Al-Yaquot Group January 2020

dynamic digital transformation at Al-Yaqout Group The

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The dynamic digital transformation at Al-Yaqout Group WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

MICHAEL BANYARD

JANUARY 2020

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DR ANIS MATTUR, GROUP INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR, DISCUSSES THE STRATEGIES AND DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES HE HAS LEVERAGED TO OVERHAUL OPERATIONS AT AL-YAQOUT GROUP

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l-Yaqout Group, founded in 1954 by Adbullah Omar Al-Yaqout, has grown to become one of Kuwait’s most dynamic

companies. This dynamism has in recent years been reflected by the development of fresh business units within the group, and its portfolio is now comprised of an eclectic array of operations across a myriad of industries. A business environment as complex as this has necessitated the realisation of a digital infrastructure capable of managing it. Anis Mattur, Group Information Technology Director, joined the company in 2016 and has since enacted the extensive digital transformation required for both the expansion’s scope and for future growth of the business. “Al-Yaqout was expanding in diverse sectors, opening new businesses in the food and manufacturing sectors, retail, electronics, and ecommerce — all businesses that were not there before,” he explains. “The group started to have multiple colocations and stores which, without

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“ AL-YAQOUT WAS EXPANDING IN DIVERSE SECTORS, OPENING NEW BUSINESSES IN THE FOOD AND MANUFACTURING SECTORS, RETAIL, ELECTRONICS, AND ECOMMERCE — ALL BUSINESSES THAT WERE NOT THERE BEFORE” — Dr. Anis Mattur, Group Information Technology Director, Al-Yaqout Group

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a digital system, created an environment that was impossible to manage.

On a daily basis, stakeholders need to know sales information, raw materials consumption, which purchase orders (POs) to issue, their current cashflow, what issues they have in business, and stock management. Achieving all of this without a proper ERP system in place is very difficult.”

The right solution for these issues needed to be flexible, customisable, cost effective and robust: enter Microsoft Dynamics AX. Offering the much needed visibility for the aforementioned factors, the ERP system affords Al-Yaqout with a powerful reporting tool that encompasses its group-wide operations. Armed with up-to-date information on cashflow, stock levels, raw materials, POs, sales performance and much more, business decisions can be made swiftly and with the weight of information behind them. In order to maximise Dynamic AX’s efficacy across its various business units, extensive functional requirement documents were drawn up for each entity detailing KPIs, internal workflows and

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE STORE “Q” BY AL YAQOUT – INAUGURATION’ 07 levels of automation. “We took these,

group-wide operations, the company

we studied them, and we enhanced

enlisted consultancy firm Mazaya to

the workflows according to the ITIL

make the necessary configurations.

(Information Technology Infrastructure

Mazaya has been crucial to the ERP

Library) and ISO standards,” says

solution’s implementation, Mattur

Mattur. “Through this, we created the

explains. “As a Microsoft partner,

final functional requirement document

Mazaya delivered the licences for us

for each business and implemented

– they sat with us, evaluated the num-

the system accordingly. Under the

ber of licences needed, the number

centralised AX server, we have 10

of users, the types of users, and the

subsidiaries. Each of them has its own

relevant modules that would need to

workflows, and so we implemented

be activated for each company in the

different modules for each of them.”

group,” he says. Along with guiding

To facilitate the smooth integration of Dynamics AX into Al-Yaqout’s

Al-Yaqout through the state of each sector and their standard practices, w w w.a l ya qo u t . com

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Mazaya Integrated Company W.L.L Kuwait - Hawalli - Tunis Street - Alkhair complex - Floor 7 Phone: +96522656006 E-mail: customerservice@mazaya.com.kw https://www.mazaya.com.kw

MAZAYA IINTEGRATED Company is an End-To-End Information Technology Business Solutions and consulting company, headquartered in Kuwait with operations in UAE, Jordan and extending to Qatar and Oman We have experience in 19 industry verticals, in many countries across 3 continents, with about 60 customer installations We are Microsoft partners in business solutions and have successfully delivered many similar ERP AX, GP, CRM and RMS implementations in different organizations; therefore MAZAYA consultants are familiar with the complications involved in the successful deployments By choosing MAZAYA, our customers will be mitigating the risks involved in undertaking such a project because of MAZAYA’s best practices and approach, implementation methodology and knowledgebase drawn from earlier engagements We have developed unique solutions on top of Microsoft Dynamics for various industries

A L-YA Q O U T G R O U P

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the partnership has also been crucial

Al-Yaqout with the help of the internal

for bridging the gaps in Al-Yaqout’s

development team, infusing it with

digital capabilities. “Mazaya helps us to

a knowledge base for sales repre-

identify third-party solutions needed

sentatives to refer to during customer

for integration into Dynamics AX in

interactions. “It gives them a full insight

order to fulfil the full business cycle,”

for each item,” explains Mattur, “along

says Mattur. “It has also provided us

with differences between items A and

with a mobile IT custom portal that

B such as price and specification, and

handles deliveries, orders and transfer

images of each product.” The POS has

orders between branches and the

a mobile app function that provides

main warehouse, creating a workflow

sales people with the opportunity to

document with email notifications.”

