Gulf Craft: Using Digital Transformation to Drive Global Expansion

Gulf Craft’s expansion has included its long-awaited foray into the US market in 2019, as well as the recent announcement of 8 new European distributor partners. This expansion has been driven by a major increase in Gulf Craft’s order book, noting a 42% growth in global order book value in the first half of 2021.  

The partnership with SAP will offer real-time solutions to optimise the customer journey from prototype to delivery, ensuring that with this expansion Gulf Craft continues to provide the same level of quality service. The digital transformation will include the implementation of new systems and processes that will drive the brand’s innovative approach to yacht manufacturing.

“As our business continues to expand into new and emerging markets across the globe,” explains Gulf Craft CEO Talal Nasralla, “it is important that we have a strong digital infrastructure to streamline our processes effectively. With the addition of customers from different parts of the world, the digitalization will help unify our sales, project management, manufacturing and procurement functions on one real-time digital platform. This will contribute significantly to enhancing our operational and resource management efficiency.”

In the first phase of digital transformation, Gulf Craft will deploy the RISE with SAP solution that includes customer relationship management, project and portfolio management, and supply chain solutions running on the Microsoft Azure cloud. The second phase will include the rollout of the SAP Ariba digital procurement solutions and the SAP SuccessFactors human experience management suite.

“By adopting SAP’s real-time solutions, Gulf Craft can drive innovation to optimise its operations, costs, and customer experiences, and fuel its global growth strategy,” says Zakaria Haltout, Managing Director, SAP UAE. “Gulf Craft’s marketing, sales, and service teams can gain a single source of truth to support new levels of business competitiveness in the yachting industry.”

The implementation of technology and innovation is critical to sustaining performance during such a period of growth, and Gulf Craft clients will ultimately benefit from the shipyard’s new partnership with SAP.