JEDDAH: An IT lounge, described as the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, opened at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) on Sunday. Marking the opening was a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony, with the participation of JCCI Secretary General Mustafa A.K. Sabri and Samir No’man, president of Microsoft Saudi Arabia, which will be overseeing the lounge operations in cooperation with its partners. The MoU envisages the provision of a central lab, which will enable companies to share the data and help organizations and businesses reduce the operational cost, increase the productivity and grow the business with low investment in IT solutions, No’man said.
Following the unveiling conference, Sabri told a press conference that the lounge would be of immense benefit to the JCCI’s 22,000 member-companies, 80 percent of them being small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The event also marked the launch of Windows 7 Professional, “which works the way you want,” that will be used in the central IT lab. Its features including upgrades and simplified usage will benefit home, business and technical users, No’man said. “What we are offering is a platform with solutions, and security being key to Windows 7, the lab will enable companies to share the data in a very secure operating system,” he added. Windows 7 is the latest public release version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs, he added.
Mohi Al-din Y. Hakami, GM at JCCI’s IT and information sector, said: “The JCCI and Microsoft together will help business organizations to better utilize the IT solutions and achieve more, as JCCI is the business advisor for companies in the Western Region and Microsoft has IT solutions for all business segments,” he said, adding that the JCCI is one of the best examples using IT solutions and technologies where it helps to deliver better services to businesses that are continuously expanding. The MoU also provides for a monthly workshop on different business and IT areas for the benefit of member-companies.