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ABA Finance Department celebrates Group CFO Internal Control Excellence Award

Celebrating the hard work and dedication of the teams, Ali Bin Ali Holding’s Finance Department organized the Group CFO Internal Control Excellence Award quarter one on June 21, 2022 at The Concorde Hotel. Participating in the competition were the entities under General Manager – Finance, Mr. Adnan Suleiman.

Galeries Lafayette, ABA Fashion, DID, PDTC, ABATS, ABA Contracting, Golden Lands and Albina Snacks were the companies in the running for the big recognition. An ‘Internal Control Checklist’ was established for the purpose of evaluation to determine the winning team. The teams were reviewed and awarded points against each criterion.

Present at the award ceremony was Group CFO Mr. Iftekhar Ahmad, GM-Finance Mr. Adnan Suleiman, Group General Manager – Finance Mr. Ganesh P.K., General Manager – FSS Mr. Shakil Maruf, Financial Controllers Mr. Mathew N. Thomas and John Cyriac, Group Treasury Manager Mr. M.F. Ismail, Audit Manager Mr. Kamal Uddin Gazi Jishan, General Manager of ABATS Mr. Rami Majed Ammari, General Manager of Galeries Lafayette & ABA Fashion Mr. Kevin Gerard Pender, Acting General Manager of ABA Contracting Mrs. Riham Monawar and General Manager of DID & PDTC Mr. Mohammad Imran and their respective Finance Teams.

Mr. Adnan welcomed everyone and gave a short introduction about the Group CFO Internal Control Excellence Award. He cited “Internal Control is a process geared to achieve business objectives such as financial, operational, compliance objectives and these are effected by people at all levels – C Suite, Senior Management, Management, Finance, Operations, Supply Chain, and more”.

The award ceremony was preceded by a presentation by Mr. Kamal explaining the procedure of evaluation using efficiency index and selecting the winner of the award. Finally, the leaderboard was announced. ABATS, DID, and ABA Contracting were the top three Finalists, and the grand winner of the Group CFO Internal Control Excellence Award 2022 Quarter One was ABATS.

The champions trophy was received by the General Manger of ABATS Mr. Rami and the team members of ABATS and Finance Shared Services– Mohamed Elshehawi, Shaleh Md. Mridha, Dian Marhali, Samuel Brian Mwangi Wanjiru, Mahamed Wari, Muhammad Tahir, Kazi Hasnat and Mamoud Fawzi Al Habet – were awarded with certificates and a token of appreciation.

Congratulating the ABATS team, Mr. Iftekhar said: “We are glad to have re-started the Finance recognition programs after we had to pause due to the Blockade and COVID-19 pandemic. We plan to expand this for the entire Group soon. I want to thank Adnan for the initiative and thanks to all for their dedication towards their work and towards ABA Holding.”

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ABA Watches & Jewelry Kuwait goes fully online with HSBC net

In an   achievement for the Group, Ali Bin Ali (ABA) Watches & Jewelry Kuwait has become the first entity in ABA Group to go fully online using all three main services offered under HSBC net

This is the first entity under the ABA Group to use the trade portal for making supplier payments using Clean Import Loans (CIL) under HSBC net. With this new addition, they will be using three services offered under HSBC net namely, for online salary transfers, regular supplier payments using priority payments and now for import loans using their trade portal.

With this, most of the manual transactions will now be digitized and approved online. Considering that this entity is operating outside of Qatar , migrating to a digitized environment will bring in many benefits such as reducing paper work   , substantially reducing  couriering charges for sending documents for approval and most importantly improving productivity of employees due to the  transaction approval cycle being shorter and streamlined .

Going forward, the ABA Holding Finance Department plans to replicate the HSBC net trade solution for ABA entities in Qatar.

