Darwish Bin Ahmed & Sons was in search of enterprise wide solution to provide integrated business planning process that provides management the ability to strategically direct its businesses to achieve competitive advantage on a continuous basis by integrating customer focused marketing plans for new and existing products with the management of supply chain.

Phased Implementation of Project

Darwish Bin Ahmed through a wholly owned subsidiary Airconditioning & Heating International (AHI) was seeking a solution to manage and control their large network of dealers and customers spread over the vast territories which consists of Russia, CIS countries, East & Central Africa for the distribution of Carrier & Toshiba Airconditioning products through multi location warehousing.

To achieve its goal, AHI selected Oracle Applications Ver.10.7 solutions for this purpose. Using internal highly skilled resources first implementation for the group was carried out and implemented in the year 1998. AHI is also completing its migration path from Ver. 10.7 to new E-business suite – 11i – applications by the end of May 2001.

Based on the first successful implementation and the results of AHI Ver. 10.7 experience, and to achieve its goal of increasing internal efficiencies, while improving its level of customer service, the Darwish Bin Ahmed & Sons group chose components of the Oracle E-Business suite and Oracle Internet technology platform for their Automotive and Construction business. The implementation of the next upgraded Version 11.0.3 was completed on December 1999. Implementation includes wholly owned subsidiary United Motors & Heavy Equipment Company.

Centralizing Finances on Oracle

The group found that its Oracle ERP implementation, as well as the new Oracle technology platform it adopted, significantly transformed both its back-office processes as well as its front-office functions, including customer service and partners collaboration.

Abdulla Darwish, "Our Oracle ERP implementation has dramatically benefited the financial and back-office components of the Darwish Bin Ahmed group. Oracle’s solutions have enabled better management reporting across the entire group, enabling our decision-makers to execute more quickly and reliably. It has also significantly reduced our financial closing period for the entire enterprise through our Oracle ERP system, which allows its executives to rapidly assess the company’s cash flow and balance sheets across its diverse businesses. Inventory is now managed centrally, giving the Darwish Bin Ahmed group a clear picture of its assets throughout the different business units at any time."

The efficiencies that the Oracle implementation has brought to Darwish Bin Ahmed group, coupled with the standardization of the group's business processes, have had several critical results namely,

The standardization across the group has enabled the employees and business units to speak the same language and understand each other’s contribution to the entire enterprise, the transparency of our Oracle-based back-office processes has enabled the Darwish Bin Ahmed group to build credibility in the eyes of international business partners – this has helped to drive growth into new markets, enabled United Motors & Heavy Equipment Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Darwish Bin Ahmed & Sons, to expand its distribution network throughout the Middle East and Africa marketing automotive components through multi-location warehousing and multi-currency transactions.

Reaching out to Customers and Partners

The transformation at the Darwish Bin Ahmed group was not limited to its internal processes – its management was also determined to utilize the Internet to better serve the group’s customers and partners.

The group’s suppliers are located throughout Japan, Europe, and the US and each of the separate businesses within the group, requires a high level of coordination with its partners for both planning, distribution and logistics. Oracle’s Internet-based solutions enable the Darwish Bin Ahmed team to collaborate online with its suppliers, thus improving time to market as well as delivery assurances for the group’s customers.

"Especially in the automotive and construction businesses, the complexity of the operations, including the number of items in inventory, as well as the shipping distance, requires a high level of precision. With our Oracle system, we can manage thousands of items through the Internet, including tracking shipments and updating our suppliers and customer online," notes Group IT Head , Sandeep Desai.

The Darwish Bin Ahmed group’s customers are reaping considerable benefits through the group’s new Oracle-based online service channel. Because of the group now has a clear picture of each client’s account, customers can receive tailored information about new products and services. Service requests can be made on a 24 x 7 basis through the Internet, saving both time and money. Clients also can receive online alerts about the status of projects and shipments, opening a new communication channel with the Darwish Bin Ahmed.