July 3, 2001

ELC New Media, which recently launched ELCdesigns.com, the first off-the-net web design service, has selected Comtrust, the e-business infrastructure unit of Etisalat, to provide payment services for its customers. The service guarantees complete confidentiality and security of on-line transactions.

ELC's new service allows customers to buy an eclectic collection of readymade PhotoShop and Flash web designs . Although selected templates can be downloaded free of charge, customers have the option of buying a design template outright for exclusive use.

" Comtrust's modular infrastructure design gave us a choice of service options which allows us to incorporate the best payment solution for customers ," says Amir Hussain, Joint Managing Director, ELC International. "Comtrust Payment service will now be an integral part of our total e-commerce offering."

www.elcdesigns.com has been designed for simplicity of use . To register, users enter their name and email address to be allocated a personal account ( This allows the user a range of options from ordering templates to viewing their purchase history to adding designs to a personalized favorites folder.

"Real-time online credit card authorisation forms the crux of all e-commerce transactions," explains Farooq Hasan, Manager Marketing, Comtrust. "In the past companies have had to rely on external payment processing houses, which resulted in numerous drawbacks in facilitating online credit card transactions. Comtrust has invested and implemented a sophisticated payment processing network which helps merchants and organisations like ELC New Media, to visually see which of their transactions are authorized, capture them, do credit reversals, etc"

Hasan adds that the merchant banks benefit through the use of a common payment infrastructure without having to invest or implement this highly sophisticated and complex platform.

Comtrust's Payment Gateway service is currently being utilised by a number of businesses and organisations in and outside the UAE to facilitate online payment through credit cards.