Kinnaird College for Women

Final Project
Management Information System

Section: A

Course instructor: Mam Javeria Manzoor

Date of Submission: 14 May, 2019

Submitted by:

Arooj

Barea Sajjad Baig

Mahnoor Anees
Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................4
Background............................................................................................................4
History....................................................................................................................4
Awards....................................................................................................................4
Hierarchy of Asteco...................................................................................................7
Response of Asteco....................................................................................................8
Core Business Process of Asteco...............................................................................8
Business Pressure....................................................................................................11
Market Pressure....................................................................................................11
Technology pressure.............................................................................................12
Porter’s competitive forces model...........................................................................12
Strategies for Competitive Advantage.....................................................................13
Difficulties of Managing Data in Asteco.................................................................13
Putting Big Data to Use...........................................................................................14
Data mart and Data Warehouse...............................................................................14
Tacit Knowledge......................................................................................................15
Transaction processing system (TPS)......................................................................15
Enterprise Resource Planning System.....................................................................15
Supply Chain Process..............................................................................................17
Pull Model...............................................................................................................18
Solution to Supply Chain Problem..........................................................................18
Information Technology Support.............................................................................19
Introduction
Asteco has an essential combination of local and international expertise. A deeply established
brand, renowned for its application of the latest technological advances, its commitment to
transparency, winning strategies and human expertise. Undisputed real estate experts, Asteco
represents a significant number of the region’s top property owners, developers and investors.
Asteco has witnessed outstanding growth and diversification over the decades and has built
a strong regional network of offices and currently operates in:

 Dubai

 Abu Dhabi

 Jordan

 Sharjah

 Al Ain

Background
For more than 30 years we have been at the forefront of the local property management industry
developing tried and tested operating procedures, systems and manuals to provide a streamlined
and disciplined approach to comprehensive Association/Union Management and Consultancy
Services for residential, commercial and mixed use communities throughout the GCC Region.

History
The Middle East’s largest full service real estate services company, Asteco was formed in Dubai
in 1985. Asteco offers a wide range of residential and commercial properties for rent and sale in
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Sharjah. Over the years, Asteco has gained enormous respect for
consistently delivering high quality, professional, value-add services in a transparent manner. It
is also widely recognised for its involvement with many of the projects that have defined the
landscape and physical infrastructure of the emirates.
Awards
Asteco has built an incredible team based on market-leading experience, innovation and
embracing new technologies, which enabled us to win many awards worldwide.

ARABIAN PROPERTY AWARDS 2017 – 2018

INTERNATIONAL

 Best International Property Consultancy Marketing

 The Residences at St. Regis Abu Dhabi
 By Asteco Property Management

 ARABIA
 Best Property Consultancy – Dubai
 Best Lettings Agency – Dubai
 Best International Property Consultancy Marketing
 The Residences at St. Regis Abu Dhabi
 By Asteco Property Management
DUBAI AND ABU DHABI

 Best Property Consultancy – Dubai

 Best Lettings Agency – Dubai
 Award Winner Property Consultancy - Abu Dhabi
 Best International Property Consultancy Marketing
 The Residence at St. Regis Abu Dhabi
 By Asteco Property Management

MENAFA EXCELLENCE FRANCHISING AWARD – 2017

These are awards the company has achieved in the year 2017. And there are several other awards
the company achieved in 2016 and in 2015 like Arabia, Super-brand and Propspace award etc.

Hierarchy of Asteco

The main element is the Director of real estate agency who bears responsibility for all operations
with the real estate performed by him or the staff of the agency. The Director also provides
training in the agency, exercises supervision of work of the employees.

The second element is the team of experts. Under sensitive supervision of the director, they carry
out operations with the real estate and with the information system, entering necessary data about
the objects. The experts also carry out all communications with the client, advising them, holding
meetings and providing verification of documents when carrying out the transaction.

Response of Asteco
To deal with the pressures and to overcome the Asteco is using several IT techniques to manage
the high volume of data. It is developed its own portal and better deal its customers. It is using
the Information system which is known as CRM (customer relationship Management).

The company is conducting its business over the web to facilitate its customers. It provides its
customer with the option to either email or call the agents.
Core Business Process of Asteco
The core business process of Asteco is marketing. The company have some of its permanent
clients who are majorly the investors in the real estate and other clients are the ones company
finds who want to buy, sell and rented their properties.

Property for Sale

Property for Rent

The company then creates an NOC of the client’s property with the use of the client’s passport
and title deed because NOC is mandatory for advertisement in Dubai and the company has to pay
65 AED per advertisement to the UAE government. The NOC is signed by the client and then
the ad is posted on the portals by the company. When the ad has been posted the ones who are
interested in buying of the property contacts the agents of Asteco.

Each advertisement provides client with the option either to call or email the agent. The email
sent by the client is forwarded to leads in CRM.
The customer mentions their requirements in the email and then the company tries to find the
property best suited with the customer demand. The best options are then enabled for the
customer to view physically. If the customer approves the property then the dealers finalized and
the customers to pay 5% commission, which is divided among the companies, owner and the
agents.
This graph shows monthly detail of agents commission which he received from the company,
when the company sale the property and received the commission by the customer then they
distributed this commission among their agents

Business Pressure
Asteco is facing much business pressure. Because there are many small companies and
individual agents entered in real estate market. The high pressure Asteco is facing in real estate is
market pressure and technology pressure.

