Question

Mashaweer is the first personal service
company in Egypt. It’s purely dedicated
to saving its clients’ time and effort by
offering a personal assistant 24 hours
a day. The personal assistant is a rider with a motorcycle
who runs any errands for individual clients or
corporations at any given time. The most common
service they provide is buying groceries or other
goods from stores, paying bills, and acting as a courier.
Mashaweer’s success relies heavily on their flexibility,
and they have often received unusual requests that
they have fulfilled in order to gain customer loyalty,
including: going to the gym to tell someone to turn on
the phone as someone is trying to reach them, delivering
presents to a client’s fiancée every 15 minutes,
and carrying a client’s shopping bags from the car to
the house.
Mashaweer is an essential service for Egyptians
because traffic is a problem that everyone in Egypt
faces, making it difficult for an individual to get a
couple of errands done on the same day. Mashaweer’s
service has achieved such success in Alexandria and
Cairo, where traffic is an issue, saving people one of
the most valuable commodities out there: time. The
service is able to give people more quality time to
spend with family or friends, instead of taking care
of the daily errands that usually take up half of one’s
day. They also act as a security or safety measure as
they perform people’s errands in unsafe times, such
as the period after the revolution or simply late at
night. Most individuals cannot afford having a fulltime
assistant to perform their errands whenever
needed. Mashaweer’s agents act as full-time assistants
for every individual at a part-time cost.
Since starting the company in Alexandria in 2010,
Mashaweer has since expanded to Cairo and operates
around 600 orders per day. They plan to expand
even further geographically within Egypt and to other
countries in the region as well as enhancing and
increasing the services they provide.
The idea of Mashaweer was created by Mohamed
Wahid (24 years old) and then co-founded with his
partners, Ahmed El Kordy (25 years old) and Aly El
Shazly (27 years old). They were all born and raised
in Alexandria. Ahmed El Kordy and Mohamed Wahid
met when they both transferred from different schools
to IGCSE Academy (AAST) for high school. Ahmed El
Kordy finished high school in 2 years and went on to
achieve his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering
from the Arab Academy of Science and Technology
(AAST), graduating in 2008. Part of his undergraduate
degree was spent doing a year abroad in Carleton
University in Ottawa, Canada. During the summers
of his undergraduate years, Ahmed completed several
internships in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Mohamed Wahid also went to AAST, graduating in
2009 with a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering.
Aly El Shazly attended St. Marks School for
his entire school career, he then went on to Alexandria
University, where he studied business and graduated
in 2007. After college, Ahmed El Kordy went on to
work at his father’s import/export business. Mohamed
Wahid went on to establish a company called X-trade
for trade and contracting, followed by a marketing and
advertising company called Green Media. Currently,
he’s a main shareholder in both, in addition to being
the vice-chairman of Green Towers, a real estate company
with a net worth of about $16 million.
Wahid thought of the idea of establishing
Mashaweer while he was preparing for his wedding.
His bride-to-be was overwhelmed with errands that
she had to get done within a few days and he started
wondering what she would have done if she couldn’t
afford a full-time driver who did all of her errands for
her. While on his honeymoon, he kept thinking about
this idea and how much time people could save and
what a valuable service it could be. He decided to call
his friends to start transforming the idea into an actual
business plan. After developing the plan, the three
entrepreneurs decided to go into the implementation
phase and actually build this business. They started
small and grew organically as the demand for the
service increased. Each of the three entrepreneurs
invested $5,000 into the project to total a starting capital
of $15,000. They started with only 3 motorcycles, 6
riders, and a hotline.
As the three friends realized they had actually succeeded
in Alexandria, they decided they wanted to
move to the next phase by establishing Mashaweer
in Cairo. When they decided to expand to Cairo, they
decided to adopt a completely different strategy.
They wanted to be able to cover all of Greater Cairo,
as a whole, and not just specific areas, from the very
beginning. During the Revolution in January 2011
they started gathering market research to expand in
Cairo and started investing heavily. Since business
all over the country had come to a standstill, they
made several large purchases such as motorcycles and
advertising space for fractions of the price. When others
saw it as a time to slow down, the entrepreneurs
saw it as an opportunity to start marketing for their
business. By March they realized that they needed to
increase the original investment so that they can grow
large enough to capture the market in Cairo. To do
so, they brought in other investors, mainly from their
friends and family, to raise the capital investment up
to $1.67 million. They planned to enter Cairo with full
force so that there would be a high barrier of entry
for any competitor. They decided that their competitive
advantage would have to be in investing in technology.
They wanted to get an enterprise resource
