Delivering Renewable Energy at Scale: How Hassan Allam Achieved Digital Precision with RIB Candy 

Company Name: Hassan Allam Construction 

Location: Egypt, Africa & MENA region 

Industry sector/s: Engineering & Construction; Investment & Development 

Products used: RIB Candy 

Candy enables management to monitor progress, address challenges correctly, and ensure effective communications between all parties, even across vast distances. 

RIB Amr Abdel Halim, Technical & Tendering Support, Snr Manager, Hassan Allam Construction 

The Customer 

Hassan Allam Construction is an engineering and construction powerhouse with a track record spanning 90 years of diversified and expansive operations across more than ten countries in the MEA region. Founded in 1936, the firm’s prominence in Egypt is founded on delivering major infrastructure, industrial, commercial, and sustainable development project across the Middle East and Africa, with a global reputation for excellence and a wide-ranging product and service portfolio. 

The Mission 

The Benban Solar Park installation stands as one of the largest renewable energy developments worldwide. Hassan Allam Construction’s experience of this project has fundamentally changed their methodology for estimating and forecasting costs. It came with some typical megaproject complexities: huge Bill of Quantities (BOQ), repetitive structures, remote desert location, complex procurement, and aggressive timelines. Their mission was to digitize estimating and optimize project control. For teams coordinating on future projects, reliance on digital tools and systems integration is now essential, with enhanced accuracy, reduced risk, and improved collaboration among different teams in the estimating process driving adoption. 

The Solution  

Using RIB Candy integrated with SAP, Hassan Allam Construction was able to overcome systems integration barriers and improve project governance, achieving end-to-end system integration. The technical integration between Candy and SAP systems enabled seamless data transfer and improved project execution accuracy. An Excel connector was used as an interim solution to integrate Candy and SAP systems, allowing for data transfer between estimation and execution systems, accelerating procurement processes and reducing data entry errors. The integration involved mapping coding systems across Candy and SAP, ensuring that both systems communicated effectively and that data consistency was maintained throughout the project lifecycle.  

The Result 

The team used RIB Candy’s price-matching to ensure identical BOQ items had the same rates, and managed repeated elements more efficiently. Using a temporary Excel bridge for SAB prior to implementing Candy’s new JSON-based native integration that would fully connect the systems, it allowed procurement teams to trigger trading requests instantly and accurately. On the operations side, digital project management principles were applied to manage remote site complexity, workforce distribution, and logistics. It was no simple task with massive room for error; however, Candy allowed Hassan Allam Construction to move from a manually repetitive process to system-driven control. 

Managing Data at Scale with Clarity, Speed, and Accuracy 

When Hassan Allam Construction (HAC) embarked on the Benban Solar Park project, they were confronted by a double challenge: to technically manage enormous, highly repetitive BOQs; and ensuring clean, accurate data transfer into the subsystem – that is, the ERP system for integration. This was required to initiate procurement and execution. There were additional logistical and coordination complexities of a remote construction site, along with tight schedules and sustainability expectations, and the requirement of clear, readable data for multiple stakeholders at all times. Lots of room for risk and error given the volume and repetition of items, inefficiencies, and misalignment between estimating, procurement, and operations. The process needed to be simplified and standardized. 

This integration enabled seamless data transfer between estimation and execution systems, accelerating procurement processes, reducing errors resulting from manual data entry, and improving decision-making speed. 

Amr Abdel Halim, Technical & Tendering Support 

Supporting Collaboration and Logistics for Remote Management 

With such a large project based in the desert, ensuring consistency in the data being shared among the estimating, budgeting, and project teams, was always going to be a challenge. As the tendering team who priced and bid for the job and the project delivery team are different, there is obviously a disconnect. It speaks to the need for standardization, transparency, consistent data delivery, and real-time control and visibility. 

Halim notes that working in a remote environment required advanced digital solutions (and desert-friendly tools) to facilitate collaboration among different teams and precise logistical coordination. RIB Candy gave them visibility into the project status across a very tight schedule. Despite its remote location, the project benefited from consistent and effective cross-disciplinary communication. 

When estimating and ERP systems speak the same language, execution becomes easier and predictable.  

Amr Abdel Halim 

How RIB Candy Reduced Manual Effort and Increased Efficiency 

The challenge of managing the Benban Solar Park project lay in ensuring accuracy and speed, given the exceptionally large size of BOQs and high degree of repetition – the process was already complex and time-consuming. RIB Candy came to the rescue by automatically matching price and code and managing repeated BOQ items, immediately reducing manual work. Efficiency improved significantly. 

Getting Candy and SAP systems talking to each other was key. Typically, it is slow and difficult to upload into SAP for execution. But connecting Candy with SAP via a connector allowed automatic data exchange between estimating and execution systems, improving procurement speed, accuracy, and supply chain performance. The result was faster, more accurate project execution. 

How HAC implemented their RIB Candy solution: 

• Leveraged Candy Price Code matching and “No. off” functionality  

• Achieved Candy → SAP integration via an interim Excel connector  

• Standardized estimating and reduced BOQ handling effort  

• Enabled multi‑team collaboration and stakeholder alignment 

The process had the effect of streamlining the workload of HAC’s estimators. Repetitive items were consolidated. Teams enjoyed full quantity control. The integration with the SAP system supported seamless procurement flows and eliminated data transfer problems. 

Teams also gained accurate forecasting and auditability with holistic management insight. 

Halim cited major sustainability outcomes as the system enabled them to maximize renewable energy output, reduce emissions, and establish new standards for larger scale solar delivery. 

A Beacon for Estimating, Cost Forecasting, and Coordination 

After implementing Candy as their central hub for BOQ management and cost control, HAC saw major benefits: 

• Less rework with significant cost savings 

• Shorter tendering timelines with faster bid evaluation and submissions 

• More accurate cost forecasting and better resource optimization 

• Standardized, transparent reporting and centralized project control 

• Better transparency between cross-disciplinary teams (procurement, cost control, operations) 

• Stronger sustainability performance 

Halim was clear on the need for contractors looking to implement digital estimating and ERP integration for the first time to focus on process standardization. Training project teams on the digital system is as important as choosing flexible solutions that lend themselves to robust integration. He recommends starting small with pilot projects before expanding – to ensure the level of success that HAC experienced implementing RIB Candy to solve the challenges of a complex mega project in the desert, like Benban Solar Park. 

One of the unexpected benefits that emerged after adopting Candy as the central hub for BOQ management and cost control was a significant reduction in rework. 

Amr Abdel Halim, Technical & Tendering Support, Senior Manager, Hassan Allam Construction