Al Ahli - Memorable Day for Them!

28 Apr 2007
Al Ahli Driving Center
Al Ahli - Reception Desk
Al Ahli driving Center is a driving school started 1 year back. But their growth should be appreciated. Now they have 5 braches and around more than 100 vehicles. They run 6 types of courses. Light Motor Vehicle, Heavy Motor Vehicle, Mini Bus, Heavy Bus, Heavy Truck, Light Forklift and Heavy Forklift. Total 7000 student already completed their course from this institute and currently 2000 students are studying.. Here they use to teach driving TOYOTA COROLLA!.


My Work


In My Seat
I have to automate and modify their existing Software modules for Registration and Scheduling as first phase. Currently there is only one employee in IT department (Mr. Hany from Egypt, he mainly work as a Network Administrator). I have to do my work with the remote help of the consultant Mr. Musthafa and this boy. The main responsibility is with me for completing the project on time (Requirement gathering to implementation).




The development platform: Windows, Visual Studio 2005, Dot Net 2.0, C#, SQL 2005.
The architecture: IIS Web Services-SOAP Protocol-Thin and Thick Clients

My First Day
Today I joined for the work which I committed to do within 5 months, Insha Allah.
For the being I am staying in Naif with my Sister Mrs. Sumayya which is around 25 KM away from Al Ahli Head Office- Al Qouz. Mr. Musthafa (My consultant) picked me from Naif today.


Mr. Hany
Mr Musthafa introduced me to
Mr. Adil (An Arab- the managing Partner to the Company)
Mr. Musthafa (Egyptian- the Finance and Accounting Manager)
Mr Shahul Hameed (Malayalee – The Sales and Marketing Manager)
Mr. Hany (Egyptian – The only one who works in IT department)

We had many discussions with the above people regarding the project.
Mr. Adil talk very little but repeating the same word!!!, he. he..
He was telling me “No excuse, No excuse, No Excuse for anything, and I can call him even at midnight 2 o’ clock! Bla..bla..”.

Office Time
My office time is from 8.00 AM to 5.30 PM. But I can sit overtime. J . The advantage is if I sit overtime they don’t need to pay extra but they have to pay for all other employees. As far as I work as a consultant I don’t have to report to anyone particularly.

Transportation

The Car - usually i go to office
The only extra benefit for me other than salary is Transportation. They will pick and drop if I stay in Dubai or surroundings. Mr. Sardar Hussain from Tamilnadu is the driver for me for the time being. He is an ld man hardly 50s and very nice to me. He was here for the past 25 years!. I have to decide my return journey according to his departure time. Because normally his duty will finish at 5 o’ clock. But most of the day he will get overtime till 7 o’ clock which is OK with me.

Traffic in Dubai

Sheik Zyed Road - The busiest road in Dubai
The traffic is horrible in Dubai. Depending upon the traffic the time for my journey to the office will vary from 25 minutes to 3 hours!. So I am planning to find out a bachelor accommodation near my work place, Insha Allah. The accommodation is also little expensive. A reasonable bachelor BED space may cost approximately 10 K! In Dubai. Lot of different Cars are here. Mainly the TAXI cars are TOYOTA CAMRY.

29 Apr 2007
The current IT department was a small room with servers. So they provided a new room for the development. So for the being I use Mr. Hany’s computer. Today I was doing the requirement gathering from Registration Department. Mr. Musthafa (A mallu from Kottakkal and Mrs. Sameera an Iranian Citizen are helped me by explaining the existing system and its draw backs). The existing system they use is not complete software and the contract terminated with the developers in a half way.