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Dubai,
UAE, April 2001
Sage
Enterprise Solutions (SES), a part of the US$ 600 million Sage Group,
and Comtrust, Etisalat’s e-commerce infrastructure business unit have
created regional history by enabling Saudi Arabia based Al-Zuhair Group,
to host their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) on the Internet. The
Group has reported significant cost savings during its initial test run
period, by using Sage CS/3 ERP remotely via the Internet, for all its
business transactions.
The
Al-Zuhair Group has out-sourced the hosting of their Sage CS/3 to
Comtrust and by web-enabling their ERP application, the Group has
drastically reduced IT capital expenditure and ongoing operational
costs. It has also given them the flexibility to expand their back
office systems across multiple geographic locations, rapidly and cost
effectively.
Talal
Al Zuhair, a Partner of the Group revealed that the company had cut IT
personnel costs by a whopping 50 per cent, and reduced considerable
expenditure on IT hardware and software since web hosting their ERP for
a trial period, six months ago. “With elaborate plans underway to
extend our operations to the UAE, we needed a quick and cost effective
route to expand our ERP footprint. Another pressing demand was that of
being unable to access operational figures in real time, due to
extensive business travel. We have been using Sage CS/3 on the web for
all our operational transactions and management reports for six months,
and the performance has been commendable,” Zuhair stated.
“It
is no longer necessary for us to install computer servers at every
business location, and all our users can ‘access’ the application by
merely logging on to the Internet,” explained Talal. “Running the
business has become as simple as plugging a laptop into a telephone
socket, going to the Sage CS/3 web site and accessing real time
inventory, sales, credit and other key indicators,” he said. (The key
indicators include ageing receivables & payables.)
“Admittedly,
it has been very difficult for us to cut across the mindset of the local
business that ‘data outside the office premises is data less
secure’,” explained Shishir Srivastava, Director of SES Middle East.
“We are glad that the Al-Zuhair Group has taken the lead in showing
businesses in the Middle East that the Internet can be used to run
mission critical applications, and proven conclusively that the cost
benefits advertised by software companies and consultants are more than
true.”
The
Group, comprising Electronic Equipment Marketing Company (EEMCO),
Construction Services (CONSECO) and OMEGA Engineering are able to reboot
the system and perform all normal ERP system administrative tasks
remotely. “It has been six months since they turned off their in-house
systems,” commented Srivastava, and added, “It should only be a
matter of time before the rest of the industry follows.”
“Outsourcing
an ERP initiative can save customers a large percentage of the total
costs of systems maintenance,” stated Farooq Hasan,
Manager, Marketing, Comtrust, while he lauded the Al-Zuhair
Group’s foresight and vision in planning this move. For companies that
lack the IT infrastructure or data centre knowledge, Comtrust offers
powerful hardware, affordable to the customer within restricted budgets.
Explaining Comtrust’s role, Hasan stated, “Our personnel are
trained to offer high levels of service that a customer cannot expect
from an internal IT resource tasked with a variety of other jobs.
Comtrust is backed by world-class customer service, including strong
service level agreements and support staff available 24 hours a day, 365
days a year connected to the biggest band width available in the Middle
East region.”
“We offer
multiple layers of physical and virtual security including bio-metric
scan limiting physical access to the data centre, firewalls and
intrusion detection. We also sign a confidentiality agreement with the
customer guaranteeing confidentiality of his data,” Hasan stated.
“Our partners, suppliers & customers have noticed the difference
too. We are able to promise delivery dates during our meetings, based on
inventory levels and future deliveries,” added Al Zuhair. “With very
little preparation, we are able to discuss with them critical issues
like sales trends and promotional activities, or, simultaneously,
question large outstanding credit,” he explained.
Sage’s Srivastava also commented on global industry trends in
outsourcing, pointing out that by year-end 2001, more than 10,000 new
ERP installations will have gone live in the world, with many of these
considering outsourcing of operation, maintenance, upgrades and support.
“Everyone will be looking for ways to get the full benefits of their
considerable investments, and real life answers to questions about
managing and improving their enterprise-wide systems.”
“ERP
outsourcing is a subject that scores phenomenally high, on issues that
managers would like to see addressed and discussed by their peers. We
are fortunate to have partnered with Comtrust who was able and willing
to immediately action this rapidly emerging trend - the reason behind
Al-Zuhair’s decision becoming an overnight reality, and an overnight
success,” Srivastava stated.
Sage
Enterprise Solutions has been spearheading new product development for
over 20 years, and is a world leader in developing business software
systems. The company has over 7000 customers in 80 countries, and
installations ranging from 4 to over 1000 concurrent users.
SES Middle East is headquartered in Dubai and represented in the region
by Enterprise Partners: MMI Technology Solutions for the UAE, Oman and
Kuwait; Algosaibi Information Systems for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain and Qatar; and Cairo Information Technology and Engineering for
Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
Comtrust, the e-commerce business unit of Etisalat's – Emirates
Telecommunications Corp., was launched in January 2000 to fill the gap
in the market for a secure e-commerce infrastructure provider. Through a
comprehensive line of e-commerce products and services, Comtrust can
cater to e-commerce customer needs, offering them a one-stop-shop.
Comtrust provides e-commerce infrastructure services and e-commerce
applications services both in the areas of Business-to-Business and the
Business-to-Consumer e-commerce segments, locally in the UAE and in the
Middle East region.
Comtrust
also provides e-commerce professional support services in the areas of
systems integration, enterprise PKI implementations and corporate
e-commerce strategy consulting. Comtrust addresses the requirements of
security for e-commerce transactions and business transactions through a
variety of mediums and mechanisms. These
solutions are based on providing the key elements for e-commerce
infrastructure, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for security, e-commerce
server hosting and payment transactions processing. For
further information on Comtrust please visit www.comtrust.co.ae
For
further information, please contact:
Iona
Stanley, Tel: + 971 50 6954056, email: istan@emirates.net.ae
or
Darren
Menezes, Tel: +971 4 3322334, email: darren@sagetetrame.com
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