Market Pressure
Market pressures are created by the intense competition, the changing nature of workforce and
the powerful customer.

The changing the nature of workforce

The workforce of Dubai is getting diversified. The number of women, single parents and persons
with disabilities are employed in Asteco in all types of positions.
Powerful customer

In the world of real estate the customers becoming more and more powerful by the use of
technology like 2gis Dubai maps. With the help of online map the customer is able to find the
best suited place for his land and also the market prices. Before contacting the agents of Asteco
the client has a vast knowledge about the properties and the process which gives a tough time to
the agents. As a result the agents have to strive to learn as much as possible about their customers
to better anticipate and address their needs.

Technology pressure
Asteco use CRM software. The WhatsApp of all agents of Asteco is connected to the CRM and
the use their own devices to communicate to their clients. The agents are restricted to use there
devices only for business. But they are misusing this facility by using it for their personal chat

The major concerns of these devices is security. The company with these policies have seen an
increase in malware. In addition, there is an increased risk of losing private, proprietary
information. In these devices the information may not be stored securely on a personal mobile
device that may be lost or removed.
Information Overload

A huge amount and volume of data is created when a huge number of customers try to access a
same advertisement and are willing to buy that. It is difficult for the company to access all the
requests at the same time and manage the data created. The agents have to connect with all the
customers and to filter out the actual customers. With all the data that has been created, the
agents have to manage and access the customers.

Porter’s competitive forces model

The threat the entry of new competitor

The company is facing a huge problem of entry of new competitors in the form of small
businesses and individual agents. In real estate business it is very easy for beginner to enter the
market place because the entry barrier is very low. All it needs is a way to communicate with
clients and some people who want to rent and sell their properties.

The bargaining Power of customer (Buyer)

Due to the huge number of competitor the bargaining power of customers is high. If the customer
finds out that the commission of the company is too high they have plenty of option to switch.

Competitors Name

Some of the major competitors of Asteco are:

 Prestige

 Haus and Haus

 Better Home

Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Organization continually tries to develop strategies to counter the five competitive forces
identified by Porter. But the Asteco’s business process rely on the customer orientation strategy.
Customer Orientation Strategy

Asteco is following the customer orientation strategy as it engages its customer in all of its over
business processes. They put their best efforts to retain their customers.

Difficulties of Managing Data in Asteco

The data in Asteco is processed in many stages and in different locations, as each agent of a
company has its own portal so the company has to face some problems and difficulties in
managing data. Some major problems faced by Asteco are as follow:

1. The amount of data in Asteco is increasing rapidly, as a new data is added and the company
also kept the previous data for a long time as a record. And the data of a company is stored in
various servers, locations or in different computing systems because several portals are
available for different agents.

2. Another problem Asteco is facing is that the data is generated through internal, personal and
external sources. Data also comes from web in the form of clickstream data. This data is
generated when the customers visit the website of a company where the ads are posted on
portal. As a result clickstream data provide a trail of customer’s activities in the web site.

3. Another problem Asteco has experiencing from sometime is that data degrade over time like
the customers of a company change their names or move to new addresses. The data of a
company also degrade when agents are hired or fired, or the company expands its real estate
business into new countries.

4. The company is also facing a problem of data rot. The data vanishes after sometime due to
temperature and humidity and agents or owners face the difficulty in accessing the previously
stored data.

5. The data security is also another problem Asteco is facing. Every agent of a company has its
own portal, so that if the agents finds out some incentives from their customers or clients as
some customers gives huge amount on property, then the agents earn extra commissions on
property without telling the company that is unethical and leads to the misusing the data.

The Database Approach

The Asteco Company has its own database to tackle the problems of managing data. All the data
of the company is located in the database which automatically saved after some time. Database
eliminates many problems like data inconsistency (various copies of data), data redundancy
(repeated data) because database is a set of software that allows all the users to access data.

Putting Big Data to Use

Asteco manage big data and gain value from it. There are many ways to do this, but Asteco
business process relies on micro segmentation of customer.

Micro segmentation of customers

Asteco use micro segmentation technique to utilize its big data. The company divides its
customers into small groups and provides extra benefits and incentives to their large and well
known customers or investors. Asteco sometimes gives a relaxation on commission to its
investors and convinces them to buy a property from the company to retain their customers for
long.

Data mart and Data Warehouse

Asteco is using Hub and Spoke Data warehouse for each of its departments. Where the data of
each department of company is stored separately in Data Marts, but a company also has a central
Data Warehouse where the data of all data marts and departments are collectively stored and
users of all departments can easily access it.

