December 5, 2000 

Public Warehousing Company (PWC), has announced its 'Total End-to-End e-Solution Service Package' to help their customers leverage the Internet to automate their shipments, customs clearing, warehousing and goods distribution. The e-Solution Service Package, which will be made available to both existing customers and new customers, is built on Microsoft Windows NT infrastructure using Microsoft SQL Server, IIS Server and Site Server Commerce Edition.

"PWC prides itself on its use of the best available technology to improve efficiencies, address customer needs and build new services for the future," said Tarek Sultan, chairman and managing director, Public Warehousing Company, Kuwait. "We saw new e-commerce technologies as a clear opportunity to both simplify and improve the exchange of information between PWC and its customers, and build a new world class e-commerce solution to help customers improve their own business models through an extremely attractive commercial package."

PWC's business activities are transaction-intensive and require the exchange of an enormous volume of information with its customers, government, and private sector organisations. In addition, PWC's customers are traditionally faced with a great deal of paperwork, operational delays, customs clearing issues and manual work to ensure efficient movement of goods from their origin to warehousing and then on to their own customers. Working closely with Microsoft Certified Solution Provider, Partner Arabesque Systems Company and Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS), PWC was able to develop a state-of-the-art e-commerce solution that is expected to revolutionize the logistics and distribution business in Kuwait and in the region.

"We believe that PWC is perhaps the first company in the world to be able to deliver this kind of value-added e-commerce service to its customers," said Ali Dalloul, business development manager at Microsoft Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean. "Microsoft's Windows NT, SQL Server and Site Server technology can provide an integrated, scalable platform that companies can use to harness the power of e-commerce, bringing tangible business benefits for them and their customers. PWC's e-Solution Service Package is truly innovative from a global perspective and shows the way forward for other organisations on how traditional businesses can reap enormous gains by from leveraging e-commerce."

PWC has chosen a Microsoft platform to enable its vision of a host of value-added services for its customers that will provide PWC with a lasting competitive advantage. Using its Total End-to-End e-Solution Service Package, customers will now be able to conduct virtually all of their business with PWC and its partners over the Internet. In addition, customers will be able to use PWC's e-Solution Service Package and support services to take their own businesses online and integrate their new electronic business processes with PWC's powerful e-commerce system.

Using the new e-Solution Service Package, PWC's customers will be able to arrange for the transport of goods from their point of origin, clear all requisite customs paperwork, contract warehousing space, manage their inventory and manage distribution direct to retailers, businesses and consumers. Through a secure connection and in a seamless integration mode with PWC's systems, customers will also be able to conduct a variety of financial transactions including referencing outstanding orders, purchasing statistics, processing new orders, viewing cash flow related to shipments, paying online and accepting payment from their own customers using PWC's financial systems.

"The pace of change is felt more and more in the freight and distribution business, where electronic information networks have already been in use for years," said Mohammad Ghassan Farra, PWC's director of strategic business solutions. "To remain in a leading position, PWC has had to evolve into a multi-functional logistics company that leverages iInformation technology to achieve a competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. We had to choose a technology platform that we could really trust. The Microsoft platform demonstrates the robustness, scalability, interoperability and security that PWC needs. This combined with Arabesque and Microsoft's ability to meet our high expectations and time-to-market requirements has allowed PWC to build an e-commerce system that places the company far ahead of its competition."

PWC runs Microsoft Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition as the backbone for its network and Microsoft's enterprise products like Site Server Commerce Edition, SQL Server, Internet Information Server, and Visual Studio for PWC's internal requirements and its external e-commerce services. The security features in Microsoft's products allow PWC to offer its customers controlled access to its own financial, inventory and other information systems in real time, including its warehouse management system and its Trade Finance Department.

PWC's strategic solutions partner, Arabesque Systems, has worked closely with PWC over the last two years to facilitate the use and selection of the latest technologies at the organization. "This is a proud moment for Arabesque, because two Kuwaiti companies working in partnership together have been successful in building an e-commerce solution that compares with the best in the world today. We believe that this initiative will have a far reaching regional impact on the freight and distribution business as PWC partners and customers embrace the new system," said Ahmed Al-Atheri, general manager of Arabesque, Kuwait.

The Public Warehousing Company (PWC) was established in 1979 to provide high quality warehousing solutions and supply chain services to local, regional, and multinational customers. PWC was privatized by the Kuwait Investment Authority in June of 1997 and has a total market capitalization of approximately one hundred million Kuwaiti Dinars. PWC provides a range of warehousing & storage solutions in the region along with other services such as: third party logistics and supply chain services, customs management and IT services, trade finance and industrial plots in Kuwait for industrial applications.

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