Abu Dhabi Finance (ADF), a leading provider of mortgages in the emirate, has scooped the Banker Middle East’s ‘Best use of Technology’ award in the wake of its innovative technology initiative.

The best practice implementation, which has already saved ADF more than 400 days of manpower, has also enabled real-time access to financial information, significantly increasing the company’s responsiveness for its clients, a statement said.

Abu Dhabi Finance has reengineered its processes to ensure back end efficiencies that will lead to better service quality by reducing time spent on administration, it added.

Automation has increased efficiency by 28 per cent for the operations team and 33 per cent for the finance team. Another benefit is the reduction in the monthly financial closing cycle from five to three days and the monthly reporting cycle from three days to one.

This has been achieved using best of breed systems, including Oracle Financials, Human Resources, BPEL Manager, Financial Accounting Hub and Business Intelligence.

The company is the first in the Middle East to have a fully automated real-time general ledger and reporting compliant with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), according to the statement.

“Abu Dhabi Finance has been an innovative organisation from day one. We built the company around the quality of our client service, and we have engineered processes and procedures to support our aim – to become the best mortgage provider in the country. To become and to remain the best, we continue to look for ways to improve and innovate,” said Philip Ward, chief executive officer Abu Dhabi Finance.

“The technology implementation has increased our efficiency, and consequently our client service, and by improving our financial reporting it has strengthened our company’s decision-making capabilities considerably.”

“This award is testament to the efforts and commitment of the whole team. I would like to thank all the staff for their role in implementing the new technology which has changed how we work and where we spend our time, as well as the part they have played in making the company what it is today,” he added.

Sohail Khan, industry leader - Financial Services Industry, Middle East and Africa, Oracle, said: “We congratulate Abu Dhabi Finance on its achievement and we are happy to see that our Oracle E-business Suite modules have helped the organisation reach its goals.”

“These applications have helped organisations from all industries make significant efficiency gains across departments and boost growth, and Abu Dhabi Finance is already reaping the rewards of the technology.” – TradeArabia News Service