Computer Data Networks opens branch office in Manama

Computer Data Networks (CDN ) is pleased to announce the opening of a new branch office in Manama. Computer Data Networks (CDN) Bahrain is an integral part of CDN's growth in the region and will strengthen its position as a premier supplier of Integrated ICT, Smart Building and Security Solutions in Bahrain.
The role of this newly opened branch will be to boost the presence of the company in Bahrain and in the region alike. The Office will strive to support and develop client relations and to promote its various end-to-end ICT & Security Systems solutions to government and corporate clients.

"This new addition to our branches across the region comes just at the right time and the right place. This marks a strategic milestone in CDN's expansion. We consider the opening of our Bahrain office as a step forward in our company's vision to more rapidly and affordably meet the needs of our clientele. We at CDN are confident that our clients will enjoy the quality of the services, products, and solutions we already provide in the other markets across the region,"



Mr. Sadeq Shehab, who is in charge of CDN Bahrain added "With significant experience, resources, and infrastructure, CDN will offer solutions in the key areas of Data Processing, Telecommunications, Networking, and Security. The Manama office will heighten our profile within the Gulf region, where we foresee significant opportunities for further ICT investment and growth."

Primus begins operations in Bahrain

Primus, a division of Computer Networking Services (CNS), is pleased to announce the opening of its latest regional office and the beginning of its business operations in Bahrain. This endeavour comes as a collaborative Jordanian-Saudi-Bahraini effort, shared with Primus' partners Mr. Abdulaziz Al Turki of Rawabi Holdings and Mr. Nabil Al Zain of Al Zain Jewellery.
Primus has been delivering advanced IT solutions and technology development for businesses and governments, with a specialized focus on software solutions, consultancy and infrastructure services for over a decade. The Company, which will cater to Bahrain's public and private sectors by providing them with the highest quality services, will also actively participate in nation-wide RFPs and provide guarantees for independent, transparent, efficient and qualitative solutions and services.

With its strategic location in the heart of the Arabian Gulf, and increasingly important role in the region for providing a conducive business environment which identifies opportunities and business prosperity, the Kingdom of Bahrain is the ideal location for Primus' latest office in the region. With existing offices in Palestine, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and representative offices in Qatar, Kuwait, and Lebanon, Primus also has notable presence in the United States of America through local partners.

Over the years, Primus has helped clients increase their potential and ultimately, their efficiency through the creation of complete solutions, such as Edara, an educational platform created for the Ministry of Education in Iraq that collects, stores, processes and analyzes data, serving as a tool for enhancing educational systems and policies; Mahakim, a comprehensive web-based platform, which was designed for the automation of law court operations at Qatar Courts; and Mosa'adat, an "easy-to-use" web application that was developed to fully automate the operations of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in Iraq.

Headed by its Managing Director, Mr. AbdelKarim Abu Jaber, and Managing Partner, Mr. Amer Nasereddin, the Bahrain office strives to successfully transform the operations of leading entities, both private and public, by understanding the needs and requirements of specific industries. It also seeks to establish and secure successful long-term relationships and commitments with Primus' partners and clients.

"We have made it a priority to recognize and understand the needs and challenges that various industries in the Region are facing nowadays. In order to help clients minimize the business challenges they face while increasing their return on investment, we have decided to expand our presence in the Middle East and be recognized internationally as the Middle East reference of knowledge and experience in effectively designing and implementing appropriate information and communication technology solutions," said Mr. Nasereddin.

"We understand the challenges most industries face, and we will be focusing on the Bahraini market, working closely with clients and helping them to successfully address these challenges by providing easy access to a range of our solutions and services. It is our goal to enable business transformation in Bahrain by arming our clients in different industries with the right accessible information, tools and technologies that will help them grow and succeed," added Mr. Abu Jaber.

The official launch of Primus Bahrain, which is due to take place during the first half of 2010 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Spa in Manama, will be attended by leading officials and members of the public and private sectors.

Primus Bahrain offices are located in Almoayyed Tower, 32nd Floor, Seef Area, Manama, Bahrain.

