GITEX 2005
LINKdotNET Showcases Success Stories in GITEX 2005

Cairo, Egypt, September 2005

LINKdotNET, a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holding Company (OT) and the leading Internet Service and Solutions Provider in the region, has announced its participation in the GITEX exhibition, due to take place in Dubai from September 25 – 29, 2005, making this its 8th participation in a row. LINKdotNET will be located at the Microsoft pavilion where it will showcase its latest e-business and Government solutions that have been successfully implemented in various prestigious companies and governments in the region.

Link Development, the development arm of LINKdotNET, specializes in providing comprehensive Government and e-business solutions with particular focus on portals and intranets, e-commerce, enterprise integration and e-branding solutions.

"Being the biggest regional IT exhibition in the region, GITEX gives us the ideal opportunity to present our highly diverse services and corporate solutions that we developed and implemented for our prominent customers across the Middle East. We are proud of our track record in the region, which is supported by excellent customer feedback and a multitude of awards", said Karim Beshara, CEO, LINKdotNET.

During GITEX, LINKdotNET will highlight its latest success stories, which included the e-enablement of Egypt's Sales Tax Authority (STA) services last January. Twelve new STA government-to-business services have been developed and integrated with Bawaba, the official Egyptian Government portal.

"We will continue to expand in the Region and enter into more partnerships with leading businesses by increasingly gaining the trust of private and government sector clients in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. LINKdotNET is also penetrating new and emerging markets in West and Central Africa," added Beshara.

LINKdotNET will also display its unparalleled skills and expertise in developing intranets and portals during the exhibition by highlighting one of its many regional intranet solutions. Link Development has recently developed a regional bilingual intranet portal for Showtime Arabia, the leading satellite entertainment company in the Middle East.

This portal was designed to improve communication, enhance collaboration and automation between teams in the different geographical locations of Showtime's offices, which include Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and the UK, thus allowing employees to share and rapidly process information. Furthermore this solution also enables Showtime to increase organizational productivity, enhance collaboration and through the self service feature employees can easily serve their day-to-day requirements. Link Development is currently developing other intranets for leading government institutions in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt.

"We will also be showcasing LINKdotNET's further success with Terjari's B2B marketplace portal, which was first launched and developed during GITEX 2003 and won the "Tejari Technology Partner" award in GITEX 2004. In addition to this in 2004 LINKdotNET obtained the worldwide "Microsoft Customer Experience Award", which came after the achievement of world class quality work done with Tejari." said Sherif Dahan, Territory Manager, LINKdotNET, GCC.

LINKdotNET has further extended its success with Tejari with the new enhancements and features added to the portal, giving it more interactivity and mobility, thus enabling it to deliver more value to its members

Moreover, LINKdotNET recently received the "2005 Regional Winning Customer Award" from Microsoft on the EMEA region level, for delivering market-leading solutions that highlight the benefits of working on the Microsoft platform in the region.

In addition to that, LINKdotNET also received Microsoft Egypt's prestigious "Telecommunications Partner of the Year 2005 Award", in recognition of its continuous work and excellence in the services and solutions that it provides.

It is also worth mentioning that LINKdotNET has fulfilled some notable achievements, such as the implementation of Microsoft's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution within LINKdotNET and also for clients such as Telecom Egypt, Pfizer and the Aviation Information Technology (AVIT).

It is due to the successful implementation of this CRM system, and other Microsoft solutions, that LINKdotNET achieved the much-coveted "Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Microsoft Business Solutions" this year. This is in addition to LINKdotNET's previous standing as a "Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Integrated E-business Solutions".

"The past two years have been particularly successful for LINKdotNET, especially for its business operations in the GCC, which have grown by more than 125%. Currently, the company is positioned as the leading Internet Solutions Provider (ISP) in the region, having delivered cutting-edge solutions to some of the leading organizations in the governmental and private sectors across the GCC countries" added Dahan.

About Link Development
Founded in 1996 as a subsidiary of LINKdotNET, LINK Development is the fastest growing regional software export powerhouse. The company works on challenging projects that employ the latest technologies, serving governments, multinationals and local companies in Europe, The Middle East and Africa.

LINK Development, the software and services arm of LINKdotNET, achieved ISO 9001:2000 and CMMI Level 3 Certifications, further complementing the company's current standing as a world-class provider of e-solutions. The company focuses on portals & intranets, e-commerce, Enterprise Integration, Microsoft CRM implementations, Helpdesk Solutions, Unified communications and IPTV. Our vertical offerings focus on both telecommunications and government domains.

LINK Development is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Business Process and Integration, Custom Development Solutions, Information Worker Solutions, Microsoft Business Solutions and Advanced Infrastructure Solutions.

LINK Development, the internationally awarded company, is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt with offices in Dubai, UAE, Riyadh, KSA and Doha, Qatar and is currently opening several other offices in the region and in Europe.

© 2008 All Rights Reserved to Link Development, subsidiary of LINKdotNET, an Orascom Telecom subsidiary