The project was wholeheartedly supported by ABA Holding’s Vice-Chairman & EVP Mr. Nabeel Ali Bin Ali and the Group’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Iftekhar Ahmad. Instrumental in the whole process of moving to a completely digitized platform was Group Treasury Manager Fawaz Ismail & the treasury team, Head of Finance in Kuwait Suranga Perera & the Kuwait team, Group Audit Manager Kamal Uddin Gazi Jishan and the Internal Audit team, Group Accounting Manager Fathima Shiham, Financial Controller Mathew N. Thomas (Vinu) & the Accounting team.

Speaking about this commendable development, Mr. Iftekhar said: “Digitization is the future of all financial activities and we are glad that we are keeping up with the times. Definitely this will pave the way for the entire Group to adopt more digital solutions not just with HSBC but also with other banks that offer online banking facilities.”

 

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ABA Holding Finance Team enjoys a fun day out

Ali Bin Ali Holding’s Finance Department took a much-deserved break as it organized a get-together for the community and their family members. On March 6, 2020, the team assembled at the Sealine beach resort for a day of informal fun and socialization.

Apart from members of the Finance Department across all divisions of Ali Bin Ali Holding, present at the get-together were Group Chief Financial Officer Mr. Iftekhar Ahmad, Group General Manager – Finance Mr. Ganesh P.K., Finance General Managers – Mr. Adnan Suleiman, Mr. Shakil Maruf, Mr. Asad Saleem and Group General Manager – HR Mr. Aldrine Austine Fernandez.

The get-together has been a longstanding tradition in the ABA finance community, and this year the organizing team made sure it was a memorable one. Some 400 people showed up for the day, making this the biggest ABA Finance event yet.

The day was packed with fun activities, team-building events, competitions and lots of presents. It was the perfect set-up and a great opportunity for the entire ABA Finance family to mingle outside the formal office setting.

The event enabled them to know each other better and build stronger working relationships, through creative and fun activities, such as a sand castle competition, Master Chef and Finance Got Talent, to name a few.

Thanking everyone for making the gathering a success, Mr. Iftekhar said: “We might meet each other every day at work but today we experienced the fun, unknown side of many of our colleagues.  It is very important that we give our brains some time to relax so that we can focus better at work. It was a great, fun day and I hope this has made our bonding stronger.”

The ABA Finance community is very diverse, creative and talented, and the get-together demonstrated this in the best way possible. Their caliber and expertise are strong contributors to the success story of Ali Bin Ali Holding.

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ABA Group’s ERP Project ‘FORWARD’ makes yet another leap and is moving into phase 2

The ABA Group’s ERP project “Forward” has just reached a new milestone. Following a successful “Go Live” of our Human Capital Management (HCM) track, Forward is now confidently striding on to its second phase to include the Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing Divisions.

Symbolizing this progress and equipping the Group to take on the next step, a Super User Orientation program – titled “Moving Forward” – was held on 6th April 2017 at Crowne Plaza Doha’s Business Park.

The orientation, which was conducted in a workshop style, was attended by Super Users, Functional Track Leads and ABA SMEs who were led through the a process of awareness and capacity building on the way FORWARD will be implemented and integrated with the existing system.

Speaking at the workshop Mr. Albert Bamboukian, Project Director offered his thoughts in an encouraging speech saying, “We are all citizens of the ABA family and this exact sense of belonging is what will help us ‘Move Forward’. There is no opportunity for us to stop now. Given the challenges, competition & the fast changing environment in the market, we need to keep ourselves a step ahead. We need to be effective and efficient. Our work has to get us the results that matter. ‘Let’s make it happen’ should be our motto. I am confident that we will work as a team to achieve more, for the Ali Bin Ali Group and for everyone.”

Also present at the workshop were Mr Marc Karam (General Manager, Pepsi), Mr Ganesh PK (Group general manager – Finance), Mr Viji Kurian (General Manager – International Agencies), and Mr. Philip Cherian (Finance Planning & Reporting manager).

