How Al Shirawi fired up cash management with APIs

The challenge

Spanning construction, education, electronics and logistics - amongst other industries - Dubai’s Al Shirawi Group is one of the most diversified businesses in the region. However, the company’s extensive corporate structure was posing challenges for treasury. For instance, the 40 plus entities running their own banking relationships across 138 accounts with HSBC and a lack of real-time cash visibility. Manual processes and multiple logins made financial transactions and balances opaque, leading to delays in decision-making and difficulty in tracking cash flows.

Treasury was also prone to errors and vulnerable to security risks. The supplier payments system was paper-based and manually intensive, with most payments made via internet-based browser platforms or cheque. Another problem lay in the lack of system integration.

Current payment processes were not integrated with the company’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and were performed manually. Moreover, as the business grew, manual processes were become increasingly inefficient and difficult to scale, leading to bottlenecks and operational inefficiencies.

The solution

Al Shirawi used APIs to boost efficiency and transparency via HSBC’s bespoke treasury API solution. The technology integrates the company’s ERP in real-time with HSBC, and helped Al Shirawi become more agile, efficient and responsive to changing market conditions.

Transactions are end-to-end encrypted and are across domestic and international transfers. In addition, the treasury team can simply login to the ERP system, instead of using multiple bank portals.

Best practice and innovation

The use of treasury and payment APIs has streamlined transaction processes, allowing for faster and more accurate payments, collections and cash management. This has resulted in improved cash flow visibility, reduced processing times and minimised the risk of errors commonly associated with manual data entry.

The whole API implementation in the UAE was completed in less than two months. The next phase will cover the operations in United Kingdom and India.

Key benefits

• Cost savings.
• Headcount savings.
• Number of banking partners/bank accounts reduced.
• Process efficiencies.
• Return on investment (ROI).
• Increased automation.
• Risk mitigated.
• Improved visibility.
• Errors reduced.
• Manual intervention reduced.
• Increased system connectivity.
• Future-proof solution.
• Exceptional implementation (budget/time).
• Improved key performance indicator (KPI) metrics.

"We have had a long standing and time-tested partnership with HSBC. They were our choice of bank when we embarked on the journey to integrate our system with the banking platform. The seamless implementation process showcased HSBC's expertise and commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions. From the initial discussions to the final integration, HSBC's team demonstrated a deep understanding of our unique requirements and provided tailored solutions to meet our needs.

The treasury API integration with HSBC has significantly streamlined our financial operations, allowing for real-time visibility and control over our cash flows. We now have instant access to accurate and up-to-date financial information, enabling us to make informed decisions and optimise our working capital management,” says Asif Master - Director Finance.