show customers such information

The firm also developed a custom-

directly from tablets and smartphones,

ised point of sale (POS) system for

as well as filling a virtual basket to show

customers the value of their transac-

provides that very solution, and its

tions before they reach the cashier.

integration also affords employees a

“This has made the customer journey

portal through which they can request

easy, fast and flexible,” enthuses

leave and salary slips along with other

Mattur. Mazaya’s role extends to inte-

HR functions.

grating MenaITech HR functionality

In addition to the aforementioned

into Dynamics AX, enabling it to serve

boons, Dynamics AX also provides

Kuwait’s particular payroll regulations.

Al-Yaqout with a strong foundation for

Where Dynamics AX comes with US

paperless operations. Microsoft’s col-

and Canadian payroll capabilities,

laborative document sharing platform

Kuwaiti workers do not pay tax on their

SharePoint, along with intra-company

earnings and this necessitates a solu-

communication software Teams, the

tion that can manage the intricacies

ubiquitous software suite Office 365

of Kuwait’s tax system. MenaITech

and cloud-enabled OneDrive, each

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Anis Mattur Dr Anis Mattur has around 16 years’ experience in different IT areas, having held several different positions starting from being a System Engineer, Developer, System Architect, Consultant and Management.

He has a PhD in Software Engineering, a Master’s in Computer Science and a Bachelor’s in IT plus many Microsoft certifications in different IT sectors.

He also worked as a business consultant and an automation specialist, having vast knowledge in management accounting, planning, budgeting, financial analysis and internal auditing.

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“THE STRATEGY INCLUDES THE IMPLEMENTATION” OF A WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (WMS) MODULE FOR DYNAMICS AX TO HANDLE WAREHOUSE OPERATIONS, STOCK MANAGEMENT, BOOKING DELIVERIES IN AND RETURNING PRODUCTS – ALL IN-AND-OUT TRANSACTIONS IN OUR “WAREHOUSES AND INVENTORIES” — Dr. Anis Mattur, Group Information Technology Director, Al-Yaqout Group

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compliment the new ERP system with an array of technologies that relegate paper to Al-Yaqout’s history. “There is now no need to have hard copies stored at your desk – everything is scanned and stored on Office 365 OneDrive,” says Mattur. “The result is an almost 90% reduction in hard copies.” To transfer existing documents to the new system, the document scanning element has been handled

by OpenText, a software solution that leverages AI and analytics to read paper copies and automatically index them based on their content.

Mattur’s ambitions for automation at Al-Yaqout do not end there, however. Upon his arrival at the company, Al-Yaqout had implemented next to no automation technology, offering a blank canvas for Mattur to deploy his vision for a fully automated system capable of managing end-to-end business cycles. “The system needed to implement workflows, plays and approvals, because we have policies and procedures here and a centralised top management,” he says. “Anything that happens in any of our subsidiaries has to be approved, and for that they w w w.a l ya qo u t . com

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must go through an approval cycle to top management.” With that in mind, Al-Yaqout implemented the automation system through the Dynamics AX ERP to leverage its approval systemready workflow capabilities. “The strategy includes the implementation of a warehouse management system

1954

Year founded

$7.6mn Revenue in US dollars

(WMS) module for Dynamics AX to handle warehouse operations, stock management, booking deliveries in and returning products – all in-and-out transactions in our warehouses and 14

inventories,” elaborates Mattur. Along

200

Number of employees

with that, cashflow processes have also been automated, delivering full transparency and control over every

“ BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION IS NUMBER ONE, THIS IS MY BELIEF. IF YOU DO NOT MOVE TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN OPERATIONS, YOU’LL BE OUT OF THE MARKET SOON” — Dr. Anis Mattur, Group Information Technology Director, Al-Yaqout Group

business cycle within the group. “The systems have played a major role in cutting costs and highlighting weaknesses in the system where returns on investment are low,” says Mattur, noting that this allows for strategic changes to maximise the efficacy of investments and processes.

The depth of the digital transformation at Al-Yaqout is astounding. On top of the factors already mentioned, an order fulfilment system has been

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integrated within Dynamics AX that

coming months and years, Mattur is

provides customers with flexibility,

keen for this radical and powerful

visibility and control over various ele-

transformation strategy to continue to

ments of delivery processes, as well

reap dividends. “Business transforma-

as the ability to raise disputes through

tion is number one,” he concludes, “this

the same platform. Mattur is proud

is my belief. If you do not move towards

to say that the multifarious quali-

technology-driven operations, you’ll be

ties of Dynamics AX have delivered

out of the market soon.”

considerable returns, with the order fulfilment system alone returning a sales increase of 25% and a leap in customer satisfaction of 50%. In the w w w.a l ya qo u t . com

Shuwaikh Block 1 St 6 Bldg 40 PO Box 206 13003 Safat State of Kuwait T +965 2206 7777 www.alyaqout.com