planning (ERP) system but found quotations to be
too high. To fix this they started their own information
technology company, Innov8 (“innovate”), where
they created a customized ERP system that they then
connected to their customized PDAs (Personal Digital
Assistants) through a cloud computing system made
by LinkDotNet and Mobinil. Each rider receives tasks
one at a time on the PDA, which also includes a GPS
to provide detailed directions. The GPS monitors the
rider’s location.
To reduce cost and ensure quality, Mashaweer
does not rely on outsourcing in any of its stages as
long as it can do the work with the same or better
quality. This was why Mashaweer founded Innov8
in order to build its system and manage its technical
work. Now, Mashaweer only owns part of this company
and is one of its numerous clients. One further
example of Mashaweer’s in-house capabilities is its
call center. The company preferred to have an internal
call center after rejecting a number of offers for
an outsourced one. They wanted to be able to monitor
the performance of the agents and always work
on improving the quality of their customer service.
Investing in an innovative contact center and using
CISCO, which supports up to 300IP phones, a reporting
module, and a recording system, made it much
easier for Mashaweer to track its received calls and
work on any problems that might face its customer
service agents.
Software components developed by Innov8 include
the Mashaweer Server, Mashaweer API (Application
Programmers’ Interface), and Mashaweer PDA client.
The Mashaweer Server is a centralized application
that manages the following elements:
• 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
The API is a method of integrating Mashaweer
ordering system with third parties. This allows third
parties to automate their delivery system and integrate
Mashaweer into their existing CRM/dispatching
systems, opening a wide opportunity for business
expansion.
The Mashaweer PDA application is installed on
each representative PDA and manages the following
elements:
• 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
When Mashaweer was first introduced in Egypt,
it captured 100 percent of market share for such a
service, because it was the first and only company
of its nature. However, the market was not aware or
used to such a service, so it started growing slowly
in Alexandria until people grasped the idea and got
accustomed to the fact that there is a company that
can take over your errands. In contrast, when the
company started operating in Cairo, it grew at a surprisingly
fast pace. There are several factors that are
expected to affect the target market and make it easier
for Mashaweer to penetrate it aggressively.
At the beginning, people’s assumption is that using
Mashaweer is too luxurious and costly. When they use
it for the first few times, this perception changes and
they begin to rely on this convenient service. As more
and more people get accustomed to the service, it
creates a cultural change that significantly affects the
demand on the service.
Another factor that is expected to facilitate working
conditions and reduce costs is the technological
advances that occur every day. Mashaweer heavily
depends on technological tools, and would benefit
from the advancements and price reductions that
continuously take place. As a result, Mashaweer’s total
costs will decrease, enabling it to decrease its prices
and further improve its quality to become even more
convenient for a larger number of people.
Mashaweer is the only company of its kind in
Egypt that operates on this scale. However, there is
a company called Wassaly that was established in
Cairo after Mashaweer’s success in Alexandria. This
company operates on a much smaller scale. Their
indirect competitors include other courier services
(e.g. DHL, UPS, TNT, and FedEx). However, they have
positioned themselves as the flexible courier in contrast
to the others available in the market today; they
offer same-day delivery rather than next-day delivery.
Mashaweer has several other advantages that make it
very hard for others to compete:
• A database of thousands of loyal clients.
• Manageable self-investment.
• Highly qualified and carefully selected riders due
to the high salaries compared to the delivery sector
in the Egypt.
• Various revenue streams.
• Being the owner of Innov8, which fosters technology
integration in Mashaweer.
Mashaweer has several unique selling propositions.
The main two aspects are being the first in the
market, and being the only company of its kind. The
most important differentiator is the flexibility of their
service, which addresses all of their customer’s needs
and requests.
Unlike new entrants or copycats in the market,
Mashaweer have invested highly in the systems they
use. They invested in PDAs to enable the operations
process to be monitored accurately since it provides
data like GPS tracking to track each order and the
location or stage the messenger is located. Through
this technology, Mashaweer decreases the amount
of errors, as the messengers are tied to an automated
process where they receive their tasks through the
PDA handheld. Meanwhile, a SCADA (Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition) system presented on
a big screen will be available at Mashaweer headquarters
to monitor all live orders and measure the
traffic in case of rush hours, thus enabling the operation
team to react and try a preventive and corrective
action.
Mashaweer’s infrastructures includes the following.
Equipment: 130 motorcycles units and 10 cars.
Software: A logistics management solution system
was developed specifically for Mashaweer, and served

