08-03-2005

Estarta Solutions and its partner in Kuwait, Arabesque Group, recently completed implementation of Microsoft Enterprise Project Management solution (EPM) at Wataniya Telecom, the Kuwait-based regional GSM operator.. This pioneer initiative will greatly enhance Wataniya's internal managerial processes, by providing a powerful solution to enable real-time, transparent management of project portfolios and resources across the organization.

Fuad Al Ablani, Deputy General Manager of Wataniya Telecom, said: "Wataniya continues to capitalize on best practices, seeking vendor partnerships that strengthen our portfolio and support our expansion strategy. With the fast advancement of the GSM market, and our fast growth as an operator we face increased pressure to improve services without spiraling costs. Today we have over one million subscribers across our regional operations and expect this figure to increase substantially over the next few months."

Estarta has already implemented a number of Microsoft solutions at Wataniya Telecom which have been very successful. Estarta has designed and implemented a Finance Information Management system as a part of a wider dealer activation system adopted by Wataniya Telecom, also built on Microsoft's .NET Framework and ASP.NET technology, which provided the company with a competitive edge in customer service, and cutting overall cost of operation.

"Our commitment toward our customers drives us to provide them with high quality developed services according to international standards. By upgrading our technology and management systems, we believe that we are moving on the right track, and look forward to seeing the positive return on this investment," added Al-Ablani.

Moubine Nsouli, Partner Account Manager - Enterprise & Partner Group - for Microsoft North Gulf said: "After assessing Wataniya's need for a reliable and effective solution to enhance resource and process management across the organization, Estarta Solutions proposed Microsoft Enterprise Project Management as the best solution for the company. Enterprise Project Management solution from Microsoft allows Wataniya Telecom to have better management visibility on different project initiatives and resources as well as cross-organizational insight and control. Wataniya Telecom project managers will now have the transparency and agility they need to make informed decisions, optimize resource management, and ensure organization-wide collaboration and alignment on company plans."

Microsoft's Enterprise Project Management solution is aimed at improving business profitability and enhancing customer service by increasing efficiency and effectiveness of project teams working together across the organization, while enabling them to make informed decisions and adapt quickly to changing business conditions. Management reporting provides greater visibility into staff's skills and real-time status of tasks and resources which enhances decision-making and enables the organization to dynamically assign resources more efficiently. Senior executives are able to track histories as well as progress of projects across the organization using various reports customized for their needs. Microsoft Enterprise Project Management solution is designed to support project portfolio and process managements, and to provide greater project team collaboration and project coordination.

Nsouli added: "The Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 is an extensible platform that supports the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Solution and enables organizations to centralize their project information for greater project status visibility and enhanced resource management."

Mosab Sayyed, Telecommunications Sector Manager for Estarta Solutions commented: "We are confident that Wataniya Telecom will gain a positive return on investment from this initiative, and we are glad to be a part of this successful effort. Our solutions based on Enterprise Project Management solution from Microsoft are tailor-made to provide our enterprise clients with advanced and integrated project management, enabling better planning, analysis, resource provisioning and management, knowledge sharing and enhanced reporting. More and more enterprise businesses like Wataniya Telecom are looking at Enterprise Project Management solutions to allow them to keep control of processes as their businesses grow, and to dynamically adapt to changing market conditions."

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© Press Release 2005