Case Study 1

Mashaweer: Online Personal Services in the Gulf 

Q1: What kinds of applications are described in this case? What business functions do they support? What kinds of applications are described in this case?

Answer:

In this case, they started their own company that providing personal service, which is to run errands for their customers with motorcycles. There are few applications being used by the company to run their business.

I. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system

ERP is integrated enterprise-wide standard information systems that automate all aspect of an organization’s business process.

When their business growing bigger, they wanted to get an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to help in managing the business, however, they found the quotations are too high. As a result, they started their own information technology company, Innov8 (innovate), and they created their customized ERP system, and they then connected to their customized PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) through a cloud computing system that was made by LinkDotNet and Mobinil. It allows each rider (the worker) receives tasks one at a time on their PDA, which also includes a GPS to provide them with the correct directions. The GPS function can also monitors the rider’s location to ensure that they are working well.

II. CISCO

When they wanted to provide a better customer service, they started to invest in an innovative contact center and using CISCO. This application supports up to 300IP phones, having a reporting module and a good recording system which made it much easier for the company to track its received calls and work on any problems that its customer service agents might face.

III. Mashaweer Server

It is one of the software components developed by Innov8. It is a centralized application that manages the elements as below:

- Orders (placement, editing, pricing, review, tracking, and reports)

- Routes management and optimization

- Clients (management, reports, discounts)

- Packages tracking

- Contracts

- The call center

- Satellite offices

- Representatives

- Cash transactions and expenses tracking for representatives and satellite offices

- Asset tracking of vehicles, PDAs, and mobile printers

- Management reports

IV. Application Program Interface (API)

The application is used to interpret the data and presents you with the information you wanted in a readable way. API is playing an important role to integrate Mashaweer ordering system with third parties. This application allows third parties, for instances delivery company to automate their delivery system and integrate Mashaweer into their existing CRM / dispatching systems and it opens a great opportunity for their business expansion.

V. Mashaweer PDA application

This application is being installed on all the PDA of the riders and it manages the elements as below:

- Order items progress tracking

- Collection of order fees and other costs, against a printed invoice

- Package handling (barcode scanning and destinations)

- Messaging

- Cash and expenses tracking

- Synchronizing data periodically and at the beginning of each shift

VI. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)

SCADA system is a system of software and hardware elements that allows industrial organizations to control industrial processes locally or at remote locations, to monitor, gather, and process real-time data and so on. SCADA system will be used in the Mashaweer headquarters to monitor all of the live orders and measure the traffic in case of rush hours and so it allows the riders to prevent using the wrong road and react to it before depart.

What business functions do they support?

1. Manufacturing and Production: Providing services to the customers by running errands on behalf. The personal service is the product that they provide and they are providing the services depending on the uses of information technology to receive the orders.

2. Sales and Marketing: Providing good customer service to their customer by delivering the correct goods and services on time by depending on the information shown on the PDA. As well, can keep in touch with the customer for after sales service to build better relationship with the customer.

3. Finance and Accounting: Managing the company’s financial assets and maintaining the company’s financial records to ensure that the company is always financially healthy with the transaction record in the customised ERP.

4. Human Resources: Attracting, recruit, develop and maintain the high quality company’s human capital. Ensure that the workers are working happily with the company and providing the best services to the customers.

Q2: What are the benefits from equipping their riders with PDAs?

Answer:

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is also known as a Palmtop Computer or Personal Data Assistant that functions as a personal information Manager. Generally, the function of PDA including:

- Order items progress tracking

- Collection of order fees and other costs, against a printed invoice

- Package handling (barcode scanning and destinations)

- Messaging

- Cash and expenses tracking

- Synchronizing data periodically and at the beginning of each shift

There are plenty of benefits to use PDA. Mashaweer invested in PDAs is to enable the operation process to be monitored accurately. PDA provides functions like GPS tracking to track the location of the customer and the riders. By using PDA, Mashaweer is able to decrease the amount of errors since the messenger is tied to an automated process where he receives his tasks through the PDA handheld. Also, the expenses and fuel cost is minimised as there is lesser errors and the message is more accurate.

