DUBAI, 21 October — During GITEX, Alpha Group Software (ALPHA) announced that Baharoon Development Company (BDC) had acquired 60 percent of ALPHA’s stocks to become the majority shareholder. The acquisition aims to bring ALPHA Group (www.alphamisr.com) into the international arena to become a global provider of e-business solutions.

“We are pleased to join with BDC in order to realize our target of becoming a major global software provider of Internet-based business solutions by 2004,” said Sherif Al-Qammash, Deputy Managing Director, Alpha Group Software.

To achieve this target ALPHA has launched an aggressive expansion of its operations. ALPHA has full operations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam. It will be establishing offices in Dubai Internet City, Southeast Asia, Europe, Australia and the United States.

In the Middle East, ALPHA already has a substantial client base. A well-respected software leader, since 1985 ALPHA has implemented business solutions for more than 2,000 satisfied clients. ISO 9001 certified, ALPHA is the first company in the Middle East to develop an Internet-based ERP solution. Their advanced implementation methodology is also groundbreaking, reducing the implementation period to 50 percent of the time required for comparable solutions. Regardless of the size of the organization or type of business, ALPHA Direct Method (ADM) guarantees that the ALPHA complete business suite is always implemented in a maximum period of six months.

ALPHA’s complete suite of Internet-based solutions covers Financial, Distribution, Contracting, Manufacturing, Maintenance, Fleet Management and Decision Support Systems. ALPHA’s Research and Development team will be launching ALPHA CRM during the first quarter 2002.

The acquisition of ALPHA melds well with BDC’s overall strategy. BDC is working to build a comprehensive grouping of information technology partners. This will give their clients access to a broad spectrum of business solutions and services through a one-stop-shop. The BDC partner, Integrated Visions (www.iv-ltd.com), offers ASP technology and Data Centers. Another BDC partner, e-Commerce Ltd. KSA (www.ecommerce-ltd.com), is the holding company for the A2A Super Exchange (A2Amarket.com), a powerful digital marketplace.

Mohammed M. Al-Shammary, Managing Director, E-Commerce Ltd. KSA, spoke on behalf of Baharoon Development Corporation (BDC) for the ALPHA partnership:

“We believe that our partnership with ALPHA Group Software will enhance the suite of e-business solutions that we can make available to our client base. As ‘e’ enablers our goal is to use superior technology to launch businesses into our global market though cyberspace.”

In addition to the new relationship with ALPHA, BDC also had a second success last week when the government of Yemen announced that the BDC partner, Integrated Visions, had been awarded three contracts for the development of Internet services, information systems and communications.

Speaking to Al-Hayat, Yemeni Minister of Telecommunications, Abdullah Al-Moallami said that Integrated Visions Ltd., located in Saudi Arabia, will be providing not only the hardware for the projects but also will be training staff to operate the new systems.

There are about 7,000 people in Yemen using the Internet. Most are businessmen, commercial establishments and media operations. Currently Internet access is only available through one provider but the Yemeni government has decided to create new opportunities for the rapid expansion of Internet services. The deal with Integrated Visions includes an Internet Gateway, the idea of which is to increase the speed of data transactions and open a new era in Yemen through access to the latest technologies.