Archive for the ‘Microsoft Gulf’ tag
Aptec Holdings gets Microsoft OEM distribution for Gulf
Aptec Holdings, one of the largest technology distributors in the Middle East, Turkey & Africa, has expanded its distribution agreement with Microsoft to include Gulf region for Microsoft OEM products. Aptec was an authorized distributor for Microsoft OEM previously only for the UAE.
Aptec plans to expand the current Channel and recruit new partners for Microsoft OEM in the Gulf region to further gain market share. With the presence of Aptec with other products and solutions, distributing Microsoft OEM will add a significant opportunity to the reseller community in the region. The new distribution agreement authorizes Aptec to sell Microsoft OEM in Bahrain, Qatar, Oman & Kuwait, with previous held markets. Aptec already has Microsoft Volume License distributor for the Gulf.
XpertLearning Partners with Microsoft to Provide Online Training to Imagine Cup Gulf Finalists
In collaboration with Microsoft Gulf, XpertLearning, the leading provider of e-Learning solutions in the Middle East, will provide the Imagine Cup Gulf winners with access to online courses to sharpen their presentation skills ahead of the Imagine Cup World Finals in Warsaw, Poland.
Now in its eighth year, Imagine Cup has grown to be the premier student technology competition in Gulf and worldwide that aims to encourage young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that are focused on finding solutions to real world problems.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 boosts online security for Mashreq’s customers
Microsoft Gulf today announced that Mashreq, one of the leading financial institutions in the region, is promoting Internet Explorer 8 in its effort to help customers protect their personal information online against growing cyber threats and phishing schemes.
Mashreq website has a monthly average of 798, 000 unique visitors generating just about 1.4 million page views per month. According to a recent security report commissioned by Microsoft, cybercrime is increasing and becoming more sophisticated with financial gain as the key motivator. IE 8′s enhanced security features with 24×7 support gives users better control and helps prevent fraudulent activities online.
Microsoft Gulf to coordinate with Institute of Judicial Training and Studies on enhanced IPR promotion
Microsoft Gulf has announced that it will be working closely with the UAE Ministry of Justice’s Institute of Judicial Training and Studies to create more public awareness on intellectual property rights (IPR) and their protection. The Institute has committed to emphasizing IPR in the training curriculum of judicial and attorney trainees.
Chancellor Dr. Mohammed Mahmoud Al Kamali, Director-General of the Institute, said that the board of directors has approved the partnership with Microsoft Gulf during its latest meeting. He explained that the move will encourage in-depth scientific research in the IPR field and complements the Institute’s goal of developing the knowledge and capabilities of its trainees.
Microsoft intensifies action against sale of illegal software
Microsoft Gulf today announced that local authorities conducted two raids in Dubai and another in Abu Dhabi. Personal computers loaded with pirated copies of Microsoft software were confiscated and criminal investigations are on-going.
H.E. Mohammed Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz Al Shihhi, Director General of the UAE Ministry of Economy, said: “Software piracy is a serious and extremely damaging issue that affects the prospects of the software industry, the local economies, and software users. We are committed to working with organizations such as Microsoft to combat software piracy in the UAE. It is our mandate to protect intellectual property rights, and thus strengthen market confidence. We will continue to take appropriate action to curb software piracy.”
Emirates National Plastic Industries Selects Microsoft Dynamics to Streamline Operations and Reduce Costs
Microsoft Gulf recently announced that Emirates National Plastic Industries (ENPI), the leading UAE based plastic manufacturing company is implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. AX 2009 is an adaptable business management solution that offers powerful new capabilities that will help ENPI streamline its processes; reduce operational costs and drive informed decision-making.
The implementation of a robust technology platform will also allow the manufacturer to automate business processes across multiple manufacturing units and business locations to improve productivity across the organization. In addition, Dynamics AX delivers value-added technical advancements and out-of-the-box integration with other Microsoft technologies, thereby improving total cost of ownership for ENPI.
