Business Process Review & ERP Audit for a Marine Services Group

The Client

The client is a diversified marine services group operating across multiple business areas, including trading, manufacturing, leasing and rental, and project-based services across the Gulf region. With operations spanning the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, the organisation manages a wide range of interconnected business processes and functions.

Background and Business Requirements

As part of its digital transformation initiative, the organisation wanted to understand whether its existing ERP system was adequately supporting its business processes and operational requirements.

The requirement was not simply to identify ERP system gaps. The organisation needed a clear understanding of how its actual business processes are compared with the processes configured within the existing ERP system, and to identify where improvements were required.

The review covered a broad functional landscape, including CRM and sales, tenders and estimation, contracts, order management, procurement, inventory, logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, project management, service delivery, leasing and rental, QHSE and training, accounting, finance and management reporting.

A key requirement was to determine whether identified gaps could be addressed through existing ERP functionality, workarounds, add-ons or third-party applications, or whether the limitations justified a broader ERP change.

The Engagement

Affility conducted a structured Business Process Review and ERP Audit covering the organisation’s key functions.

The engagement began with an analysis of the organisation’s objectives, critical success factors and identifying the inventory of current processes, practices. Information was gathered through discussions and interviews with process owners and key stakeholders, supported by a review of available organisational documents.

The existing processes were then mapped to understand their objectives, owners, stakeholders, activities, inputs, outputs, policies and system requirements. This provided a documented view of how the business operated and highlighted key process gaps.

The next phase focused on the existing ERP. Affility conducted a detailed review of process mappings, workflows, delegation of authority and segregation of duties within the existing ERP. These were compared with the business processes identified during the review to highlight gaps, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.

Finally, the identified ERP gaps were reviewed and categorised according to the available options for addressing them.

The Deliverable

The engagement resulted in a structured gap assessment covering the business processes and their alignment with the existing ERP.

The deliverables included documented process understanding and gaps, an inventory of ERP improvement opportunities, a gap analysis identifying potential solutions, and management-level recommendations.

The recommendations categorised potential solutions into workarounds, ERP add-ons, third-party applications and functionality that was not available within the existing ERP. This provided management with the information required to assess the practical options for addressing the identified gaps.

Based on the gap assessment and ERP audit, Affility presented three strategic options to management: reimplementing the existing ERP system with updated business processes, or adopting a new Tier 1 ERP (with minimal customisations) or Tier 3 ERP (with many customisations and enhanced timelines). These options provided management with alternatives to consider based on the identified process gaps, system limitations and business requirements.

The Result

The Business Process Review and ERP Audit provided management with a structured basis for evaluating the effectiveness of the existing ERP against actual business requirements.

Rather than treating ERP replacement as the starting point, the engagement established a clearer view of the underlying business processes, identified gaps between processes and system functionality, and assessed the available options for addressing those gaps.

The resulting analysis and recommendations gave management a documented basis for deciding whether to enhance or replace the existing ERP, supported by identified process and system requirements rather than assumptions alone.

Following the assessment, the client proceeded with one of the recommended options and moved forward with its implementation. This enabled the organisation to progress from assessing its existing ERP and business processes to taking action based on the findings and recommendations.