Samsung Mobile Live connects with youth through revolutionary messaging phones

Samsung is extending its reach to the youth and young minded consumer through ground-breaking events during 'Samsung Mobile Live' for a chance at a hands-on experience of the latest mobile technologies.

Over 60% of the population in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is under 30 years old, this segment embraces technology in ways that require connectivity and other features to be state-of-the-art in daily mobile usage. As a leader in this space, Samsung Mobile has developed open and proprietary technologies that combine usability and price in formidable phones. Of the features most sought after by youth is the ability to text and converse in messaging options and Samsung Mobile is today rolling out a road-show dedicated to stylish text phones, whilst showcasing and demonstrating other phone categories available.

The company is also celebrating the launch of a full range of phones with multiple operating systems (OS), touch and DUOS (Dual SIM Standby). The road show will also showcase, the youth and female-targeted mobile phones are specifically designed to empower consumers with constant connectivity and scaleable platforms.

Mr. Gye Choon Cho, General Manager of Samsung Electronics KSA said,

"Samsung has a global strategy of focusing on the youth market, and for this, Samsung has researched the KSA market and developed Mobiles to enable consumers to connect on the GSM infrastructure to satisfy their specific needs. For allowing these users to connect through Facebook, Twitter and many others, we have introduced smarter solutions for the youth that speak their language."



Mr. Inamullah Butt, Marketing and Public Relations Manager at Samsung Electronics in Saudi Arabia added, "Our sleek and fashionable designs are becoming a must-accessory for the energetic young. Our phones showcased in the Samsung Mobile Live, carry attractive multimedia features with easy text input capabilities and are powerful Internet browsers."

The new Omnia Pro (B7330), Corby Pro (B5310) and the Samsung Chat (B3410) are amongst the youth targeted phones being featured in the Samsung Mobile Live.

Samsung Mobile is focused on delivering the option of choice to its consumers. The phone's configuration, its features and functionality are flexible to suit each user. The Omnia Pro, Corby Pro and the Samsung Chat are the result of research and development at Samsung Mobile and offer seamless connectivity with access to Google, YouTube and popular social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Friendster and many more. With the experience similar to that of using a desktop computer, some of the phones also feature robust navigation options through optimum global positioning systems (GPS) technologies.

Intel case study: In the footsteps of giants

The University of Zürich is Switzerland's largest, with a 24,000-strong student body and 1,900 graduates every year. Its list of alumni includes 23 Nobel Prize winners, among them Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger (one of the founders of quantum mechanics), and Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (the first person to win the Nobel Prize in physics). In keeping with this record of achievement, the University is committed to making use of new technologies to continue driving innovation and discovery across scientific fields ranging from nanotechnology, over life sciences, to cosmology.

PLM Road Map 2009: What to Expect?

I went through the agenda of the PLM Road Map 2009 (September 22 and 23, in Detroit, Michigan [US]) when I submitted my attendance preferences to conference organizer Collaborative Product Development Associates (CPDA). Looking at the agenda, I’m convinced that the two-day event is well structured to cover critical issues in the product lifecycle management (PLM) field and to apprehend the future of PLM. Below are what look to me like the conference highlights:

The Future of the North American Automotive Industry

There’s no other place better than Detroit for this topic. I can imagine that instead of talking about weather and the like during the conference breaks, attendees may naturally start talking about the automotive industry due to the location, timing, and the sturdy relationship between PLM and the automotive industry. After the recent hardships, it is time for people to hear what Glenn Mercer has to share in his speech Outlook for the North American Automotive Industry at the heart of the automobile capital of the world.

Management of Complex Systems

The world is getting more complex; so are today’s products. Product development management needs to not only facilitate collaboration among different product lifecycle stages but also coordinate between multidisciplinary design and engineering activities. That explains why CPDA has scheduled an entire afternoon on the topic Supporting Effective Collaboration Across Mechanical, Electrical, and Software Development Teams in breakout sessions.

CAD Visibility and Interoperability

Managing and controlling product data is an important aspect of PLM, but it is not enough to lock the information (especially computer-aided design [CAD] data) in a vault. A key value in PLM, however, is the ability to extend this data beyond the desktop to other engineers, other departments, and other stakeholders–primarily customers and suppliers. I’m expecting that Dr. Ken Versprille’s session CAD/Visualization Trends: Dealing with Product Complexity & Variation will navigate attendees through the complicated landscape of today’s CAD/visualization market.