“Emirates National Plastics uses state-of-the art technology that helps us provide our customers with high quality products,” said, Samir Bayerli, Group General Manager of Emirates National Plastic Industries. “With diversified business units and manufacturing divisions, we were looking for a solution that has the ability to streamline and simplify our daily operations and reduce our overall costs. Microsoft Dynamics AX was the obvious choice for its feature rich functionality and ability to efficiently connect disparate legacy systems quickly and economically thereby providing us with an effective framework that enables improved decision-making.”
GEMS and Microsoft Gulf announce special offer for students
Microsoft Gulf and GEMS Education, kindergarten to grade 12 private school operator, signed an agreement today to provide its students with a software purchase offer as part of the GEMS Education Software programme. The offer is valid from June 10th to June 20th, 2010 and is limited to one Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus license per GEMS Student. It would be made available through the retailer E-Max at their outlets across the UAE.
Under the agreement, GEMS students will now be able to buy the latest Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus, with media DVD, at a discounted price. his special offer includes the media DVD and perpetual license for home use.
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus includes: Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Word 2010, Access 2010 , InfoPath 2010, Communicator, Publisher 2010, OneNote2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010 and Office Web applications. GEMS students stand to benefit from the new and enhanced features that Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus has to offer such as enhanced collaboration and social networking tools; email and a seamless online/offline experience.
Microsoft announces availability of Microsoft Office 2010 for consumers in Gulf
Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Office 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 in the Gulf region today. Consumers can now purchase Office 2010 from retail stores across the Gulf region. Consumers can now experience a rich set of productivity and collaboration tools that Office 2010 offers; allowing them to seamlessly work across the PC, phone and browser virtually anywhere, anytime.
Microsoft Office 2010 is available in 10 languages, including Arabic and will expand to 94 languages. Office 2010 can be purchased with the most popular desktops and laptops from leading PC makers including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.
“Microsoft’s commitment to innovation has empowered people to be more productive and creative and has helped transform the way they work. As more and more people across the Gulf region embrace mobile applications and social networking tools to share information and stay connected, Office 2010 offers them greater buying choice, making it easier than ever before to unlock the power of Office on new and existing PCs. Microsoft Office 2010′s enhanced and easy-to-use tools gives people rich and powerful capabilities to deliver their best work – at work, home or school; on their computer, from a Windows Mobile-based Smartphone or via a Web browser,” said Elias Tabet, Business and Marketing Director, Microsoft Gulf.
Nahel.Com opts for Microsoft browser to improve customer experience
Microsoft Gulf today announced that Nahel.com, UAE’s fastest growing online shopping website has opted for Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) in efforts to further improve its customer’s online shopping experience in the region. Improvement in performance and new features including Instant Search Box, Web Slices, Accelerators, SmartScreen Filter, InPrivate Browsing and Domain Highlighting gives Nahel.com a competitive edge whereby its customers can have a more secure, reliable, faster and richer experience when shopping online.
Nahel.com has customized IE8′s unique feature-’Web Slice’ to include live and up-to-date information for its ‘Deal of the Day’ segment, that gives customers the ability to look for great offers without the need to visit the nahel.com website. Another popular feature of IE8 is ‘Accelerators’ that enable users to quickly look up a particular item without having to visit the actual website – example a user who is reading reviews of a product on any website, can simply highlight the product name, click on the Accelerator icon that appears next to the highlighted text and quickly get the available listings from Nahel.com.
Imagine Cup Gulf 2010: Your Winners!
Recently teams from around the Gulf arrived to the Atlantis Hotel, Dubai to compete in the Imagine Cup Gulf 2010 Regional Finals. They had the chance to interact with other teams through team building activities, presentation skills training and were given the time to work on their project. On the big competition day, they presented their software design innovations in front of a panel of judges. Teams had ideas ranging from entrepreneurial websites, recycling innovations, traffic solutions, to health applications. See all the pictures here.
