Riverbed has announced that Ghabbour Auto (GB Auto), a leading automotive company in the Middle East and non-bank financial services (NBFS) provider in Egypt, has chosen Riverbed SaaS Accelerator, Riverbed Client Accelerator and Riverbed SteelHead within the Riverbed Acceleration portfolio to enhance the performance of their hybrid network and mission-critical applications for its 54 subsidiaries, located across four countries.
The engagement will empower GB Auto to deliver secure, optimized performance and enhances the digital experiences for all employees, as well as customers who are increasingly utilizing the company’s website and mobile app to access services quickly and conveniently.
GB Auto is focused on automotive assembly, manufacturing, sales and distribution, financing and aftersales services, and partners with leading international automotive brands.
The company also has five non-bank financial subsidiaries launched with the aim of offering financing options to all client categories, from major corporations and small and medium enterprises to retail clients and individuals eligible for micro credit.
The decision to deploy Riverbed Acceleration solutions supports GB Auto’s ‘cloud-first’ IT objective, aimed at enhancing its ability to pioneer the introduction of digital innovations to the Egyptian market. In line with this strategy, the company extensively utilizes cloud services such as Microsoft 365 and Teams, and hosts mission-critical applications such as Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Oracle Taleo in the Microsoft Azure cloud.
With the new Riverbed Acceleration solutions in place, GB Auto has already seen a significant improvement in the performance of these applications for both store workers and employees working remotely or on-the-go.
“In the automotive sector, customer experience is shaped not just by the initial purchase but by the entire post-sales service ecosystem which is increasingly becoming digitally driven. As an organization, our objective is to constantly bring to market innovations that provide elite experiences and enrich the lives of our customers and employees. Digital technologies and services underpin this objective,” said Kamal Khafagy, Chief Information Officer, at GB Auto.
“We have a hybrid IT environment and Riverbed has already made a measurable difference to our operations, as the enhancements to the performance of our applications translates to a range of benefits, from shorter wait times at our stores to improved experiences when utilizing our digital channels. It also enables us to confidently carry out the digitalization of dealerships at locations where Internet connectivity speeds don’t match up to the same level as highly developed regions.”
With the Riverbed Acceleration solutions recently going live in its hybrid cloud environment, GB Auto has already seen a 50% reduction in transaction time for its mission-critical Oracle ERP system – an outcome which Khafagy states has helped ‘dramatically’ improve operations. As the company’s mobile application and website are both hosted in the Azure cloud, the Riverbed cloud optimization solution ensures consistently high-quality experiences for customers when using features such as online booking for test drives, payment of booking fees, or scheduling service appointments.
“Egypt is a key market for Riverbed and our successful engagement with GB Auto furthers our objective of engaging with leaders in key market segments to support the overall Digital Transformation of the country,” said Mena Migally, Regional Vice President, META at Riverbed Technology. “We are proud to be a part of GB Auto’s journey, and we see this deployment as the start of a successful collaboration that will enable them to accelerate every interaction and empower the experience for customers and employees across their hybrid enterprise.”
GB Auto has already outlined plans to capitalize on the digital efficiencies made possible by its partnership with Riverbed. The company is currently looking to empower its employees to ‘self-serve’ all of their HR requirements via a mobile application, and it also has the intention to introduce an eCommerce offering for its spare parts business.
