How the Oman based family business has built clarity, control and confidence across a complex, multi entity organization.

CUSTOMER STORY – SUITE

Carrying a Legacy into the Future: A family owned business transformation

​How a 150 year old family business in the Middle East built clarity, control and confidence across a complex multi-entity organization

Ottakringer Getränke AG

AT A GLANCE

Challenges

  • Manual governance processes for entity, contract, and board management
  • Critical entity data lived in fragmented systems, creating inefficiencies and errors
  • Siloed governance limited board visibility, especially during high stress moments
  • Missing centralized tracking increased compliance risk and exposure to fines

Results

  • Over 30 users onboarded across board, executive and management committees
  • +60 companies structured and managed in the Entities module
  • Reduced compliance risk through automated CR alerts and centralized data
  • Stronger data consolidation and governance oversight

Products Used

Board Portal
Contract Management
Entity Management

INTRODUCTION

For over 150 years, this family business has stood as a strong, visionary and resilient family business in the Gulf region. With diversified interests in engineering, construction, property, automotive, and FMCG, the Omani family business has weathered every era by honoring its past while keeping its eyes firmly on the future. Now led by the fourth and fifth generations, including the current Assistant Manager in Strategy and Assistant Board Secretary of the group understood it was time to embrace digital transformation if they aimed to sustain its legacy.

THE CHALLENGE

An outgrown filing cabinet for a growing family business

The family businesse’s legacy is one of endurance and success, but growth brings its own challenges. When the business expanded to more than 60 companies, keeping governance aligned across generations and subsidiaries became increasingly difficult. Day-to-day operations were slowed by outdated workflows that relied on basic office tools. Those tools had reached their limit, no longer matching the scale or ambition of the family business.

Key challenges included:

  • Manual board communications: Meeting invites, agenda packs and minutes were handled through email and Teams, creating version confusion and inefficiencies.
  • Fragmented entity management: Data on commercial registrations, signatories and ownership structures lived in rigid systems or spreadsheets, making updates slow and error-prone.
  • Decentralized governance: Companies operated in silos, limiting visibility across entities for board members. This became especially problematic during high-stress situations like the COVID pandemic.
  • Risk-prone compliance: Without a central tracking system, expired commercial registrations and outdated signatory information went unnoticed, creating exposure to fines.

The Assistant Manager in Strategy and Assistant Board Secretary explained that the breaking point came when the Group CFO said he needed a system that could bring order to the chaos. The pandemic further exposed the urgency for change, as board directors struggled to get a clear view of operations and entity management. In other words, it was time for a change.

THE SOLUTION

From demo to action, a full digital transition

The Group discovered DiliTrust through a brief demo of its Board Portal solution, and the moment marked the start of their transformation journey. After seeing how the tool could support one of the Family Business’ Associates, the Group CFO, recognized its value. He asked the Assistant Manager in Strategy to look for a tool which can show the entire shareholdings of the business in a simple dashboard. The latter recalled seeing the DiliTrust Entities module during an earlier demo and realized it addressed a critical gap and was the solution the Group CFO was looking for.

“My CFO came to me asking for a tool to track shareholdings, commercial registrations, and authorized signatories. I remembered seeing it in the DiliTrust demo months earlier. That was our lightbulb moment.“

The first solution to rollout was the Board Portal (the board management tool), followed by the Legal Entity Management solution. Together, these tools delivered:

A centralized and secure platform for the Board of Directors to manage meetings, agendas and documents in one place.

Clear, real-time visibility over legal entities, shareholdings and authorized signatories.

Automated tracking of commercial registration expirations and other key compliance milestones.

A scalable governance framework adaptable to the Group’s multi-entity structure.

Overall, the teams using DiliTrust are satisfied and have seen clear benefits from it, which goes to show in the results.

THE RESULTS

Scalable governance at the core of the future generations

This digital transformation is still in motion, but the benefits are already tangible. The group has built a solid foundation for governance that matches the scale of its ambition and complexity.

  • Over 30 users onboarded across board, executive and management committees
  • Three dedicated Board Portal rooms ensuring secure, centralized access for all decision-makers
  • 60+ companies structured and tracked in the Entities module by a two-person team, which is likely to grow
  • Expected reduction in compliance fines thanks to automated CR renewal alerts and centralized data
  • Improved data consolidation and governance oversight across all entities, enabling faster decisions

This marks just the beginning of the journey for the family business. Today, the group is preparing to launch the Contract Lifecycle Management module to simplify complex negotiation cycles and free up time for strategic legal work.

As a fifth-generation family member, the Assistant Manager in Strategy and Assistant Board Secretary sees technology not as a disruptor but as a guardian of the business’s future, with impactful positive benefits for the long term. ​The family business’s digital transformation shows that heritage and innovation are meant to co-exist. Together, they form the foundation for the years ahead.

For those wanting to digitalize their governance systems, definitely go for it. It saves time, reduces errors, and gives you the visibility you need, especially when you’re managing so many companies.

Assistant Manager in Strategy and Assistant Board Secretary, Middle-Eastern based family business Group

You’ve seen how DiliTrust helped a global sports and outdoor retailer move from decentralized and scattered contracts to one organized system. Discover how we can help your organization do the same.

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