Microsoft EPM provides Dubai Municipality IT Department with advanced project management capabilities

Dubai, November 22nd 2004: Dubai Municipality is bringing new levels of management and control to its IT projects, with the deployment of a Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) solution. The EPM solution, which was rolled out by Microsoft partner Vertscape, brings a host of benefits to the management and personnel of Dubai Municipality IT department and its partners.

Microsoft EPM solutions are tailor made to provide advanced integrated project management, enabling better planning, analysis, resource provisioning and management, knowledge sharing and enhanced reporting. With so many major projects underway or planned by Dubai Municipality, the organization was looking for a world class solution to handle the challenges of all these projects, and Microsoft EPM was able to provide all the elements to meet their needs.

"Managing the vast range of projects that are rolled out by the Municipality is a very complicated task, involving balancing requirements and resources from across all of our various departments, and ensuring that projects stay on course. The best way to manage these sort of activities is through superior reporting and understanding of all of the different elements involved. This new solution gives us the platform to gain a true overview of all of our activities," explained Abdullah Al Shibani Assistant Director General for Technical Services, Dubai Municipality.

Abdul Hakim Malik IT Director, Dubai Municipality said: "Dubai Municipality IT department was already using a previous standalone Microsoft project management solution, but we wanted a solution that would provide even greater functionality for the whole department. With Microsoft EPM, we found a solution that will provide us with much better tracking of projects, better alignment between Dubai Municipality departments and our partners, better management of our resources, staffing and budgets, and better visibility of project status. The enhancements in the way we work will be directly reflected in the superior service that we will then be able to provide to the people of Dubai."

The EPM solution will serve over 100 IT staff at Dubai Municipality, with the solution set to expand to serve more personnel and other departments in the future. The deployment will be one of the largest EPM deployments in the region, and will create significant savings for the Municipality in time, resources and paperwork.

Microsoft EPM solutions integrate a number of Microsoft's leading technologies to create a single customizable package to meet an organization's unique requirements. Applications such as the Windows Server family, SQL Server 2000, Project server 2002, Project Professional 2002 and Office XP are all combined to give an end-to-end solution that manages every stage of project work. Microsoft also works with some of the world's best business consultancies to provide the expertise to fit the solutions to the customer's organization and structure. Companies such as Accenture, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, KPMG Consulting, CSC, Getronics and P are all certified as Enterprise Premier Partners, alongside Microsoft Services.

"We are very pleased to be working with such a prestigious organization as Dubai Municipality. Project Management is a growing field for the Middle East, and this deployment marks a major success for our team," said Abdullatif Al Mulla, General Manager, Microsoft South Gulf. "Microsoft's EPM portfolio allows customers to analyze the requirements and potential of a project, assess the resources required and then provides the project workers with the tools to reach their project goals, as well as providing the reporting required for major enterprises to be able to manage numerous projects at once. Dubai Municipality will gain all the benefits of a world class solution with this deployment."

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About Microsoft Corporation
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft opened its Dubai-based Middle East office in 1991. Microsoft today has five subsidiaries in the Middle East region: Microsoft South Gulf which oversees Microsoft activities in the UAE, Oman, Yemen and Pakistan, Microsoft North Gulf which oversees Microsoft activities in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, Microsoft Arabia covering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Microsoft East Med covering , Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus and Malta and Microsoft Egypt. Microsoft Corporation's address on the World Wide Web is: www.microsoft.com Microsoft Middle East's Web site is: www.microsoft.com/middleeast

For further information contact:
Microsoft contact:
Malak Bayaa
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates            
Tel: 00-9714-3917000
Fax: 00-9714-3917001             
 
Media contact:
Mark Sutton
ASDA'A Public Relations
Tel: 00-9714-3344550
Fax: 00-9714-3344556
Email: m.sutton@asdaa.com

© Press Release 2004