Dubai Reseller takes advantage of Global agreement between IBM and ACCPAC to create business opportunity in the Middle East

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 20 April 2003
Systronics LLC, a Dubai-based ACCPAC Solution Provider announced today that MultiChoice Middle East Inc., the Middle East region’s largest platform provider of Subscription Management Services & Pay TV, will implement ACCPAC Advantage Series with IBM DB2 Universal Database as a foundation for their technology migration project. The project, according to ACCPAC, is the first regional implementation of ACCPAC Advantage Series distributed with IBM DB2 Universal Database as a standard component, the result of ACCPAC’s global software bundling agreement with IBM announced earlier this year.
 
MultiChoice Middle East Inc., headquartered in Jebel Ali, has been running its accounting department on older ACCPAC versions. “We have been continuously happy ACCPAC customers.  However, our Middle East business is growing and our support to our customers is taking new dimensions.  ACCPAC solutions allow for system upgrades as the business grows and changes.  Along with our belief in the strengths of the brand, we have got the best value for our investment given that ACCPAC has IBM DB2 as its default database,” says Khaled Abu Namous, general manager, Multichoice Middle East Inc.
 
Systronics will be handling the design and implementation of the project.  Zareh Tutunjian, general manager for Systronics says: “MultiChoice Middle East Inc. has very delicate needs when it comes to managing its customers, the channel and progamme providers operating in Middle East such as Al Awael, Pehla, FirstNet etc. The technology that serves to manage customer related processes and interaction needs to achieve precision and continuity in operations, as well as provide future scalability options as MultiChoice grows its customer base and introduces new intiatives to the market. This is exactly what ACCPAC on IBM DB2 delivers.”
 
DB2 is a database server designed for deployment in a small or mid-size business environment. Among its many features are self-configuring, self-optimizing and self-managing capabilities, new federated capabilities that enable customers to integrate information as Web Services, and sophisticated Business Intelligence capabilities that allow customers to easily organize stored information to perform faster and more insightful queries.  Bashar Kilani, software group manager at IBM Middle East and North/West Africa continues: “The capabilities of IBM DB2 coupled with ACCPAC’s modular suites of business applications that can be web-based, highly customized, and designed to scale as a company grows is a perfect combination to meet the needs of the Middle East medium sized enterprises.” 
 
Earlier this year, ACCPAC announced a global agreement whereby ACCPAC will distribute IBM’s DB2 Universal Database as a standard component of its ACCPAC Advantage Series and ACCPAC Pro Series accounting software and other end-to-end business management applications.   Marc Van der Ven, general manager for ACCPAC ends saying: “The Multichoice project is a prime example of the business benefits that ACCPAC customers receive when we leverage and build our strategic alliances with world-class database vendors like IBM.”
 
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About MultiChoice Middle East Inc.
MultiChoice Middle East Inc is currently the largest Pay TV  provider in Middle East region and its based office is in Jebel Ali, Dubai.

MultiChoice Middle East is a Pay TV operator which provides Subscriber Management Services & Full Pay TV operations in Middle East and North Africa Region. Its Pay TV operation covers the encryption of channel content, up linking & distributing the channel content via satellite where as its SMS operation covers the administration of the subscriber data base and
billing for the subscribers.
 
About Systronics
SYSTRONICS provides total solutions for the Information Technology needs of Business & Industry in the Middle East. Established in 1977, Systronics expertise and experience are in the areas of Networking & Connectivity and Business Solutions. During the years Systronics was presented the “The Best Business Solution” award offered by Microsoft M.E. during Fusion ’97, Finalist in Microsoft’s industry Solution award’s “Best Imaging Solution” in Chicago, USA in 1997, “The Application Development Partner of the Year” offered by Microsoft M.E in 1999 and “The Best Partner of the Year” presented by ACCPAC international in Orlando in year 2000. http://www.systronics.com
 
About IBM
IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate.  IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable telecommunications service providers and equipment suppliers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. IBM Global Services is the world’s largest information technology services provider, with 2001 revenues of more than $35 billion. Services is the fastest growing part of IBM, with nearly 150,000 professionals serving customers in 160 countries. IBM Global Services has about 150 data centres around the world keeping thousands of businesses running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information on IBM, visit www.ibm.com.
 
About ACCPAC
ACCPAC International, Inc., a subsidiary of Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE: CA), provides small to medium-size enterprises a broad range of end-to-end e-business management applications designed to enhance customers’ competitive advantage and increase their profitability. Product lines include ACCPAC Advantage Series, ACCPAC Pro Series, ACCPAC HR Series, ACCPAC Business Analysis Suite, ACCPAC eTransact, ACCPAC eCRM, ACCPAC Warehouse Management System, Simply Accounting, FAXserve and Simply Messenger.
 
Based in Pleasanton, Calif., USA, with offices in Asia, Australia, Canada, India, Mexico, the Middle East, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, ACCPAC has more than 500,000 clients and more than 6,000 relationships with value-added resellers, accounting firms, third-party developers and consultants in more than 135 countries worldwide. For more information about ACCPAC and our products, call 1-800-945-8007 in North America, or visit ACCPAC at www.accpac.com and www.accpaconline.com .

© Press Release 2003