Scaling Science Smarter : One Science's Leap into ASEAN

Business Ambitions and Challenges

One Science is a fast-growing Singapore-based startup revolutionizing the procurement of scientific supplies via its online marketplace. As the company gears up for ASEAN expansion in 2025, it faces several operational hurdles:

Manual bottlenecks in vendor onboarding and customer servicing drain on the relatively lean team.
High-touch engagements for repeat or simple orders slow down sales cycles.
Lack of multi-language and multi-currency support on the current platform limits international outreach.
Backend inefficiencies and fragmented workflows compromise scalability and vendor satisfaction.

Activities

As part of SGTech’s DT-SME initiative, 8C8 worked as their transformation advisor, providing vendor-neutral consulting and transformation roadmap planninging to future-proof One Science.

Conducted structured workshops and 1:1 advisory with Founder and Ops team to align growth plans with digital capabilities.
Mapped out bottlenecks and expansion risks across customer, vendor, and operational workflows.
Guided One Science to prioritize a lean, automation-first strategy through Marketplace 2.0, focusing on high-impact outcomes.
Review and validate multiple vendors – leading to the selection of a systems vendor, based on fit-for-purpose criteria rather than platform-first limitations (e.g., PSG-preapproved tools).

Outcomes

Enterprise Transformation

Customer Experience: Self-service tools reduced live chat load by up to 50%, with 25–30% faster ordering cycles.
Vendor Growth: Vendor onboarding time dropped from 2–3 weeks to <5 days, enabling new supplier regions.
Sales Lift: Monthly orders projected to rise by 25%, with a shift in order mix from 50:50 offline:online to 75:25.
ASEAN Ready: Auto-localized checkout, shipping, and product discovery tools enable expansion (starting with Indonesia by Q3 2025).
ESG Ready – Backend able to accommodate Future plans for ESG Compliance for specific Customers segements.
Scalable Infrastructure: Backend automation enables handling 2–3x order volume without adding staff.

Workforce Transformation

Digital Uplift: SOPs updated to integrate new tools and dashboards, fostering data-informed decisions.

Role Redesign:

Traditional operations staff now supporting regional sales and digital onboarding efforts.
Roles evolved from manual admin to platform and process enablers.
Current team upskilled to manage analytics, vendor support, and digital workflows.
Employees transitioned from high-touch order processing to growth and engagement tasks.
Continuous improvement and feedback loop embedded into the workforce using new tools and reports.