Q3: Was it a good decision to expand the business to Cairo? What are the implications of information systems?

Answer:

Yes. I believe that it is a good decision to expand the business to Cairo. When Mashaweer was first introduced in Egypt, it captured 100 percent of the market share in this field as they were the first one providing this kind of personal service and no one was doing this business. However, the market was not aware on this kind of service or maybe they were not used to it, the company growth was slow in Alexandria until people have started to accept this and found the usefulness of this service. However, in contrast, when the company started their business in Cairo, it grew at a very fast pace. There are several factors causing the company to enter the target market easier compared to the previous one. At the beginning, people’s perception is that using the services provided by Mashaweer is too high cost and luxurious. However, after they used it for a few times, they found that this service is actually very convenient and helped them a lot in their daily life. The more the people love to use this service and they would spread the words to the other places and to other people as the information technology is getting more advanced, and it creates higher demand for the service and this is what helps the company to grow and expand.

Technology improvement has been one of the important factors to facilitate the working condition of Mashaweer. When they decided to expand to Cairo, they decided to adopt a completely different strategy. Mashaweer wanted to be able to cover all the Greater Cairo instead of only a specific area from the very beginning. They wanted to enter Cairo with full force so that there will be higher entry barrier for the competitors. They wanted to invest in their technology so that they are having higher competitive advantage. Mashaweer is a company highly depending on technological tools. The advancement of the technology day by day will benefit the company in terms of the company efficiency. Time and cost reductions are the main key for the company to success and grow faster in Cairo or any places they wanted to do business.

Q4: Do you think that Mashaweer will be able to accomplish their future strategy and sustain its market share?

Answer:

Yes, I believe that Mashaweer will be able to accomplish their future strategy and sustain its market share. By using the technology they have invested in building their infrastructure, Mashaweer has the potential to easily enter other markets in different regions as a very low initiation cost and since they have built a strong customer base, this will definitely lead them to a more profitable business.

Mashaweer’s future strategy as follows:

I. Mashaweer Supermarket: to provide online supermarket service that enable people to shop online through their website and get it delivered by its representatives within 30 minutes of placing the order. Variety of products will be displayed on the website. Mashaweer is hoping to reach an average of 4000 orders daily in return for a delivery charge of 5 Egyptian pounds per order.

II. Call Centre: Expected to make up important revenue stream for the company as it starts introducing marketing campaigns. As well, Mashaweer is planning to expand the call centre to include other companies other than Mashaweer.

III. Geographical Expansion: Using the technology they invested, they could enter and penetrate the other markets easily. They plan to expand to other regions within Egypt, and as well to other countries within the Middle East. In October 2013, they will open their first franchise in Beirut, Lebanon. They also wanted to expand their company to several countries in the Gulf.

Q5: Do you think in near future, the competition between Mashaweer and Wassaly will be aggressive? Why?

Answer:

I believe that the competition between Mashaweer and Wassaly will not be very aggressive. Mashaweer is the only one company providing this kind of service in Egypt. There is a company called Wassaly which was established in Cairo after Mashaweer’s success in Alexandria. Massaly was operated on a much smaller scale and their indirect competitors include other courier services (eg. DHL, UPS, TNT and FedEx). Mashaweer has several advantages that help to build higher entry barriers to the competitors. Mashaweer is having a rich database filled with thousands of loyal clients; this would be one of the reasons that make them unbeatable. Besides, they are also having a bunch of good workers with high qualification which hired with higher salaries compared to the other companies, and this is the way they used to hire and maintain the quality of their riders as happy worker will bring happy customers. As well, due to they are the owner of the IT company, Innov8, it fosters technology integration in Mashaweer and in higher cost efficiency.