JEDDAH, 30 December — Saudi Arabia’s Al-Zuhair Group claims to have become the first company in the Middle East to go live with a web-hosted enterprise resource planning (ERP). The solution comprises Sage CS/3 ERP web hosted at the Comtrust Data Center, Abu Dhabi and accessed remotely by users in the Kingdom via the Internet, according to Talal Al-Zuhair, the firm’s partner.
The group has a turnover of over SR100 million and comprises Electronic Equipment Marketing Company (EEMCO), Construction Services (CONSECO) and OMEGA Engineering. It operates from multiple locations Kingdomwide. It is considering setting up regional offices outside the Kingdom to support its expanding operations in neighboring countries.
Al-Zuhair faced its share of challenges maintaining a corporate information system; costs were relatively high and retaining IT staff was a problem. It was against this background that Talal began looking for a solution to cut the cost and complexity of maintaining the group’s corporate information system. He also wanted a solution that could be cost-effectively extended to new geographic locations.
Al-Zuhair had been satisfactorily using Sage CS/3 for a number of years and decided to begin its search for a solution with Sage Middle East. Shishir Srivastava, director, Sage Middle East, suggested Al-Zuhair to try web-hosting its ERP application to reduce overheads and expansion costs. Some of the concerns with web-hosting were Internet performance and security. Though skeptical of the idea, Talal decided to do a trial run as the benefits far outweighed the concerns. The group could save $50,000 to $60,000 a year, about 30 percent of its annual IT expenditure.
Sage CS/3 was loaded on a web server in the UAE and Al-Zuhair began testing the use of the application via the Internet. This went on for six months when the in-house system was run in parallel with the web system. Concerns regarding a flaky Internet connection were addressed during this period and Al-Zuhair decided to go live with the web-hosted application.
With the new web-hosted system, employees in the field can log onto the system at any time to access and upload information. Mobile sales people can access inventory and other information on the move. Talal, who travels most of the time, just hooks onto the Internet with his Notebook to access the system. He says that irrespective of whether he is in the UK or a neighboring Gulf country he is now able to know exactly what’s happening with the business.
Short of powering off the web server, most administration and configuration tasks can be done remotely. If Al-Zuhair decides to open a new office, new users can log on to the Internet and access the system once they have been set up. There’s no need to install a network and configure a local server.
Occasionally, the capacity of the web server is hiked to cope with the additional users. All this means, the time taken for a new location to be functional is drastically reduced.
The group has outsourced all system maintenance and administrative tasks. This has been made easier with the application being web-hosted. The result is a reduction in the number of internal IT staff and declining operational costs. All is not perfect though and some trade-offs have been made. The system performance is slower than before but does not interfere with the mission critical nature of the work it does. One surprising fact is that the entire solution runs on normal dial-up connection.
Another benefit linked to reduce dependence on internal IT staff is a reduction in time taken by new staff to learn the job. Talal feels this is a big benefit at a time when retaining IT staff is difficult and recruiting new ones an even bigger challenge.
The bottom line, Talal says, is that his customers and partners are feeling the benefits too. During meetings with them, his sales team is able to promise delivery dates, analyze sales trends, commit to promotional activities and discuss outstanding credit, with little preparation. Just log on to the Internet and access the data. This has actually driven revenue up and put a smile on his customer’s faces.