SBM Wins Excellence Award in Dubai

Saudi Business Machines Ltd. (SBM), the general marketing and services representative of IBM WTC, won the IBM eServer xSeries Growth Award at the two-day IBM Business Partner Executive Conference held in Dubai recently. The reward from IBM Middle East is presented to their business partners in recognition of their efforts, outstanding performance, achievements, commitment to growth and best practices.

The conference was also the first public forum to talk about the launch of IBM’s new “Partner World” program in the Middle East which aims to provide support for IBM resellers, partners and developers across the region through a comprehensive marketing and enablement program designed to build broader access to technology skills, services and capabilities for businesses in the Middle East.

Saudia Signs Tech Upgrade Contract

Saudi Arabian Airlines has chosen SITA to roll out a fully managed global desktop service and modernizing telecommunications infrastructure in a major technology upgrade ahead of privatization. The contract for SITA’s DesktopSelect, includes an equipment refresh and comprehensive migration solution to the latest Internet Protocol (IP)-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology. The contract is valued at $4.1 million over five years and will be implemented in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK and US.

“SITA DesktopSelect will provide Saudi Arabian Airlines with a fully managed global desktop service over a new IP network infrastructure,” said Khalid Al-Molhem, director general, Saudi Arabian Airlines. “This will help us to reduce significantly the total cost of ownership of IT in line with our future goals and particularly the move toward privatization.”

“DesktopSelect will provide Saudi Arabian Airlines with an end-to-end solution with predictable infrastructure costs and a service level agreement underpinning a robust IT infrastructure. It will also allow for consistent access to head office applications. The first phase will tackle 70 locations across 13 countries. Additional locations throughout the airlines’ network will follow suit in the near future,” said Hani El Assaad, SITA regional vice president, Middle East and Turkey.

Sun Appoints KSA Country Manager

Sun Microsystems has appointed Hani Salman as country manager, to head the company’s operations in Saudi Arabia. Based in Riyadh, Salman will be responsible for building Sun’s profile in key verticals such as the banking, telecoms, and government sectors. In his new role he will oversee the growth and development of the team to service Sun’s existing customer base, as well as ensuring that these customers have access to Sun’s full product range. Drawing on Salman’s vast experience in sales, marketing and the financial sector, Sun aims to further expand its reach and market share in the Saudi market.

A Jordanian national, Salman has over 18 years of work experience servicing companies from a cross-section of verticals. Prior to this appointment, Salman was the financial sector manager at Sun Microsystems MENA, managing a portfolio of leading clients including Mobily, SABIC and Saudi Post.

Worldspace Acquires Cricket Radio Rights

Worldspace Satellite Radio has signed an exclusive broadcast license agreement with ESPN STAR Sports to provide subscribers with live audio coverage of cricket. Under terms of the agreement, PLAY, the Worldspace-branded all sports channel for South Asia and the Middle East, will have exclusive broadcasting rights throughout South Asia for 12 tours and over 200 days of cricket comprising both Test matches and One-Day Internationals. Three of the 12 tours include India. Coverage begins Nov. 19, 2006, with India’s tour of South Africa, and runs through February 2008, with conclusion of the India-Sri Lanka-Australia Triangular Series in Australia.

Subscribers will have “ball-by-ball,” real-time coverage of all matches as well as a host of ancillary programming surrounding each match. The coverage will feature matches with the national teams from India, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, and will also include the biennial Australia-England Test series, “The Ashes.” Broadcasts can be received in countries covered by the Worldspace AsiaStar satellite’s West Beam.

Dell Updates Sony Battery Recall Info

Dell has stated that additional information has been received regarding affected battery packs containing cells manufactured by Sony, which has led to an increase in the number of recalled batteries from 4.1 million units to approximately 4.2 million units.

To ensure that all potentially affected batteries are identified and returned to Dell, the company is requesting that customers recheck their batteries if they have not ordered or received a replacement battery. To determine whether their batteries are affected, customers should go to Dell’s website at www.dellbatteryprogram.com.

Dell began shipping replacement batteries to customers on the first day of the recall — Aug. 15. Since the announcement, Dell has received almost 200 million hits to its website, www.dellbatteryprogram.com.