Scaling Fast While Staying Number One

Solution

Adrian D'Cunha, representing Mai Dubai’s digital transformation efforts, focused on empowering teams with the right tools at the right time.

“Having the right tools and empowering people with the right capability to drive business is the need of the hour. It’s not just about having systems. It’s about giving them at the right time to face the ever-changing dynamics of business.”

While SAP remained the core transactional backbone, there was a clear need to bridge the gap between speed, workflow scalability, and governance.

Adrian explained:

“SAP is a very powerful transactional tool. Very good at financials and logistics. But when it comes to deployment, and the speed at which the business was growing, approvals and workflows, and scalability were something that were lacking.”

Kissflow bridged that gap.

Instead of relying on emails for cross-functional approvals, Mai Dubai centralized workflows into a single repository. Approvals became structured. SLAs could be defined. Escalations could be automated. Messages appeared directly within the system, rather than getting buried in inboxes.

“Kissflow bridged the gap between speed and efficiency while keeping governance in mind. It gave us a center repository for approvals rather than relying on traditional email methods.”

The results were immediate.

Mai Dubai deployed its first workflow within one month. Over the past two years, the company has scaled to 96 processes, all developed and maintained in-house.

“The best part is we didn’t have to use any third party. We never had to go back to the vendor and ask if something could be done. Everything was done completely in-house.”

This internal ownership significantly improved management alignment and expectation management. Changes no longer require lengthy deployment cycles or heavy vendor involvement.

From Workflow Automation to Application Building

What began as simple document workflow automation evolved into full-scale applications.

One of the most impactful implementations was fleet management.

Mai Dubai operates approximately 400 trucks. Managing fines, repair bills, and disputes through emails was inefficient and difficult to track. Integrating a dedicated fleet module into SAP would have required high cost, integration effort, and vendor alignment.

Instead, Mai Dubai built a complete fleet management ecosystem within Kissflow.

“We’ve actually built a complete ecosystem where fleet tracking can be managed with a simple workflow system rather than investing in separate fleet software.”

The system allowed tracking of vehicle fines, dispute handling, repair tracking, and vendor interaction, all within a structured workflow.

The success of early implementations sparked innovation across departments.

“It started the creative juices with different departments. They began identifying areas where they could automate and bring efficiencies. It doesn’t actually take that much time to roll out an application. It can be done in hours if you know what problem you need to solve.”

A 45-Minute Deployment Example

A live example demonstrated the platform's agility.

During a market survey, the entire management team was visiting retail locations and needed a way to capture observations in real time.

Within 45 minutes, the team built and deployed a mobile-ready form on-site.

“It took us 45 minutes to build out a form and deploy it live. We built a complete merchandising module as phase one. Today we are using it as our primary merchandising module.”

An idea became a live application in under an hour.

Vendor Enablement and Ecosystem Expansion

Mai Dubai also extended workflows beyond internal teams to vendors.

Traditional ERP integration with vendors would have involved high costs and resistance from external partners. Instead, vendors found Kissflow intuitive and easy to adopt.

This expanded the digital ecosystem beyond internal users, improving collaboration and visibility.

A Mature Digital Mindset

Adrian attributes success not just to technology, but to organizational maturity.

Mai Dubai had successfully completed an SAP S/4HANA implementation, so the team understood traditional deployment timelines and the complexity of change management. Kissflow introduced a new model of rapid iteration and business-led automation.

“We have a mature team that understands digital transformation. We know how long deployments can take. With Kissflow, we can scale internally and move faster.”

Product Roadmap and Future Readiness

Another key factor was long-term product vision.

“Kissflow has a proper roadmap. When you invest in a product, you need to know it will reap benefits in the next couple of years.”

Adrian emphasized the importance of vendor stability and forward-looking innovation. AI enablement and continuous feature enhancement reassured the organization that the platform would evolve alongside business needs.

“Everybody is using AI in one form or another. The question is how we make Kissflow faster and more efficient using AI. There are always better ways to do things.”