Leading systems integrator ITQAN Al-Bawardi Computers is a dedicated and committed implementer of MS Dynamics solutions, specifically Great Plains. ITQAN’s reach across the country exemplified through its killer record of references and upheld by its veteran team, prompted Sharjah Museums Department to source it for this requirement, which essentially aims to eradicate the manual and administrative environment that usually appears with the absence of software business solutions.

“We are always glad to increase our presence across all UAE emirates, and are thrilled to have an important landmark in Sharjah to award us this project,” said Feras Al-Jabi, ITQAN’s General Manager.

Sharjah Museums Department oversees and links the current and future museums of Sharjah that cover the arts, Islamic culture and history, Sharjah’s heritage and history in addition to the region’s, archaeology, science, children’s learning and natural history. Sharjah Museums Department was established in 2006 under the leadership and patronage of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah and Member of the Supreme Council.

The historical nature of this organization does not conflict with its modern and futuristic vision. In the aim of improving the quality of their services and introducing more automation to their daily operations, Sharjah Museums Department collaborated with ITQAN to implement Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains, HR and payroll solution eKawader, in addition to the business portal and employee self services powered by Microsoft SharePoint solutions.

The umbrella of needs usually covered by any IT application was not any different with Sharjah Museums Department. The difficulties and problems of completing the daily processes and transactions in a finance department by hand can translate to an actual loss to any organization. At the forefront of these shortcomings is primarily the huge time consumption that is brought about administrative processing. Time is money, and higher productivity in any organization cannot be compromised. Furthermore, the more manual the work, the more it is prone to human errors, and this is again not an option in any workplace specifically in a cut throat department such as the finance department.

“The main objective of this requirement was to facilitate Sharjah Museum’s daily operations and allow employees to focus more on the essentials of their jobs and access the required integrated and business applications anywhere, anytime through a web portal. This automatically translates to higher quality standards and better productivity”, said Sharjah Museum’s IT Manager, Sofiane Benna.

 

Sharjah Museums Department wanted to streamline and automatically process all its financial and logistical processes that will inevitably create more efficiency and enable a higher performance on all levels. Especially with the best of fit solution that would fill all the current gaps and provide additional information and reports that enables top management to make the right decisions. In addition to a solution that would automate daily financial processes, Sharjah Museums Department realized the need for another solution that would enable the HR department to work on a much higher level and respond better to employee needs. The vision was to basically bridge the gap between employees and the department, and simultaneously have the solution compliant and conforming to local labor laws. The latter is somewhat difficult with typically most HR and payroll solutions catered to American or European workplaces and hence are deemed unfitting for a local organization.

Taking into account the nature of Sharjah Museum’s needs and the size of its business, ITQAN proposed the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains as the best of fit solution. It is licensed to specifically 15 users and will essentially allow Sharjah Museum to perform all financial functions, and automate the completion of transactions upheld by the following modules:

1. General Ledger
2. Purchase Processing
3. Fixed Assets and Multi Currency
4. Accounts Payables and Receivables
5. Enterprise Reporting
6. Forecast and Budgeting
7. Bank Reconciliation
8. Business Portal

MS Dynamics Great Plains will be seamlessly integrated with an HR and payroll solution developed by ITQAN, known as eKawader. eKawader was essentially made to operate in a typical local organization seeing its compliancy with GCC labor laws. It has a common interface that strikes relevance with specific MS Dynamics Great Plains modules, and is also Arabic enabled. eKawader covers all needs experienced in a typical HR department owing to its comprehensive line of modules:

1.  Recruitment Module
2.  Employee Master and Relations Module
3.  Training Module
4.  Housing Module
5.  Ticketing Module
6.  Performance and Appraisals Module
7.  Time Attendance Module
8.  Leave Management Module
9.  Payroll Management Module
10.  End of Service Module
11.  Integration with Financial Module

 

The complete framework implemented by ITQAN extends to the implementation of Microsoft SharePoint, which was integrated to the prior solutions to provide employee self-services. MOSS 2007, a server program part of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, provides a unified, integrated location where members of an organization can efficiently collaborate with each other, find resources, search for expert information and manage content and the workflow. The employee self services included online forms processed through a workflow for several e-services such as leave process, certificate requests, personal information, overtime, employee requisition, appraisal, training and business travel. For the purchasing process, the portal included e-services for the purchase requests and delivery note acceptance.

In addition to the employee self services, MOSS was linked to the business portal and existing SMD applications such as the collection management system and IT Servicedesk. MOSS will be integrated in the near future to the existing Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System to view ticketing and retail information from Point Of Sale (POS) systems across Sharjah Museums.

 

MS Dynamics Great Plains, eKawader and Microsoft SharePoint 2007 would ultimately transform the completion of all business processes in Sharjah Museum, and bring about a change that will take it closer to its business goals.

The solution provided by ITQAN encompassed different platforms that operated wholly to automate daily operations and create a paperless, IT enabled environment. With Microsoft Dynamics GP, users became able to streamline, monitor and complete financial transactions with complete ease and fluidity. The latter is made possible through the user friendliness of Microsoft applications whose distinction comes in their familiarity, ease of integration, low total cost of ownership and all-inclusivity. Furthermore, time and effort expenditures became noticeably reduced, allowing employees to spend more time on making the right decisions and strategizing based on the reports and information provided by the solutions. Fundamentally this is the predominant purpose and objective of the solution. Moreover, it provides a single, unified source of consolidated financial information where top management can always keep on track and monitor Sharjah Museum’s financial performance.

Likewise, the HR department found their daily responsibilities simplified and facilitated through eKawader’s modules. The recruitment module for instance would allow users to process a position request. All applicants for the position have their details stored, in addition to the status of their interviews and consequently the results and assessments of the interviews conducted. The positions and applicant’s cost, and the status of the applicants in terms of who’s hired is all automated through the system. eKawader offers a complete 360 view for recruitment from the initial to the very last stages, without the need for tedious and time consuming paperwork. Another module is the payroll management module that defines allowances, benefits and deductions, and simultaneously defines payroll rules using allowance matrix and expression builder that has around 12 parameters. The module primarily builds and calculates payroll, and allows back dated calculations and auto-calculation of allowances.

“The whole solution was implemented successfully despite of challenges and complications that were finally overcome until the solution was fully deployed and users began to reap its benefits, which will even get more accentuated on the long run. It delivered exactly what we were looking for, and made the job easier in many areas,” said Sofiane Benna, IT Manager at Sharjah Museums Department.

The use of MOSS 2007 is in full effect here, where employees can forward all requests to the HR department and have them processed via the employee self-services solution configured by ITQAN. Similarly, employees can process most of the requests to the concerned people within different departments such as Human Resources and purchasing and have them processed electronically. For instance, leave requests can be automatically processed to the HR department who will act on it accordingly. The mode of communication among employees will be much easier and faster, with less time consumption and bureaucratic paperwork that poses an unnecessary load.

 “ITQAN is a certified implementer of several business solutions and from our portfolio of software applications, Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains is the best of fit software for Sharjah Museum. We have been recognized by Microsoft numerous times for our outstanding expertise and experience in implementing such a solution, where recently we got recognized by Microsoft at the World Partner Conference. We deeply appreciate Sharjah Museum for investing their trust in our capabilities,” expressed Feras Al-Jabi, ITQAN’s General Manager.