RESEARCH IN MOTION
Research In Motion (RIM) announced recently the BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint, delivering the most advanced mobile SharePoint solution on the market. The BlackBerry Client app provides a deeply integrated and intuitive mobile experience for users together with the market-leading manageability and security of BlackBerry Enterprise Server, providing a secure and cost-effective solution for businesses and government organizations. “Our enterprise and government customers asked us to bring a highly refined mobile experience to SharePoint and we are delivering that today with the BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint,” said Alan Panezic, VP, enterprise product management and marketing at RIM. Connectivity between BlackBerry smartphones and SharePoint servers is made possible with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software. “In a world of continuous connectivity, businesses and governments require products, services and information faster and more reliably than ever before,” said Victor Garcia, chief technology officer at HP Canada. “The BlackBerry Client for Microsoft SharePoint helps to address the needs of today’s mobile work force with new tools and mobile applications to enable collaboration and productivity.” In addition to user benefits, the complete solution also comes with many benefits for organizations and their IT departments.
CPC
Labor Minister Adel Fakeih has honored Construction Products Holding Company (CPC) for its proven commitment to job nationalization and for supporting the recent Jeddah HR Forum as diamond sponsor, with an award, which was received by Faysal Alaquil, director of business development and administration affairs of CPC. According to Alaquil, CPC accords top priority to training and creating employment opportunities for young Saudi men and women as a national duty more than a choice since it increases the country’s productivity, strengthens its economic security, hastens its progress and improves the lives of its citizens. Alaquil said: “We need to be more serious in addressing the issue of raising the competency levels of our country’s human resources. At the forum, there was keen discussion on several issues in this regard, especially the expected outcome of the Nitaqat program, job enrichment to enhance productivity, creative entrepreneurship to build a positive work culture, building a congenial work environment to attract and retain local talent, and the expectations of business owners on HR changes and related issues.” CPC has announced plans to employ more than 6,000 citizens in various technical and administrative jobs in its factories and companies.
QATAR AIRWAYS
Qatar Airways’ cargo division is commencing scheduled dedicated freighter services to three North American destinations — Atlanta, Houston and Toronto. The new North American services will be operated with the carrier’s Boeing 777 freighters and will fly from the airline’s hub in Doha via Luxembourg. Atlanta and Houston will be served with twice-weekly flights from Nov. 2, while the Toronto services will begin five days later on Nov. 7. In North America, the airline currently operates dedicated freighters only to Chicago. In another development, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker has reinforced the importance of the airline’s ongoing expansion in Scandinavia following its latest route launch to Oslo. The Oct. 5 start-up of scheduled flights to Norway’s capital city complements the airline’s existing services to Stockholm and Copenhagen with the carrier now flying to three key points in Northern Europe. “Public demand, huge tourism opportunities and our common trade interests in oil and gas played an important part in Qatar Airways’ decision to open up this new route between our Doha hub and Oslo,” said the CEO in the Norwegian capital. “Our new service brings holiday destinations such as Melbourne, Singapore, Bangkok, Cape Town, Bali, Shanghai and Hong Kong closer to Norway.”
AL-RABIE
Al-Rabie Saudi Foods Company, a major juice manufacturing company in Saudi Arabia, continues to implement its CSR strategy and is launching several social awareness campaigns especially aimed at the all-round development of students, enabling them to become active members of the society. Accordingly, to achieve its goals Al-Rabie Saudi Foods Company recently started to welcome students from various schools, following the commencement of the new academic year, at its premises. This initiative also complements other programs and schemes launched by Al-Rabie as it seeks to introduce students to "made in Saudi Arabia" products and provide them an overview about dairy products, juices and the food industry in the Kingdom. “The number of visitors to our factories reached more than 2,300 during the last semester. The educational process does not only involve the transfer of information, but also the development of a student’s all-round personality. Psychological counseling services for students in schools also supplement the educational process,” said Abdul Mohsen Abu Harba, director of the communications, PR and social activities department, at Al-Rabie.
SAFFORI LAND
Saffori Land is offering a very special promotion for school trips to mark the new academic year, Saffori Land family entertainment centers have been attracting the school students through an attractive package costing SR25 per student. It includes all the major rides in addition to a meal with McDonald’s, Herfy or Kudu. The offer is valid at all locations of Al-Othamim’s Saffori Land in Riyadh, Al-Hassa, Dammam and Buraidah. Saffori Land is acknowledged as one of the best amusement centers in the Kingdom, which has been designed with great care and concern. It ensures privacy full attention to children and their families. Saffori Land has an integrated program to receive the school trips and create an environment of joy and recreation for the students. For the family members, it has modern amusement games including roller coaster, ice-skating and a 5D theater, plus many of the modern adventure games to entertain every visitor.
SOFITEL
Sofitel claims to have emerged as the only French luxury hotel brand with a presence on five continents with 120 addresses, in almost 40 countries (more than 30,000 rooms). Sofitel, which has world-class hotels with French elegance, offers contemporary hotels and resorts adapted to today’s more demanding and more versatile consumers who expect and appreciate beauty, quality and excellence. Whether situated in the heart of a major city like Paris, London, New York, Shanghai or Beijing, or nestled away in a country landscape in Morocco, Egypt, French Polynesia or Thailand, each Sofitel property offers a genuine experience of the French “art de vivre.”
EMIRATES
Emirates is bringing forward its first daily A380 service to Germany by serving Munich from Nov. 25, nearly five weeks earlier than expected. The double-decker was originally set to replace EK 49, one of two daily services to Munich, from Jan. 1. Under a revised schedule, passengers will be able to enjoy the flagship of the Emirates’ fleet from Nov. 25. “Emirates is the first foreign carrier to bring the A380 back to Germany, said Salem Obaidalla, the airline’s SVP, commercial operations, Europe & Russian Federation. “After further reviewing our forthcoming A380 deliveries and expected demand, we have decided to bring forward its deployment to Munich by more than a month, which is excellent news for one of our most important markets.” Since Sept. 1, Emirates has gone from one to two flights per day to Hamburg, taking to 56 its total number of weekly passenger flights to Germany. In Frankfurt, the current double daily service will be enhanced with an extra four flights per week as of Oct. 30, becoming a triple daily operation from Dec. 1.
INJAZ
Injaz-Saudi Arabia signed five new partnership agreements during the recent Jeddah Human Resources Forum 2011. The deals were with the Ministry of Labor, the Volunteering Academy of Dallah, the College of Business Administration (CBA), Al-Watan newspaper and Phenomenal PR Agency. Minister of Labor Adel Al-Fakeih and Abdulkarim Abu Al-Nasr, chairman of Injaz-Saudi Arabia signed the deal with the Ministry of Labor. Abu Al-Nasr said the agreement aimed to establish partnership between the two sides to define the programs of the ministry in schools and to contribute toward an awareness of the requirements of the private sector and instill in the students the concept of self-employment, thus contributing toward several job creations. The agreement with the Academy of Volunteering of Dallah envisages activation of the role of the employees of the academy to volunteer and provide programs to Injaz-Saudi Arabia. Nadia Baeshen represented the CBA with the agreement, which focuses on the partnership to provide programs and to clarify the role of both the college and the programs of Injaz-Saudi Arabia. The partnership contract between Injaz-Saudi Arabia and Phenomenal PR agency is meant to provide consulting media services to Injaz-Saudi Arabia. Phenomenal Chairman Shadi Zahid signed this deal. Nael Fayez, CEO of Injaz-Saudi Arabia, said: “These agreements will enable Injaz-Saudi Arabia to expand its programs in Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha, Tabuk and the Eastern Region.”