Social Product Development

When PLM systems (as innovation platforms) are strengthened by embracing Web 2.0 capabilities, activities related to sharing and exchanging product knowledge may surge. Following the discussions on the “people dimension” of a PLM system or the concept of “people-centric PLM,” social networking is expected to be more tightly included in the PLM loop. The session Collaborative Product Information Networks: Extending the Use of PLM Data to the Enterprise through Social Networking presented by three software vendors (Microsoft, PTC, and Aras) together will demonstrate what Microsoft SharePoint has to do with PLM.

The above topics are what I feel are going to be the most interesting to me–but there’s a lot more you’ll be uncovering on your own. If you’re planning to attend the conference, see you soon in Detroit!

Enterprise Software Conferences: Why Bother?

If you did not get the chance to read the article about the 2009 APICS Conference, I thought I should share with you some of the things we (Khudsiya and I) did or learned there.

I thought I would start by imagining a conversation about imaginary analysts, between two imaginary people, in an imaginary kitchen of an imaginary company:

Imaginary man (IM): “Where did G the analyst go? I haven’t seen him around for at least a couple of days!”
Imaginary woman (IW): “Oh, he’s gone to a conference in Toronto. I wonder what they do there.”
IM: “Well, you know, I guess they have fun, eat and drink, maybe attend some seminars, and that’s about it.”
IW: “Yeah—and they also get away from the office—no need to be on time in the morning, the boss is not around…”

Getting back to the real world, let’s analyze the imaginary conversation and see how real the imaginary arguments are:

Fun—My idea of fun is going to a rock concert or to the opera, and—trust me—the APICS Conference was nothing like that. We did have fun, though, because we met some very interesting vendors (IBM was my favorite, because of its “Smart Market” initiative—follow our up-coming blog to learn more) and we attended some very great sessions and workshops. However, it wasn’t much fun when a vendor told us it doesn’t want to fill in a request for information (RFI) because its competitors will steal the information from TEC’s IT Advisor. The plant tour was also fun—we got to see how the kilometers of conveyors in a huge distribution center work, all controlled by a computer. However, it wasn’t so much fun when we got there and no one was expecting us (and the bus left).

Food and drinks—It is true that in Toronto I found the best mousse au chocolat I’ve ever had in Canada, but that was after the conference. During the conference, the food was OK, but since we were networking during our lunch breaks, we did not get the chance to enjoy it. This is how networking at lunch works: first, you ask the guy next to you if his company has an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and if it doesn’t, you recommend our services. If the company does have an ERP system, you ask if the employees are happy with it—and if the answer is “no,” you recommend our services. If the employees are happy with the ERP they’re using… but how often does that ever happen? We did enjoy the “food-for-thought,” though, especially during the learning sessions or the World Café (again, see the article).

Relax and get away—Frankly, I think we spent ten hours a day each day at the conference. But I admit that talking to intelligent people and listening to presenters from Intel, IBM, JDA, and other vendors was relaxing for me. On the other hand, it was quite infuriating to see that in 2009, there were lots of people attending workshops on how to use Excel to improve inventory management. Also, standing in line for Internet access was not very pleasant.

All that being said, I’d like to share with you the most important things we learned from the 2009 APICS Conference:

1. People are the most important asset a company has. They can make things work (or not) and they can make change happen (or resist it).
2. Strategy is important, but it’s worthless without proper execution—and it has to be transparent. Successful companies need well-defined strategies for the future and they should share those with everyone (employees, customers, partners, and even competitors).

And finally, the most beneficial part of the conference was that we met real people, with real problems (users) and answers to those problems (vendors). Working in the office, having online meetings with vendors, and doing research is great, but sometimes the real world is just different and I find it very important for an analyst to get out into it, at least once in a while.

Have you attended any conferences lately? Did you have fun, enjoy the food, or relax? What did you learn? I welcome your comments and thoughts.