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Mashaweer C~EnU~

ashaweer is the fust personal service company in Egypt. It's purely dedicated to saving its clients' time and effort acting as 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 tum on the phone as someone is trying to reach thern, delivering presents to a client's fiancee every 15 minutes, and carrying a client's shopping bags from the car to the house. Mashaweer is an essential service for the 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 valuab1e 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 a1so 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 1ate at night. Most individuals eannot afford having a full time 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 service s they provide. Theidea 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 Aeademy (AAST) for high sehool. Ahmed El Kordy finished high sehool in 2 years and went on to

achieve his bachelor's degree in industria1 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 severa1 intemships 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 attende d 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 cornpany 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 having a full time driver who did all ofher 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, so he decided to call his frierids to start transforming the idea into an actual business plan. After developing a business plan, the three entrepreneurs decided to go into the implementation phase and actually build this business. They starte d sma11 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 capita1 of $15,000. They started with on1y 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

Chapter 1 all over the country had come to a standstill, they made severallarge purehases 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 false the capital investment up to $1.67 million. They planned to enter Cairo with fuU 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 ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system but found quotations to be too high. 'Ib fix this they started their own information technology company, Innov8 (innovate), where they created a customized ERP system, which they then connected to their customized PDAs (personal Digital Assistants) through a eloud computing system that was made by LinkDotNet and Mobinil. Each rider receives tasks one at a time on the PDA, which also ineludes a GPS to provide detailed directions. The GPSmonitors the rider's location. 'Ib 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 explains 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 elients. One further example af 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. The reason for this was to be able to monitor the performance of the agents and always work on irnproving the quality oftheir 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 caUsand work on any problems that might face its customer service agents. Software components developed by Innovf inelude the Mashaweer Server; Mashaweer APl (Application Programmers' Interface), and Mashaweer PDA client. The Mashaweer Server is a centralized application that manages the foliowing elements: Orders (placement, editing, pricing, review, tracking and reports) Routes management and optimization Clients (management, reports, discounts)

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Packages tracking Contracts CaUcenter Satellite offices Representatives Cash transactions and expenses tracking for representatives and satellite offices Asset tracking of vehieles, PDAs and mobile printers Management reports The APl 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 foliowing elements: Order items progress tracking CoUection of order fees and other costs, against a printe d 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 100percent of market share for such a service, because it was the first and only comparty of its nature. However, the market was not aware or used to such a service, so it starte d growing slowly in Alexandria until people grasped the idea and got accustomed to the faet that there is a company that can take over your errands. In contrast, when the company started operating in Cairo, it grew at surprisingly fast pace. There are several factors are expected to affect the target market and rnake it easier for Mashaweer to penetrate it aggressively. At the beginning, people's assumption is that using Mashaweer is too luxurious and costly. "\.Ibenthey use it for the first couple of times, this perception changes and they begin to rely on this convenient service. As more and more people get accustomed with the service, it creates a cultural change that significantly affects the dernand on the service. Anether 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 advancernerits and price reductions that continuously take place. As a result, Mashaweer's total

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costs will decrease, enabling it to decrease its prices and further improve its quality to become even more convenient for a larger number af people. Mashaweer is the only company af its kind in Egypt that operates an this scale. However, there is a company called Wassaly that was established in Cairo after Mashaweer's succes s in Alexandria. This cornpany operates on a much smaller scale. 'Their indirect competitars inelude other courier services (e.g. DHL, UPS, TNT, and FedEx). However, they have positioned themselves as the flexible courier in centrast to the couriers available in the market today: they offer same day delivery rather than next day delivery. Mashaweer has several other advantages that malm it very hard for others to compete: Database ofthousands ofloyal clients. Self-investment is manageable, Highly qualified and carefully selected riders due to the high salaries compared to the delivery sector in the Egypt, Various revenue strearns. Being the owner af the IT company 1nnov8 fasters technology integration in Mashaweer. Mashaweer has several unique selling propositions. The main two aspects are being the first in the market, and the only af its kind. Also the most important differentiator is the flexibility af their service, which addresses all oftheir customer's needs and requests. Unlike new entrants ar 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 arder and the location ar stage the messenger is located. Through this technology, Mashaweer decreases the amount af errors due to the faet that the messeriger is tied to an automated process where he receives his tasks through the PDA handheld. Meanwhile, a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system presented an 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 motorcyeles 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 ofa web-based portal where call center agents, logistics, and managers can add, edit, track, and view reports.

PDA: A PDA elient 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, j Query, Ubuntu Linux). The PDA device s 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 an the mave. Each PDA is paired to a Bluetooth mobile printer for printing receipts, The plinter 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 hoste d an a eloud 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 ane. Mashaweer's future strategy is as follows: Mashaweer Market: Mashaweer Market is an online supennarket that will enable people to do their grocery shopping through Mashaweer's website and get it delivered by its representatives within 30 minutes ofplacing the order. This will be made possible by having access to a large number of supennarkets around Cairo and Alexandria, so that representatives can pick the order from the elosest 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 ave rage 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 irnportant 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 inelude 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 co st. They plan to expand to other regions within Egypt, in addition to expanding to other counhies within the MidcUe East. In October 2013 they will open their first franchise in Beirut, Lebanon. Theyare also looking to expand to several countries in the Gulf.
Sources: Mashaweer web sile, http://wv.rw.mashaweeronline.com/.

accessed Noverneber 2012; interviewe with Mashaweer owners, conducted November 2012.

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CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What kinds of applications are described in this case? What business functions do they support? 2. What are the benefits from equipping their riders with PDAs? 3. Was it a good decision to expand the business to Cairo? What are the implications of information systems? 4. Do you tbink that Mashaweer will be able to accomplish their future strategy and sustain its market share? 5. Do you think in near future, the competition between Mashaweer and Wassaly wi1lbe aggressive? Why? Case coniribuied by Niveen Ezzat, Cairo Universitu