Leading by Example: Almoayyed International’s Digitisation and Automation of Treasury Department

A diverse conglomerate, with more than 30 operating business units across the GCC, Almoayyed International Group (AIG) is constantly exploring avenues to improve finance and treasury processes through digitisation and automation. Here, Ajay Jain, CFO, AIG, outlines the transformation journey the group has been on with the help of BNP Paribas – and explains how the finance function has embraced new systems, updated workflows, improved processes with robust internal control and developments such as robotics to supercharge treasury, while also contributing to sustainability initiatives.

With internationally renowned expertise on delivering reliable, efficient and transformative solutions for the future, Bahrain-headquartered AIG has to stay at the forefront of innovation. As such, the company fosters a continuous improvement mentality and is always looking for ways to make its operations more streamlined.

Ajay Jain Chief Financial Officer, Almoayyed International Group, Manama, Bahrain

As Jain explains: “Every member of the finance team plays an active role in idea generation and suggestion, which helps in improving current processes, thereby increasing productivity and efficiency of staff without compromising internal control.” A good example of this philosophy in action is the implementation of a Document Management System (DMS) across 14 divisions of the Group’s Finance and Commercial Department - automation of various processes and reports, digitisation of bank accounts - whereby processing 90% of payment and trade finance online saving time and cost - and moving towards a paperless office. Benefits have included: improved staff productivity; reduced manual processing costs; enhanced transparency and governance; access to documents while travelling; and a full audit trail.

Having seen the success of digitising documents in this way and various other automation processes, they committed to move towards further automation and a paperless office.

AIG was keen to roll out a similar project for its payments and cash management – and began searching for a solution in late 2014. Says Jain: “Across the GCC, we have approximately 100 bank accounts, with seven different banks. As such, we used to have to log on to different bank portals, which was time consuming, and did not give us a consolidated view of our cash. On top of that, we used to make all of our payments manually, with wet signatures required to release payments. This was inefficient, not to mention frustratingly slow for suppliers, time consuming for authorised signatories, required lots of printing of documents, movement of documents and also involved a huge cost in storage.”

AIG was therefore looking for a solution to digitise its payment flows, while also providing visibility and control over group cash – through a single portal. It was also important that the chosen solution would integrate with Oracle Financials, which enhanced the efficiency via automation and process improvements. “Since we have a 25-year relationship with BNP Paribas, and hold over 50 accounts with the bank, they were the natural choice of partner for this project,” notes Jain.

Getting onboard

Sayed Shobbair Redha Senior Cash Management Sales, MEA, BNP Paribas

According to Sayed Shobbair Redha, Senior Cash Management Sales, MEA, BNP Paribas: “From the initial discussions with Ajay and his team, we were confident that we could meet all of AIG’s needs through our Connexis Cash platform. However, we recognised that the management team at AIG were understandably cautious about moving away from tried-and-tested paper-based processes, and that they would require reassurances from us.” Jain echoes this, explaining that: “The BNP Paribas team spent time with AIG’s senior management, helping them to see that digital channels are as safe as paper ones.”  

With the initial discussions completed, and reassurances duly given, implementation began in 2015. As Angello Wallace, Head of Implementation, MEA, BNP Paribas, recounts: “We decided to take a phased approach to implementation, to ensure that it went as smoothly as possible for AIG. So, stage one was to onboard all of the legal entities onto Connexis, and the 50-plus bank accounts that were already held with BNP Paribas. This all went very smoothly, as there were limited external factors involved.”

Once this was up and running, host-to-host (H2H) connectivity was then put in place, for making online payments to suppliers. Says Jain: “Online payment has been a great success and has led to time, cost and paper savings. Almost 95% of payments to our suppliers are now made online. And the approvals process, which used to take circa three days now takes around 30 minutes or a couple of hours maximum. We are saving 18,000 sheets of paper per month (approximate 220,000 sheet of paper per year ) by no longer printing cheques or documents relating to payments, other automation and digitisation initiatives. That’s equivalent to 24 trees a year – which is great from a sustainability perspective.”

Taking things further

Ibrahim Samee Uddin, Senior Implementation Manager, MEA, BNP Paribas

The second phase of the digitisation project involved securing balance reporting from the other banks that AIG uses. Wallace says that this was one of the tougher parts of the implementation. “Some of the third-party banks were reluctant to report MT940s to BNP Paribas, as they feared losing business. However, as a well-respected organisation, AIG was in a strong position to convince the other banks that this was the way forward, and we were able to proceed on that basis.”

The complete implementation took around eight months, in large part due to the reporting discussions with other banks. There were also a few technical challenges to ensure that Connexis and Oracle worked in tandem, but BNP Paribas was quick to assist here. Jain explains: “BNP Paribas’ implementation team was incredibly helpful, spending days onsite with our IT people to ensure that the transition to Connexis went smoothly. This means that no additional resource burden was placed on AIG from a systems perspective, which is invaluable.”

Speaking about his time working with AIG’s team, Ibrahim Samee Uddin, Senior Implementation Manager, MEA, BNP Paribas, comments: “From the get-go, I could see that AIG was incredibly committed to the drive to automate. Not only to transition to electronic payments, but also to keep the controls extremely robust. To this end, we put in place a payments’ flow to ensure a direct flow of payments from Oracle into Connexis with validation and authorisation on the Connexis platform. A further control has also been put in place for dual validation of beneficiaries registered on the portal, ensuring even further security in the process.”

Today, 90% of AIG’s foreign payments are processed through Connexis. This equates to circa 4,400 payments each month, totalling around €90m. And Jain is delighted with the outcome of the digitisation project. “What the BNP Paribas team has achieved for us is truly amazing. Being able to see all of our bank accounts together in one place has given us a genuine strategic edge. We can make decisions much more quickly and ensure cash is being put to the best possible use,” he enthuses.

More efficiencies to come

But the journey is far from over. There are further efficiencies in the pipeline, starting with the deployment of robotic process automation (RPA) across the finance function. Jain believes that RPA can be used “anywhere where there is human intervention that follows defined logic – including bank reconciliations – and many other processes which are done manually, high in volume, time consuming and repetitive, and this is something we are actively exploring for the next part of our digital journey”.

Angello Wallace Head of Implementation, MEA, BNP Paribas

With the help of BNP Paribas, AIG is also looking to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its cash flow forecasting. “We have been talking with BNP Paribas extensively about Cashforce, which is a ‘next-generation’ cash flow forecasting and smart treasury solution backed by the bank. We will be very interested to explore that further in the near future,” says Jain. “We are also working with BNP Paribas on an exciting project to integrate third-party payment functionality into Connexis. This would mean that we could make payments from any of our bank accounts – from any of our banks – via Connexis, simply by sending an MT101. Once completed, this will bring huge process efficiencies.”

The BNP Paribas team is rightly proud of everything that it has achieved in collaboration with AIG already. Shobbair Redha notes: “As well as being committed to improving their systems and creating efficiencies, AIG is a role model for other companies in Bahrain: a digital pioneer and a sustainability champion. We look forward to the next steps in this continuous transformation journey.”

Jain, meanwhile, believes that BNP Paribas has played a critical role in enabling the company to reach these goals – and will continue to do so in the future. “The bank’s service levels are always excellent and BNP Paribas provides a sense of reassurance that I simply do not get from any other bank. The team always goes above and beyond to make the impossible possible and to turn dreams into reality, as demonstrated perfectly by this project. I am delighted with the results so far and excited for the future.”