Mawgif streamlines operations and business planning

Every day, in airports, shopping centres, hospitals and locations in the streets of the Middle East, the estacionadores car perform hundreds of thousands of transactions with Mawgif (National Parking Company), one of the pioneers of the region in the industry of automobile parking and one of the largest. operators of car parks in the Middle East.

In 2018, when the new chief financial officer (CFO) Ali Haji joined Mawgif, worried that the data created by these transactions of parking does not capture or use of efficiently. Ali Haji has a great experience in the industry, parking, automobile, since it worked for one of the companies of car parking largest in the Uk and Europe.

“I believe in working smarter instead of pushing myself, and I was accustomed to having information at the touch of a button,” says Ali Haji, chief financial officer and member of the board of Mawgif, who previously worked for a large company in the United Kingdom in charge of the operations of parking for Heathrow. and Gatwick airport. “When it comes to the cycle of the end of the month, you should be able to review and finalize the financial accounts of the previous month in four days.” But Haji learned that Mawgif took 20 days to prepare the monthly report.

The employees of Mawgif exported data from different databases, downloaded as PDF files and entered the information manually in spreadsheets of Microsoft Excel. The process was prone to duplication and calculation errors which hinder the reconciliation of the discrepancies.

The long delays in reporting financial and operational also had strategic implications. As a fast-growing company that was looking for new business opportunities, Mawgif needed data up to date and complete information to support decisions related to the choice of new locations, the award of contracts and the preparation of forecasts commercial.

“With more than 4000 machines parking and parking meters, it is very similar to the operation of a casino and you have to monitor each and every transaction,” says Haji. “I did a thorough review of the system operating and financial, to see how we could capture and audit every transaction. It was an exercise overwhelming.”

In the Uk, Haji relied on the analysis software IBM to optimize the planning and operational reports and financial statements. “One of the first things I did when I got to Mawgif in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was to call IBM Business Partner 1Direction Global in Riyadh because they have a strong experience with analytics solutions from IBM”.

“Mawgif had problems using spreadsheets, and had no actual figures when the finance team met with management and the board of directors”

Time was essential, especially when it came to the suspicion that, due to the inability to capture transactional data in real time, an unknown amount of income from parking lot was at risk of theft. “Every day that passed was a problem for me,” says Haji. How could we do this as soon as possible?’”

---

“With the IBM solution, the team is hypnotized by the power that you have: to have a ‘crystal ball’ and see what that will bring the morning instead of seeing only what happened yesterday. It is a big change of mentality for us.”

Ali Haji
chief financial officer
mawgif

---

A reading in real-time on the business

After an in-depth review of the requirements of Mawgif, selected IBM® Planning Analytics with Watson® , a solution based on IBM TM1®, a powerful in-memory database and a calculation engine. “Mawgif compared to IBM Planning Analytics with Watson with competitive solutions, and IBM delivered a better automation and analytical power multidimensional coupled with cost advantages,” says Berdia. “We were also able to create dashboards in real-time from the platform”.

Mawgif built a system that simplified the flow of information to your ERP system to understand and follow each transaction recorded for each machine and parking meter parking. “Each transaction is unique, so how do I keep the money?” says Haji. “We were able to link the operating system to the financial system to ensure that communicate among themselves and produce reconciliation automatic”.

The solution IBM Planning Analytics with Watson was launched in Mawgif in march of 2020, just as the global pandemic of COVID-19 began to disrupt the business operations. The flexible solution with infusion of AI enabled the managers of Mawgif access to financial and operational data while working remotely. “With multiple locks, I was stuck in the Uk for five and a half months, and away from my office in Jeddah,” says Haji. “Every day, I could see the business, to the minute, from multiple panels in all countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.”

The solution IBM Planning Analytics with Watson began to provide a real-time view, transparent and highly detailed business parking Mawgif. Taking advantage of the greater level of agility that provides the platform, the support team of systems and finance Mawgif began a series of investigations on how and where it is diverted illegally the proceeds of the parking lot. With the tools of IBM Planning Analytics with Watson, Mawgif discovered that the theft was produced in three different branches at the same time and took swift action to stop the illegal activity in the dry.

“It was a great exercise. We catch the culprit in action because we were able to see the transactions as they occurred,” says Haji. “Due to the delicacy of this case, I presented it to senior management and I showed how we could see each machine in each street, and also see who was in the machine: total transparency. They were very impressed and thanks to IBM this was possible.”

Mawgif compared to IBM Planning Analytics with Watson with competitive solutions, and IBM delivered a better automation and analytical power multidimensional coupled with cost advantages. We were also able to create a dashboard in real-time from the platform.

Planning for future growth

In addition to reducing the time needed to prepare month-end reporting of 20 days to four days, IBM Planning Analytics with Watson also helped Mawgif to:

• Increase the performance of operating in a 10% through the optimization of the revenue and efficiency as a result of the analysis and management of data in real-time
• Reduce the time required to convert the balance sheet test in the united of profit and loss and balance sheets of a task from two days to an operation of 10 seconds, in multiple currencies
• Reduce overall costs by between 5 % and 8% through better strategic planning, better systems, renegotiations of contracts, restructuring and consolidation of purchases
• Save more than 15 minutes of time to investigate queries transactional through the functionality of breakdown in the transactional level

The IBM solution also saved to the finance department of Mawgif a day of work each month to standardize the financial reporting in all the branches to generate performance results group immediate.

The ability to drill into the data of transactions was an enabler key of the operational improvements. “Any particular day, we've got over 200 000 transactions in multiple currencies captured through different sources and methods of payment, without me having to change any display,” says Haji. “I've examined quite a few other systems for the generation of reports, but I've never seen something like what IBM really can provide.”

Mawgif is working to expand the use of IBM Planning Analytics with Watson to include forecasts of commercial continuous. “Instead of having a profile of income fixed 365 days, we will have a prognosis continuous 12 months,” says Haji. “It is a process fully dynamic, automated, and will allow us to make decisions strategic business and assess the risk.”

The functionality of forecast mobile 12 month it will also support the business planning process of five years of Mawgif. “With the IBM solution, the team is hypnotized by the power that you have: to have a ‘crystal ball’ and see what that will bring the morning instead of seeing only what happened yesterday,” says Haji. “It is a big change of mentality for us.” Mawgif is part of one of the largest companies in Saudi Arabia, the Group Musbah, a holding international, which operates in the industries of retail, travel, real estate, hospitality, food and beverages, gold, and jewelry, automotive, telecom and IT. “When the rest of the Group saw the real fruits of the implementation of the IBM solution, the governing body decided that we would change everything to attach to the IBM solution,” says Haji. 

About Mawgif (National Company of Parking)

Founded in Saudi Arabia in 2008 and with its headquarters in Jeddah, Mawgif (link resides outside of ibm.com develops and manages parking lots across the Middle East and has branches in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. With more than 1,400 employees, the company is also the leading investor in and operator of technologies and parking service airport of the region. Mawgif is a member of the Airport Council International.

Take the next step, write to us to request a demo of IBM Planning Analytics.