The top 4 teams will be heading to Warsaw, Poland in July to represent their country in the Worldwide Imagine Cup Finals. The judges for Imagine Cup Gulf 2010 were Guruswamy Periyasamy from Emirates Airlines, Talal Al Rahbi from ITA Oman, Dr. Fadi Aloul from American University of Sharjah, Reghu Jayapalan and Ibrahim Al Mayahi from du. So, the Imagine Cup Gulf 2010 Regional winners are:
MS Retail Selects Microsoft Dynamics to Enhance Operational Efficiencies
Microsoft Gulf today announced that MS Retail, the leading Kuwaiti based retail chain has chosen Dynamics NAV Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to maximize internal efficiencies. Since its inception, MS Retail has been committed to providing a world class retail experience through its flagship retail concept stores under the brand name Baroue.
The adoption of a robust and flexible technology platform will allow the retailer to automate business processes, and adopt state-of-the-art technologies within its stores leading to enhanced customer experiences and improved productivity across the organization. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics and LS Retail deliver value-added technical advancements and out-of-the-box integration with other Microsoft technologies, thereby improving total cost of ownership for MS Retail. The replacement of the old technology with Microsoft will be done in partnership with EEMC, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a leading ERP consulting company in Kuwait.
Gulf Region – Imagine Cup 2010 Finals in Pictures
Microsoft’s Partner Academy Program Concludes in Kuwait
Microsoft concluded the first part of its Gulf Partner Academy Program in Kuwait. Microsoft Partner Academy is a global training program that aims to provide technical, marketing and business development skills to Microsoft’s Gulf partner community and focuses on strengthening partner readiness to help them identify new business opportunities on current and future Microsoft products. The 2010 edition of the Gulf Partner Academy Program trained 15 partners in Kuwait.
Commenting on the importance of the Gulf Partner Academy Program, Ehab Mostafa, Country Manager for Microsoft in Kuwait said, “Having a good network of solutions partners is the key to successful outreach to our customers and we need to ensure that these partners are kept updated on the latest Microsoft technologies. The Microsoft Partner Academy Program reinforces our commitment to this market and empowers our partners, who are an integral part of Microsoft’s growth in the region.”
Microsoft security report shows malware accounts for 82.6% of online threats prevalent in UAE
Microsoft Gulf has released the eighth volume of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report that provides an in-depth and unique view of the threat to computers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The national data, which is taken from reports by Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) shows that the threat landscape in the UAE was dominated by malware, which accounted for 82.6% of all threats detected on infected machines. It also highlights that cybercrime continues to mature as criminals model their operations on conventional business processes.
The most common category in the UAE was Worms, which accounted for 23.3% of all infected computers. These worm families can spread via mapped drives with missing or weak passwords or via USB drives. The second-most common category was Miscellaneous Trojans, which includes all trojan families that are not classified as downloaders/droppers or backdoors, and accounted for 21.2% of all infected computers. Together, Miscellaneous Trojans and Trojan Downloaders & Droppers made up more than 37% of all families detected on infected computers in the UAE in 2H’09.
‘Microsoft Retail Champs’ program enhancing sales competencies of sales professionals
Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division Middle East hosted their annual partner training program, ‘Microsoft Retail Champs’ at Microsoft, Dubai Media City earlier this month. The 2 day program was attended by over 220 Retail Sales Personnel involved in training exercises from over 12 retailers for Microsoft Hardware, Xbox 360, Office, Windows, and Windows Phone.
‘Microsoft Retail Champs’ is dedicated at enhancing sales competency of retail sales professionals, falling in line with Microsoft’s key strategy of offering retailers the shared objectives of profitability and higher transaction values.
“Retail sales professionals are at the forefront and can add a lot of value to the customer’s decision making process by the knowledge that they hold about products & technology,” said Armagan Demir, Head of Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division Middle East. “Customers are more likely to come to a quick and easy purchasing decision if they feel assured from the product knowledge and preparedness of the sales professionals they are interacting with.”
