New Digital Approaches

Dalma Mall of Abu Dhabi

By Fadwa Eraky on Feb 23, 2018 in News

Located in the heart of Abu Dhabi, Dalma Mall is one of the most diversified shopping malls in UAE. It serves as a vibrant neighbourhood resource and shopping destination. The mall helps meet Abu Dhabi’s 2030 strategic vision and the Emirate’s framework for long-term economic and social growth.

Bhupinder Singh, the General Manager and Chief Financial Officer of Dalma Mall, is responsible for shaping Dalma Mall’s retail management software operations to help optimize the company’s strategy.

Singh has more than 20 years of experience in retail real estate, managing multiple hospitality and residential portfolios with brands such as MAF, Emaar and Meraas.

Singh summarized his approach to the business: “Over the last 7 years I was honoured to influence the process of enhancing the assets’ functionality. Ultimately, everything drills down to numbers and my passion is to see numbers move.”

Dalma Mall, with near-full lease occupancy, has a total gross leasable area of 151,000sqm, including more than 400 stores, 6,500 car parking spaces, a 14-screen cinema, game zone, food court, and a number of restaurants and cafés including several international fashion brands.

The mall is a development from The Developers Holding, a property development firm owned by a consortium of Abu Dhabi’s leading business houses. The Developers brand name has become synonymous with delivering world class projects and optimal consumer satisfaction across the GCC.

Singh noted: “Our strategy is to provide customers with the ultimate experience and most importantly a place to socialize. Communication is the key to enhancing customer satisfaction.”

One of the most significant phases in digitizing Dalma Mall processes was adopting Yardi Voyager, the cloud-based property management and accounting platform.

“Organizing, managing and reporting are the main functions in any business sector. I have been able to practice these functions following the introduction of computer technology on an industrial scale. Moving forward from manual book entries and accounting in excel based reports, our target has been to continuously, evolve to use the latest and most advanced technology,” says Singh. “We reviewed multiple vendors and found that the Voyager 7S platform was not only designed to support local requirements, but also delivered enhanced functionality that was specific to the specialist needs of the retail sector.”

Dalma Mall also implemented Yardi Orion Business Intelligence, a solution that is designed to provide a portfolio-wide view of occupancy, vacancy, accounts receivable status, actual revenues vs. budget and other key leasing, asset management and accounting performance indicators.

“Data is fundamental to our business. From monthly reports and analysis, leasing status to funneling sales figures, we have always been inundated with data. After the implementation of Yardi Voyager, we became fully equipped to embrace the power of big data and use it strategically to optimize our retail management operations,” Singh said.

“We decided to move forward with a comprehensive process of selecting a new platform to help us enhance the management of our retail operations. The fully integrated Voyager 7S solution brought us immediate benefits, successfully delivering the capability to strengthen our forecasting abilities with automated budgeting, valuations and modelling,” explains Singh. “The implementation of Voyager was a game changer for us, revolutionizing our property operation strategies while providing us with a platform to manage business intelligence, contact and prospect information, asset maintenance and more from our mobile devices”

Technological change continues to be a key driver for the retail industry as it can benefit consumers and retailers simultaneously.

“At Dalma Mall we encompass a variety of technologies to engage with our customers,” Singh said. “Yardi’s innovative technology is an essential move to achieve organizational growth and the journey so far has been educative and rewarding. The relationship with Yardi and the solutions they provide has helped us improve our efficiency and enhanced our reporting culture. The future of the relationship is exciting and we looking forward to working with Yardi long term, and are already looking to implement other solutions from their technology stack.”

For more information about Dalma Mall, visit: dalmamall.ae