Alghanim Industries
Background
Alghanim Industries is one of the largest, privately-owned companies in the Gulf region. A multi-national company in
outlook with operations in 40 countries, Alghanim Industries is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate with more than
30 businesses.
Alghanim Industries handles over 300 global brands and agencies and has a strong presence in the Middle East, India
and Turkey with operations currently extending to Eastern Europe, Africa, East and Southeast Asia. A market leader
in almost every major sector in which it operates and renowned for its progressive business culture and management
philosophy, the company has a long history of success built upon the early adoption of global best practices.
The company has consistently been seen as one of the region’s best employers, winning a number of major awards,
including "Best Employer in the Middle East" from Aon Hewitt for 2009/2010, "Asia’s Best Employer Brand" in 2011,
and the "Best Corporate Governance - Kuwait" in 2012 from World Finance magazine.
Business Needs & Challenges
One of Alghanim Industries Business Units, namely Engineering Heat, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC)
Maintenance Group, has a mobile service unit that performs on-site maintenance at contracted customers. This
service needs to be available 24x7 to its customers. In order to avoid fraud and ensure maximum service levels,
it is critical to verify that the customer receiving the maintenance service is indeed who s/he claims to be.
Furthermore, it is imperative to verify that the customer is still covered under the maintenance contracts.
On several occasions, service was delivered by the mobile service unit to incorrect customers, or to those whose
maintenance contracts have already expired, jeopardizing the business integrity of the unit.
This necessitates making the customer data available for the mobile service units. Once a mobile service unit
arrives at a customer site, it is critical to verify the customer's credentials and maintenance contract status
prior to delivering the service. When the service is delivered, it is also important to capture the customer's
satisfaction from the service.
Characteristics of a viable solution
A viable solution needs to provide the following capabilities:
- Make the Customer's Maintenance Contract status and details available on a mobile device.
- Provide means to scan the Smart Civil ID of the Customer and push details to the mobile application.
- Once maintenance is complete, get the customer's approval on the maintenance job and her/his satisfaction.
Solution
Alghanim Industries teamed with Sharper Software to provide a Mobile
Smart Civil ID reader for
every Mobile Maintenance Unit. Sharper Software delivered a mobile reader and the accompanying software to
Alghanim Industries, who in turn developed a mobile application that connected to their back-end systems to
fetch the details of the customer and to update data when necessary. The result is an Android mobile device
application that can read a customer's demographics using her/his Smart Civil ID then processes the maintenance
data back to the mobile unit. The customer's name in both English and Arabic, Sex, Date of Birth, Blood Group,
Nationality, Address, etc. are all captured automatically off the Smart Civil ID and displayed on the mobile
application's interface. This saves time and effort required to capture customer data accurately. Since this
information is maintained by the Public Authority for Civil Information, all such data is according to the
official records.
