A Saudi family-owned group with a diversified business presence unifying legacy ERP systems, empowering and leading digital transformation.

CHALLENGE

To unify multiple ERP systems, enhance employee experience and improve visibility across business operations.

AZAQ and its subsidiary businesses lacked a unified business information system. Multiple ERP systems were used within AZAQ business units which caused a lack of overall visibility and inefficiency. The systems landscape comprised of diverse applications and platforms resulting in adverse cost and operational inefficiencies. Multiple teams were required to manage the disparate tools and technologies. Achieving cyber-security, business and regulatory compliance was a cumbersome exercise due to the diversity of application related processes and varied technology standards. The non-integrated systems resulted in limited collaboration and coordination which greatly impacted employee experience with access to data and service delivery internally and with external stakeholders. Ultimately, decision making was severely impacted as a result of reporting being drawn from several enterprise views.

With AZAQ’s continuous growth and their strong presence in the region, they faced the risk of lack of agility to cope with the perpetual changes in the business environment and rapid growth of data volumes. AZAQ required seamlessly integrated and scalable technology solutions to efficiently manage, monitor and control operations whilst leveraging business intelligence as a key driver for decision making.

Backed by solid teamwork and collaboration, Dynamics 365 is being introduced to AZAQ in a step-by-step process across Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Customer Relationship Management, Field Services, Case Management, Project Management, Accounting and Property Management.

The Dynamics 365 suite of enterprise solutions identified by AZAQ include Marketing, CRM, ERP, Customer Support and Human Capital Management hosted on a single Azure platform. The cloud-based systems landscape is characterised by a diversity of best of breed business and technology applications offering simplified native integrations enabling real-time collaboration across all functional and business units.

Power BI will initially be utilized to provide Executives and Management with enhanced visibility and focus on key metrics impacting performance and control. Subsequent phases will focus on establishing enterprise analytics to facilitate modelling and support strategy development. This single pane enterprise view will enhance business reporting through improved visibility, efficiency, collaboration, governance and compliance.

IMPACT

By adopting a scalable, secure, economical and future-proof system, AZAQ aims to scale new heights.

In 2022, 19 entities successfully went live with the ERP modules as planned. AZAQ hopes to reach new heights by embracing a scalable, secure, cost efficient & future proof system that provides quality, empowering and leading the group digital transformation.

During 2022, AZAQ Group will go live with Dynamics 365 Human Resources. Dynamics 365 D365 supercharges the Human Capital Management function enabling end to end talent management extending across the entire hire-to-retire cycle. AZAQ policies and guidelines are configured in D365 to manage and support hiring, onboarding, time management, attendance, training, performance management, promotion, compensation, rewards, payroll, transfer, relocation and termination. The integrated Employee self-service capabilities deliver outstanding employee-facing digital capabilities providing real time employee support. All employee and business-related operations from leave and loans management to employee assets, travel and expense management are automated.

Benefits Impact

1. Focused IT Costs - Instead of spending resources on multiple systems that all need dedicated staff, infrastructure, support teams and licensing AZAQ have begun streamlining IT operations by building a core team of experts focused on enhancing delivery and optimization instead of infrastructure maintenance and support.
By virtue of a Microsoft Enterprise agreement, AZAQ immediately realised license cost savings by entering into an enterprise Agreement with Microsoft.

2. Comprehensive Enterprise Compliance - With the integrated and cloud based single platform Dynamics 365 applications, AZAQ has begun adopting and enforcing best in class process management and risk mitigation controls. Workflow enabled process controls and cybersecurity standards are being adopted across the entire group. In turn these developments have promoted greater systems effectiveness and operational efficiency.

3. Improved Visibility, Collaboration and Efficiency - AZAQ have been able to streamline financial operations with standardised processes across different subsidiaries, and automated inter-company transaction processing.
With the pending Dynamics 365 Human Resources modules also to go live, employees will benefit from the ability to access HR services 24/7 and transparency is being enhanced. Employees will be able to determine the status of their requests and claims, eliminating frustration and costs associated with follow up emails and calls, enhancing employee productivity and efficiency.