AI, and the DingTalk platform is quietly replacing those expensive yet rigid traditional software solutions.
In Far East Holding’s smart cable network factory, purchasing agent Geng Geng (a pseudonym) still vividly remembers the pain of “running processes” in the past. To buy a batch of special copper materials, she first had to search for suppliers and request quotes in the SRM system, then switch to the old OA system to initiate approval, and finally manually enter the information into the ERP system to generate an order. “It used to take at least three or four days, sometimes up to a week, to complete a single process—and when urgent materials were needed, it felt like a house on fire,” Geng Geng said.
This sense of fragmentation was what Far East’s chief digital officer, Kuang Guangzheng, found most troubling. “We have more than 20 systems of all sizes, and we’ve been using them for nearly a decade. The old OA system is like a rusty machine—data conflicts, outdated features, and almost zero scalability. But if we try to replace everything, the cost is too high, the risk is too great, and it’s almost impossible.”
The turning point came in 2021. At that time, Far East’s IT team consisted of just five people, and they set their sights on the DingTalk platform and its built-in low-code tool, Yida. They did something that seemed simple but delivered astonishing results: They reassembled the key interfaces of SRM, OA, and ERP on the DingTalk platform, much like building with Lego bricks.
Now, Geng Geng can complete the entire procurement process—from price comparison to contract approval—in a single app interface on DingTalk. “Process progress is automatically pushed to DingTalk, so leaders can approve requests instantly even when they’re traveling. What used to take a week now takes just one or two hours at most.” Checking historical price data for a particular product has also become easier. Instead of sifting through piles of paper documents, she simply enters the purchase date and material name into the low-code app, and the information appears immediately.
For Far East, managing a vast logistics supplier network had long been a challenge. In the past, communicating with external suppliers required separate systems, and real-time tracking of logistics shipments was impossible. To address this, Far East cleverly leveraged DingTalk’s open ecosystem to connect employees with external partners. Cross-company communication and logistics tracking can now be handled with just a few taps on DingTalk. Behind the efficiency gains lies a tangible reduction in costs: the company’s logistics expenses dropped from 2% to 1.3%, saving hundreds of millions of yuan.
Even more surprising are the changes brought by AI. In the past, if a marketing staff member wanted to check the production progress of an order, they had to ask colleagues in the production department to log into the MES system. “If they were busy or off duty, you had to wait,” said a marketing manager. Now, a quick question to the AI assistant on DingTalk provides instant updates on production progress. “The time we save waiting allows us to follow up with one more customer,” she added.
In the freeze-dried snack factory of You Ling You Shi in Jinjiang, logistics manager Huang Xiaofeng dreaded month-end reconciliation. “Carriers operate across the country—where are the goods? Have they been signed for? We relied entirely on them to send Excel spreadsheets or paper invoices. Data discrepancies were common, and disputes could drag on for days.” Even more worrying, the on-time delivery rate was only 90%. Freeze-dried foods are extremely sensitive to temperature; even a slight delay or temperature fluctuation could lead to significant losses.
Traditional large-scale TMS (transportation management systems) had been considered, but CIO Long Yan was blunt: “Traditional SaaS software becomes increasingly complex as it tries to accommodate more customers, leaving us with specialized needs unmet.” A bigger challenge was talent: It was extremely difficult to recruit skilled IT professionals in third- and fourth-tier cities, and You Ling You Shi’s entire digital team consisted of just a few people. Unable to afford, use, or maintain such systems, logistics digitization had become a major bottleneck.
The breakthrough came with DingTalk’s low-code platform. Long Yan led a small team to tackle the logistics pain points head-on, leveraging the “lightweight, fast, and precise” nature of low-code. In just two weeks, they successfully built and launched a customized “Logistics Butler” system.
This system runs directly within DingTalk groups. When Huang Xiaofeng creates a task in the group, the carrier’s administrative staff can click on a card in the group to enter loading information. As soon as the truck moves, temperature and humidity data are pushed to the group in real time. When the shipment arrives, the driver takes a photo and uploads the delivery receipt, and costs are confirmed online. “We no longer have to chase after invoices or reconcile data,” Huang Xiaofeng said.
