ALKHOBAR, 1 August 2006 — The Saudi Logistics and Electronics Company (SALEC), a Middle East IT integrator, has joined the Alcatel Business Partner Program and will offer Alcatel enterprise solutions to businesses throughout Egypt. SALEC is part of the SALEC International Group of Companies, which are an operating unit of The Dabbagh Group and an extension of Dabbagh’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) business portfolio.
“SALEC is pleased to have joined the Alcatel Business Partner Program. We are confident that Alcatel’s range of user centric solutions will offer our customers a comprehensive feature set and an open architecture for growth and expansion. Our first customer to benefit from this partnership is ‘The Contact Center Egypt,’ one of the five larger players in the contact center business in Egypt, providing business process outsourcing, telemarketing, telesales and telesupport,” said Mahmoud Soliman, president and CEO, SALEC.
Alcatel offers a cutting-edge set of solutions for the enterprise segment in the region comprised of Voice over IP, IP infrastructure, secure converged solutions and CTI applications. These solutions will assist SALEC’s customers looking for integrated IP infrastructures with advanced voice services and applications that will streamline operation, enhance employee productivity, maintain an unprecedented high level of availability and resilience through an Alcatel unified communication architecture in which the user is the focal point.
“Partnering with IT leaders like SALEC means Alcatel is better able to deliver the efficiency boosting benefits of its enterprise solutions to businesses throughout Egypt. Since SALEC has a strong knowledge of consultancy, project management and after sales support that will help them deliver complete solutions to their customers in this important market,” said Hesham El Nahhas, regional director, ME, Enterprise Sales, Alcatel.
Alcatel continues its business activities in the region while moving forward on a global basis with the Lucent Technologies integration process. Alcatel and Lucent believe they are on track to complete their merger transaction by the end of calendar year 2006. In recent weeks, the two companies have achieved a number of significant milestones, including satisfying some regulatory conditions to the proposed merger.
The business model and the associated organization of the combined company are now defined and will be implemented immediately upon closing. More detailed evaluations of cost synergies confirm that previously announced targets should be fully met. The combined company will address carrier, enterprise and service markets with a strong focus on end-to-end solutions maximizing the value to customers. The overall business will be segmented in business groups structured along the global requirements of those three markets, while a decentralized regional organization will provide strong local support to customers.
The company will have four geographic regions:
• Europe and North, headed by Vince Molinaro;
• Europe and South, headed by Olivier Picard;
• North America, headed by Cindy Christy; and
• Asia-Pacific, headed by Frederic Rose.
The Middle East will be part of the Europe and South geography.
The company will have a management committee, which will be headed by Pat Russo, CEO. The members of this committee will include Etienne Fouques, senior executive vice president of the Carrier Group; Frank D’Amelio, senior executive vice president, integration and chief administrative officer; Jean-Pascal Beaufret, CFO; Claire Pedini, senior executive vice president, HR and communication, and Mike Quigley, president, Science, Technology and Strategy.