from a cloud-hosted server. The solution consists of a
web-based portal where call center agents, logistics,
and managers can add, edit, track, and view reports.
PDA: A PDA client was developed to connect to
the server in order to allow Mashaweer representatives
to view and update their assigned orders via an
XML-based web service. Except for the PDA client, the
solution is based on open source technologies (PHP,
CodeIgniter, MySQL, jQuery, Ubuntu Linux). The
PDA devices will be a main factor in integrating the
operational team with the fleet of riders.
Hardware: Windows Mobile PDAs were used for
viewing and updating orders on the move. Each PDA
is paired to a Bluetooth mobile printer for printing
receipts. The printer is also equipped with a swipe
card reader module so that it can be used in the future
for credit card payment collection, and for promotion
cards. Mashaweer server is a Linux VM hosted on a
cloud solution provided by Innov8, the sister company
that developed the entire information technology
system.
Head Quarters: The decision was made to buy a
new headquarters instead of renting an existing one.
Mashaweer’s future strategy is as follows:
Mashaweer Market: Mashaweer Market is an
online supermarket that will enable people to do their
grocery shopping through Mashaweer’s website and
get it delivered by its representatives within 30 minutes
of placing the order. This will be made possible
by having access to a large number of supermarkets
around Cairo and Alexandria, so that representatives
can pick the order from the closest outlet and deliver
it to the customer as quickly as possible. All 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.
Call center: Mashaweer’s call center is expected
to make up an important revenue stream for the
company in the near future, as the company starts
introducing marketing campaigns. In addition,
Mashaweer is planning to expand its call center to
include other companies other than Mashaweer.
Geographical Expansion: Using the technology
they have invested in building their infrastructure,
Mashaweer now has the potential to easily enter
and penetrate other markets in different regions at
a very low initiation cost. They plan to expand to
other regions within Egypt, in addition to expanding
to other countries within the Middle East. In October
2013 they opened their first franchise in Beirut,
Lebanon. In 2014 they opened up for business in
Dubai, and have plans for expanding to several countries
in the Gulf.
Sources: Pamella de Leon, “Startup Mashaweer Wants to Do Your
Errands In Dubai,” entrepreneurmiddleeast.com, November 19,
2014; Mohammad Osmangoni, “Case 1: Mashaweer,” mohammadosmangoni.
wordpress.com/2014/10/17/case-1, October 17,
2014; “Brands Speak Digital: Mahsaweer’s Social Media Strategy,”
http://www.digibuzzme.com, November 22, 2012.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
1-12 What kinds of applications are described in this
case? What business functions do they support?
1-13 What are the benefits from equipping their riders
with PDAs?
1-14 Was it a good decision to expand the business
to Cairo? What are the implications of information
systems?
1-15 Do you think that Mashaweer will be able to
accomplish their future strategy and sustain its
market share?
1-16 Do you think in near future, the competition
between Mashaweer and Wassaly will be
aggressive? Why?
1-17 What are the strategic objectives that firms try to achieve by investing in information systems and technologies?
For each strategic objective, give an example of how a firm could use information systems to achieve the
objective.
1-18 Describe the complementary assets that firms need in order to optimize returns from their information system
investments. For each type of complementary asset, give an example of a specific asset a firm should have.