They also added their sentiments focusing on change being important for growth and how future-focused the FORWARD project is. They reassured those gathered that while the journey would include many challenges, the end result would be rewarding for all.

Mr. Nabil Mourad (COO FMCG) addressed the participants via a video recorded message. He emphasized the importance of FORWARD to ABA Group’s future growth, and confirmed FMCG Division’s commitment to the success of Forward implementation.

Adding an element of fun to the event, a team-building activity took place where, participants were challenged to solve three sets of puzzle that revealed the key messages for the Finance and SCM tracks.

The workshop also included a joint presentation made by Youssef Farajallah Mahmoud (ABA Group PMO manager) and Amer Dakhqan (Intrasoft Project manager), during which they briefed Super Users on the status of the FORWARD project, the achievements and goals. They also discussed the challenges ahead and the role of the Super Users in addressing them.

The event was concluded with a thank you note from Mr Bamboukian and the promise that everyone will work together to make the project a success, taking the Ali Bin Ali Group to new heights.

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Ali Bin Ali’s Finance Community Get Together

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The Ali Bin Ali Finance department community dedicated a full day out of their busy and stressful calendar to get together with their families and colleagues to celebrate their companionship on 11 march, at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Qatar from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m.

More than 500 guests including employees and their families attended the event where a full range of fun activities were organized. The organizers in the finance department had done an excellent job to ensure that all participants were superbly entertained by providing activities for all ages at each corner. Fun and entertainment ranged from dance related contests to an array of sports including volleyball, kabaddi, as well as larger participatory games like Tug-Of-war drew in players of all ages. Special activities for the ladies had also been organized, including games of cricket and treasure hunts. In addition, an illusionist used his masterful skills to keep the children and all adults entertained. Thrilling raffle draws added to the excitement of the day. It was surely a memorable day for the community!

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Deloitte conducts IFRS training for senior ABA Finance staff

On Thursday, 12th March 2015 a special training was held for Senior Finance staff of the Ali Bin Ali Group.  The training focused on International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”) .

The training is part of the year long finance academy and provided an excellent opportunity to the senior finance people to upgrade their knowledge base in line with developments happening in IFRS.

A total of 14 participants attended the event comprising of mostly Finance Managers and Chief Accountants. The training took place at the HR Training Room on the 9th Floor of ABA Towers.

Mr. Iftekhar Ahmad Group CFO of ABA Group thanked Mohammad Ghaddar and Rami Qudah from Deloitte for providing the training program.

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Launch of Accounts Payable Shared Services in FMCG

On 15th February 2015 The Ali Bin Ali Group’s FMCG division organised an event at the Finance Shared Services office at D’ring Road in Nuaija.

Building on a successful journey and four years of learning and experience in the ABA Finance Shared Services function, ABA Group CFO Mr. Iftekhar Ahmed announced the opening of AP Shared Services in FMCG commencing from 15th February, 2015. It was learnt at the gathering that a dedicated task force team led by Mr. Jeyaprakash Velu under the supervision and guidance of Mr. Sampath Balaji spent almost 10 months in planning, preparing and carrying out the ground work right from the process definition upto drafting SLA’s for a seamless migration including alignment of the respective stake holders and consulting with overseas Shared Services Expert.

It was also announced that Mr. Sukanta Chakrabarty, Team Leader of AR Shared Services Team, after successfully launching the ARSS will move on to the new role of leading the APSS team.

Present at the event were ABA Group’s CFO, GM(F)FMCG, Finance Managers FMCG, Key finance team members and Shared Services Members.

Addressing those gathered, ABA Group’s CFO said “This is only the beginning and I expect more divisions to join the shared services umbrella in coming months and years. As has been the case with ARSS, I am confident that the cost of managing the shared services will significantly come down with time due to scale effect. More importantly, this will relieve managers to spend more quality time on strategic and business critical issues. Also this will be of significant step forward for us for the implementation of new ERP system in ABA.”

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