General International Group

Dubai-based General International Group started operations more than three decades ago, delivering best-in-breed health, safety, and security solutions to more than 1,000 customers across all major verticals. Today it has a well-established reputation in fire life safety, security and ELV, water treatment, facilities management, and many other areas vital to the maintenance of robust national infrastructure. Over the years, the company has taken seriously the responsibility that role implies—to deliver optimum quality solutions on time, every time.

The challenges—poor visibility and labor-intensive operations

In meeting the challenges of modern smart society, General International realized its current technology stack was an obstacle to delivering on decades-old pledges. Its core business application was not an ERP platform, and this led to multiple problems involving real-time visibility and basic information flow.

As Sameh Awad, Director at General International Group, explained, "We had an Oracle® database system with a customized graphical user interface (GUI) in place, which was used primarily for financial management and stock control. It just wasn’t the right fit for our growing operating model. The setup made necessary a lot of manual processing; and our key challenge was reporting."

According to Awad, instead of real-time views, decision-makers could wait up to five days for reports. And if consolidated statements from the company’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices—which are run separately for regulatory purposes—were needed, such information would take accountants "a day or two" to consolidate.

"From sales to our project management team, so much was done manually," said Awad, "Sales quotations were done through Microsoft® Excel®, and the projects team had Excel trackers for materials ‘ordered’ vs ‘delivered’, leading to a growing number of human errors."

With a growing volume of daily transactions emerging, as the business continued to grow, Awad and his team of stakeholders were determined to replace the inefficiencies. The new ERP platform would have to be flexible, as well as a strong fit for the organization’s business model today and for the future. Such a solution would need to drive growth while alleviating costs, in terms of both manhours and upgrade cycles. General International also strongly favored a Cloud solution, for its implied deliverables of flexibility, agility, ease of management, and cost-efficiency.

The solution—fit and growth at will

Following in-depth evaluations and extensive deliberations, the procurement team decided on Epicor Cloud ERP. "We wanted a reliable and credible partner," said Awad, "that would deliver a solution that could grow with us."

The [Epicor solution] stood out clearly for us as having strikingly granular flexibility and impressive scalability.

"The Epicor Cloud ERP solution stood out clearly for us as having strikingly granular flexibility and impressive scalability," added Awad. "Often with these platforms, you have to make compromises on functionality, however, Epicor ERP [Kinetic] was a great fit because it caters to such a wide range of use cases. Additionally, ease of implementation and ease of use were critical factors, so our day-to-day operations did not suffer a hit from delays and learning curves."

Arguably the biggest draw for Awad and his team was the Cloud. Explaining his rationale for opting for Cloud in a region where many—particularly in the manufacturing and distribution sectors—are still hesitant to make the switch, Awad said, "Our long-term growth plans meant the public Cloud made more sense. Globalization is really knitting so many markets together and changing the way enterprises do business. The Cloud is a powerful tool for quick replication of infrastructure, should we suddenly find ourselves in new territories. The Cloud also allows our technology partners to focus on the technology, while we focus on bringing market-leading engineering solutions to the region and the world."

General International worked with trusted local Epicor partner, Cork Information Technology, which Awad’s team chose for its "good name in the market" in "delivering on commitments." Working with the Epicor partner, General International deployed all key Epicor modules— financial, procurement, logistics, project management, and quotes—across its UAE offices.

The benefits—visibility, accuracy, and intelligence

General International can now automate processes such as materials sourcing and sales quotations; and warehouses in the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai are connected, allowing further real-time visibility. Awad expects a reduction in resources and a boost to the bottom line. He predicts "a saving of 1 to 2% in procurement because of business intelligence" and also believes manpower savings will "essentially pay for the ERP in the long term."

[Manpower savings will] essentially pay for the ERP in the long term.

"Our new visibility, through our robust reporting system, allows me to receive a weekly report that compares week-by-week performance. This has been of particular use during COVID-19 in assessing the impact of the crisis on our business. We are also working on customizable reports for receivables, supply-chain, sales, and others that were previously manual. With Epicor, we now have real-time, reliable data from which we can draw actionable business intelligence. That means faster decisions, cost savings, and shrewder strategy."