Answer 1

1. he applications portrayed for this situation are: PDA, brought together application and SCADA. The business capacities that the case bolsters: Manufacturing and creation, money and bookkeeping and HR.

Undertaking Resource Planning (ERP)

A procedure by which an organization (frequently a maker) oversees and incorporates the vital pieces of its business. An ERP the board data framework incorporates zones, for example, arranging, buying, stock, deals, showcasing, fund, HR, and so forth.

CISCO

A main maker of systems administration gear, including switches, spans, outline switches and ATM switches, dial-up access servers and system the executives programming. Cisco was established in 1984 by Leonard Bosack and Sandra Lerner, a wedded couple both utilized by Stanford University. At first focusing on colleges, Cisco sold its first switch in 1986.

Mashaweer's Server

Another product segments created by Innov8 incorporate the Mashaweer Server. The Mashaweer Server is a brought together application that deals with the accompanying components:

Requests (Placement, altering, evaluating, survey, following and reports)

Courses the executives and advancement

Customers (Management, reports, limits)

Bundles following

Contracts

Call Center

Satellite workplaces

Delegates

Money exchanges and costs following or delegates and satellite workplaces

Resource following and satellite workplaces

Resource following of vehicles, PDAs and versatile printers

The executives reports.

Application Programmers' Interface (API)

The Application Programmers' Interface (API) is a lot of programming directions and measures for getting to an electronic programming application or web apparatus. A product organization discharges its API to the general population with the goal that other programming engineers can plan items that are controlled by its administration.

SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition)

SCADA is a classification of programming application program for procedure control, the social affair of information continuously from remote areas so as to control gear and condition.

Significant Business Functions:

1. Assembling and generation: Assembling the item

2. Deals and advertising: Identifying clients

3. Money and bookkeeping: Creating fiscal reports

4. HR: Hiring representatives

Q2. Individual Digital Assistant otherwise called a Palmtop Computer or Personal Data Assistant. Is a cell phone that capacities as an individual data Manager. The Mashaweer PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) application is introduced on every agent PDA and deals with the accompanying components:

Request things advance following

Gathering of request charges and different expenses, against a printed receipt

Bundle dealing with (standardized tag examining and goals)

Informing

Money and costs following

Synchronizing information occasionally and toward the start of each move

Screen and control of representative for example riders

Mashaweer put resources into PDAs to empower the task procedure to be observed precisely since is gives date like GPS following to follow each request and the area or stage the detachment is found. Through this innovation, Mashaweer diminishes the measure of blunders because of the way that the dispatcher is fixing to a mechanized procedure where he gets his errands through the PDA handheld.

Q3. At the point when the organization began working in Cairo, it developed at shockingly quick pace toward the starting individuals' presumption is that utilizing Mashaweer is excessively lavish and exorbitant When they use it for the primary couple of times, this discernment changes and they start to depend on this helpful administrations

As an ever increasing number of individuals get acclimated with the administration, it makes a social change that altogether influences the interest on the administration Mashaweer vigorously relies upon innovation instruments, and would profit by the progressions and cost decreases that constantly happen

Thus, Mashaweer's all out costs will diminish, empowering it to diminish its cost and further improve its quality to turn out to be significantly progressively helpful for a bigger number of individuals.

Q4.Mashaweer will almost certainly achieve their future technique and support its piece of the overall industry due to their foundations as pursue:

a) Mashaweer Market: Mashaweer is an online general store that will empower individuals to do their shopping for food through Mashaweer's site and get it conveyed by its agents inside 30 minutes of submitting the request. This will be made conceivable by approaching an expansive number of grocery stores around Cairo and Alexandria, so delegates can pick the request from the nearest outlet and convey it to the client as fast as could be expected under the circumstances. All items will be shown on the site. Mashaweer is planning to achieve a normal of 4000 requests day by day as a byproduct of a conveyance charge of 5 Egyptian pounds for each request.

b) Call Centre: Mashaweer's call focus is relied upon to make up a vital income stream for the organization sooner rather than later, as the organization begins presenting showcasing efforts. What's more, Mashaweer is intending to grow its call focus to incorporate different organizations other than Mashaweer.

c) Geographical Expansion:Using the innovation they have put resources into structure their framework, Mashaweer now can possibly effectively enter and infiltrate different markets in various districts as a low inception cost. They intend to extend to different areas inside Egypt, notwithstanding growing to different nations inside the Middle East. In October 2013 they will open their first establishment in Beirut, Lebanon. They are additionally hoping to extend to a few nations in the Gulf.

Q5. The challenge among Mashaweer and Wassaly will be not forceful. As Mashaweer is the main organization of its sort in Egypt that works on this business scale. Nonetheless, there is an organization called Wassaly that was set up in Cairo after Mashaweer's achievement in Alexandria. This organization works on an a lot littler scale. Their backhanded rivals incorporate other messenger administrations (e.g DHL, UPS, TNT and FedEx). Be that as it may, they have situated themselves as the adaptable dispatch as opposed to the messengers accessible in the market today; they offer same day conveyance as opposed to 24 hour conveyance. Mashaweer has a few different focal points that make it extremely hard for others to contend:

1. Database of thousands of steadfast customers

2. Self-speculation is sensible

3. Exceptionally qualified and deliberately chosen riders because of the high pay rates contrasted with the conveyance division in the Egypt.

4. Different income streams.

5. Being the proprietor of the IT Company Innov8 cultivates innovation incorporation in Mashaweer.

Q6.

q7. So as to acquire significant incentive from data frameworks, organizations must bolster their innovation ventures with proper complementary-investments in associations and management.These integral resources incorporate:- new plans of action and business forms steady hierarchical culture and the board conduct,- Appropriate innovation models, guidelines, and laws.New data innovation speculations are probably not going to deliver high returns unless organizations make the fitting administrative and authoritative changes tosupport the innovation