Tacit Knowledge
Asteco increases its business capacity by using Tacit Knowledge. The agents of company gains
more knowledge and information time to time when they visit different areas in a search of a
property for their customers. The agents develop expertise according to the different visited
areas. Then the agents utilize their expertise and gained information that improves the working
ability of a company.
Transaction processing system (TPS)
A transaction processing system TPS supports the monitoring, collection, storing and processing
of data from the organizations basic business transactions, each of which generates data. The
TPS collects data continuously, typically in real time. It provides input for the corporate
databases.

TPS is used in Asteco to record customers detail and the details of every advertisements on the
portals. Also the transactions that occur between the customers and agents.

Enterprise Resource Planning System

ERP II system is a family of software modules that support the business activities involved in the
vital back office processes. ERP II is a solution that includes the traditional materials planning,
distribution, and order-entry functionality strengthened by capabilities like customer relationship
management (CRM). Such a system can quickly, accurately and consistently operate an entire
organization.

Key advantage of an ERP system is that it provides an integrated solution for all the
requirements of the business. There is an integrated software for every functional area. The
company does not have separate software for every functional area. For Asteco ERP performs the
following functions:

1. Tight integration with ERP for CRM presents a genuine end-to-end property management
solution.

2. Deal with all parts of your landlord and tenant lease prerequisites with the vigorous
detailing and bookkeeping tool by ERP

3. Effectively oversee rent creation and upkeep, complex accelerations, CAM

reconciliations, master evaluated, deals based lease or metered charges.

4. Effectively raise charges by rate plans, fixed amounts, percentages, or other rate drivers,
for example, cost per square foot.
 5. Financial plan, by shopping centre or particular kind of property.

The ERP II software used by the company is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The
real estate CRM software is an integrated contact management that helps the employees of the
company to keep the information of all the clients in one centralized database.

This CRM helps Asteco agents collaborate easily with their partners because the information is
stored in one place. The basic feature of this CRM is contact management. The platform
possesses a contact management platform that has been customized to persons by referring to
leads, clients, agents, and partners.

Asteco has purchased its CRM from Propspace. PropSpace is the global leader in real estate
software solutions and a trusted technology partner for thousands of estate agents and letting
professionals worldwide. Feature-rich and user-friendly, PropSpace is the definitive CRM
software for the UAE real estate industry. This CRM is a software as a service (SaaS) ERP
implementation.
Supply Chain Process
The supply chain process of Asteco is marketing. The company has some of its permanent
clients, who are mainly investors in Real estate, and other clients are those the company finds to
buy or sell their properties. The company then creates an NOC for the customer's property using
the customer's passport and title deed, as NOC is required to advertise in Dubai and the company
must pay AED 65 per advertising to the UAE government. The NOC is signed by the customer
and the ad is displayed on the portals by the company. When the ad is published, those interested
in buying the property will contact Asteco's representatives. Each ad offers the customer the
option of either calling or emailing the agent. The e-mail sent by the customer is forwarded to
leads in CRM.

The customer enters their requirements in the e-mail, and the company then attempts to find the
most suitable property for the customer's demand. The best options are then activated for the
customer to physically view them. When the customer approves the property, the dealers are
required to pay a commission of 5%, which is distributed among the companies, the owner and
the brokers.

Pull Model
Asteco used pull model in its supply chain process. The company makes mass customized in its
business. Because the company is responsive to individual customer needs. When the customer
notifies their demand, the company finds the right property according to customer demand. And
then the company activated its customer to physically look at it.

Basically, the company does what customers want, a process that is tightly focused on mass
customization.

Problems along the Supply Chain

If agents of Asteco advertise any apartment or property for sale or rent. And if more than one
people show interest in the same property. Then it’s become difficult for them to fulfill the needs
of clients more than one.

Solution to Supply Chain Problem

When this type of problem arises, then agents usually contact other agents of a company,
whether they have similar property or apartment in the same society so they can manage all
clients at a same time.

Information Technology Support

SCM systems are essential to the successful operations of many businesses. These systems rely
in various forms of IT to resolve problems. Three Technologies, in particular, provide support for
SCM system:

 Electronic Data Interchange

 Extranets
 Portals and Exchange

The Asteco’s business process rely on 3rd technology Portals and Exchange. Because they use
portals to deals with their clients.

Portals and Exchange

Corporate portals offer a single point of access through a Web browser to critical business
information in an organization. There are two basic type of corporate portals:

 Procurements Portal (Upstream in the supply chain)

 Distributions Portal (Downstream in the supply chain)

Distributions Portals

In Asteco, every individual agents have its separate portal where they deal with their clients.
However a single agent deals many clients at a time in their portal. In business process
automation involved in buying and selling properties from a single agent to multiple client.
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
1. Individual abilities reflected
2. Effective and reliable team
3. More opportunities for property’s
advertisement
4. 15 portals for ad display
OPPORTUNITIES
1. An effective use of the new ways of
communication
2. Weaker competitors
3. Expansion at international level
WEAKNESSES
1. Less coordination with the owner
2. Lack of employees training and
abilities
3. Absence of organizational policies
THREATS
1. Changes in the real estate market
2. Changes of the potential buyers´
preferences
3. Eventual legal modifications
4. Policies of the government