The results of this “grassroots” system have been remarkable: the on-time delivery rate has soared to 96%, and problems like lost shipments, mixed-up deliveries, and disputes have virtually disappeared. “We’ve saved on TMS software procurement alone, and by optimizing shipping routes and reducing losses, we’re easily saving 1.5 million yuan per year,” Huang Xiaofeng revealed.
The success of the logistics system has sparked a wave of enthusiasm for “citizen development” across the company. Long Yan’s team encouraged frontline employees in business departments to build tools that worked best for them using low-code, and they also harnessed DingTalk’s AI capabilities to enhance the user experience for frontline staff.
Take sales as an example. Today, when a new salesperson visits a customer, they can simply say into their phone, “Record today’s customer visit information,” and DingTalk’s AI assistant automatically organizes the key details and stores them in the system. When the boss wants to know the sales status, they can ask DingTalk, “How many customers did sales visit this week? How many S-level customers haven’t been followed up on yet? Who are the top three salespeople?” The AI instantly pulls the answers from scattered sales orders and visit records. This information isn’t randomly generated—it comes directly from real business data.
The production department has also taken action. Based on a low-code-built equipment management app, frontline inspectors added an AI-powered inspection assistant. Equipment status, maintenance records, and failure analyses can be accessed at any time. Not only has the tedious and error-prone manual data entry problem been eliminated, but the health of the factory’s equipment is now fully under control.
Long Yan said, “Our core business now runs entirely on DingTalk—a single DingTalk platform serves as the foundation, a suite of low-code tools forms the toolbox, and AI makes these tools smarter and more user-friendly. Low barriers to entry, quick adoption, flexibility, and intelligence—this is the kind of digital transformation we need.”
At Dingli New Materials, the finance department once had a “specialized team” of three people who spent every month manually verifying thousands of invoices from sales branches across the country to prevent duplicate reimbursements. “Manual verification was inefficient, prone to errors, and susceptible to loopholes. If a mistake was discovered, finance had to track down the sales staff to reissue the invoice,” recalled Zhou Chuanyi, head of the information engineering center.
This was just the tip of the iceberg; the bigger challenge was fragmented operations. The logistics department had to manually match dozens of rules to calculate shipping costs, and the settlement cycle often took up to 45 days. ERP, expense control, and supply chain systems each operated independently, and data mismatches were a daily occurrence. Even quality personnel, responsible for customer satisfaction, used to be constantly chasing after problems—only stepping in when customer complaints arrived, leaving them exhausted and overwhelmed.
The changes have been concrete. When logistics staff enter a shipping manifest into a DingTalk low-code app and submit it, the system automatically triggers the ERP to generate a settlement voucher—eliminating the need for manual Excel imports and rule matching. When sales staff upload expense invoices, DingTalk’s low-code AI instantly performs duplicate-checking and authenticity verification, freeing up the three finance colleagues. “Invoice risks are managed at the source, audit efficiency has improved by at least 70%, and reimbursement efficiency has also increased,” Zhou Chuanyi said.
The quality department has also reaped the benefits. Now, an AI assistant on DingTalk pushes critical customer service updates and real-time progress on complaint handling every day, so quality staff no longer have to wait passively for problems to erupt. This AI assistant is particularly “experienced”—it draws on a knowledge base of past cases to provide handling recommendations, helping the team keep a tighter grip on the entire process. “In the past, we were putting out fires; now we’re preventing them,” Zhou Chuanyi added. “The average response time for handling customer complaints has improved by more than 50%, and customer satisfaction has also risen.”
What has most impressed management is the精细化 management of logistics costs. In the past, freight calculations were a “black box.” Now, Dingli has built a “logistics benchmark price database” on the DingTalk low-code platform, and any rule changes are approved online and updated automatically. During settlement, the system automatically pulls cargo weight, destination, and other information from the ERP and instantly matches it with the standard price.
The stories of these three companies may seem different, but they point to the same trend: Enterprises are using a combination of low-code, AI, and the DingTalk platform to “grow” digital systems that are uniquely tailored to their own business needs.
The experiences of Far East, You Ling You Shi, and Dingli demonstrate that what can truly replace those expensive, rigid traditional systems is not a single feature or tool, but a digital ecosystem that empowers every business employee to participate in its development, grows flexibly based on real needs, and continuously evolves with AI to become smarter over time.
It is this type of system—grown from within the enterprise—that possesses the strongest vitality.
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