Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 30 December 2001

The end of 2001 will mark the conclusion to a very successful year for Comtrust, the e-business infrastructure unit of Etisalat.

According to Tariq Habib, who is now responsible for both Business and Technology development under his recently expanded role in the entity, while the new economy may not have taken off in the UAE at the same rate as in other parts of the world, it has not certainly suffered any contraction in this region.

"We believe that huge potential exists for companies and organisations to successfully enter the new economy and thrive," he said.

One of Comtrust's strongest growth areas continues to be On-line Payment Services, where between January and November this year there was a eight-fold increase in transactions made through Comtrust services.

"Having a secure, robust, payment infrastructure is integral to any e-commerce venture to facilitate on-line payments," Habib said. "It is recognized that transactional security over the Internet continues to be a major concern for any organization or individual embarking in any form of e-business.

"As our name implies, Comtrust helps build trust among users, and, in order to address this issue, which was hampering e-commerce growth in the region, we introduced a family of services and products designed to ensure a much higher level of security for Internet-based transactions than had been available previously."

As Comtrust's customer base has grown over the last year, so has its product range. Last year, in the area of services, only server certificates were available. By the summer business and user certificates had been added. Business User certificates allow an individual to send digitally signed messages and enable others to send encrypted e-mails to the certificate holder. Their introduction was an extension of the Comtrust User Certificates, launched a few months prior. The main difference between the two certificates is that User Certificates are utilized by individuals and have that individual's name and e-mail address on it. The Business User Certificates, on the other hand, are ideal for organizations who wish to ensure a secure environment for their online messaging/transactions and who may wish to distribute the certificates to their employees or business partners, depending on the security requirement.

Habib adds that new developments are also planned in this field with an increased focus on digital certificates based solutions. "In the area of payment services, 12 months ago we were only able to offer a basic service. We took a major leap forward by enhancing our services to merchants in the UAE who are adopting e-commerce, with the introduction of Store Payment Interface (SPI)."

The new product facilitates easy and rapid implementation of payment service through an indigenously developed application, making quick and easy the integration between the customer's online applications and Comtrust's payment services.

SPI is another illustration of Comtrust's commitment to smooth the transition from 'bricks and mortar' trading to e-commerce. Only by simplifying processes, such as this, will it be possible to ensure that the growth and success of e-commerce and online business within the UAE and across the region will continue.

Another resounding success during the year has been QuickShop - a package that facilitates quick and cost effective deployment of an e-retailing service - where several new features have been added such as back-end integration and additional reporting.

Comtrust Dedicated e-Commerce Hosting Services have also been enhanced over the last 12 months. These are designed to manage applications that demand the utmost in flexibility, reliability, availability, scalability, performance and, last but not the least, security.

There are numerous advantages of 'local' e-Commerce hosting, these include skilled personnel; faster deployment; scalability; reliability and flexibility and 24x7 administration and support - all coupled with a high physical and logical security environment. Last but not the least is the ability to physically access systems if there is a need.

To have been able to make the significant strides we have over the last year or so, we have continuously invested in staff who can provide the highest level of service to all clients," said Habib.

If there was one outstanding development for Comtrust, it was the Central Bank of the UAE's 'UAE Switch Network' linking to Comtrust e-commerce systems. Through this link Comtrust will facilitate payments for purchase of goods and services through direct debit request to be securely captured and transmitted over the Internet.

The development represents a major step towards online payments in the country for all kind of transactions," he said. "Be it Government to Business, Citizens to Government, Business to Business or Business to Consumers, the Direct Debit E-payment Service serves to re-emphasize the UAE's standing as one of the world's leaders in the 'New Economy'.

Habib concludes that Comtrust is very much an integral part of UAE's new economy. "We are here, and we are here to stay," he said. "We have established ourselves as a local application infrastructure provider and we have taken important steps to become a regional company. We see significant opportunities around the region and I look forward to working with our team over the coming year to help Comtrust partner with major organizations in the Middle East region to realize these opportunities."