Dubai, September 16, 2001

The ongoing e-government drive in the UAE received a major boost as yet another government-backed, e-commerce enabled, website went live. The new portal, launched by the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ADCCI), has been built by ITQAN on Microsoft’s award-winning e-commerce platform, and offers a range of online services, which will enable the Chamber to serve its members faster and more efficiently.

Speaking at a press conference to launch the new web-initiative, Mr. Mohamed Al Neaimi, Assistant Director General for Information Technology and Members Relations at ADCCI, said: “The chamber wanted to create a web based, real time, e-business solution that would primarily allow for the registration and administration of its members, and we found an ideal solution in the Microsoft e-commerce platform.”

“Our objective was to provide ADCCI members with a convenient interface for related day-to-day activities that would in turn speed up processing and lessen the load on ADCCI’s internal infrastructure. By implementing Microsoft’s e-commerce solution, deployed by ITQAN, we have succeeded in building a strong technological back-bone that facilitates data sharing, while extending our service offerings.”

Developed by ITQAN, the region’s leading e-enabler in collaboration with Microsoft, the ADCCI portal, which can be accessed at the URL prompt: http://www.abudhabi-online.gov.ae/adcci, offers members a simplified way of applying for new memberships, renewals, change of addresses and business information, as well as pay online via secure credit card transactions. Members can also apply for new trade names, request business letters and documents and have easy access to tenders. The website also lists an extensive library and convenient online shopping, along with links to various related portals.

Playing a pivotal role in the creation of the new portal was Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS), who first conducted a thorough audit of ADCCI’s business requirements. MCS consultants then produced a comprehensive functional specification that contained Infrastructure guidelines, overall application architecture, web pages workflow and design, data modeling, and the integration architecture with other external systems.

Using Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) principles, MCS subsequently designed a complete solution for the portal. The solution, built on Microsoft’s award winning e-commerce platform, includes Microsoft Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition and Microsoft SQL Server, running on the Windows 2000 Operating System. The solution has been developed using Microsoft Visual Studio and Windows 2000 COM+ services.

The new portal has also allied with Comtrust, Etisalat’s e-commerce division, and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, to create a payment service that guarantees complete confidentiality and security of all Business to Consumer (B2C) transactions made on the portal.

“Real-time online credit card authorisation forms the crux of all e-commerce transactions,” explains Saoud Al Shamsi, Sales Manager, 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 ADCCI, to enable online transactions, reversals, etc.

In addition to the secure payment solution from Comtrust, the ADCCI website is also encrypted with the 128 bit encryption that comes from the Comtrust Server Certificate. Comtrust the sole PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) provider in the UAE has been authorized by the Cabinet of Ministers as the Certification Authority for Digital Certificates in the UAE. The Server Certificate will help reinstate the security aspect of the website to the browsers, thereby addressing the key factor of e-commerce being online security.