Following extensive research into the Internet usage habits of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) business market, Emirates Internet and Multimedia, Etisalat’s Internet business unit, announced a new range of BusinessOne solutions for small to medium sized enterprises (SME).
Designed to meet the specific needs and budgets of various sized companies, the existing BusinessOne package has been redesigned into five separately priced solutions, which will be available from May 12, 2003. These provide a range of access speeds, various download limits, a scalable number of e-mails, and web hosting.
“We launched BusinessOne in October 2000 as a ‘one size fits all’ solution and we have been monitoring its success ever since,” commented EIM General Manager Maroua Naim. “The smallest business now requires a high speed connection, e-mail addresses and a web site with which to operate efficiently, but cannot always afford the prices larger companies are able to pay. The five new packages provide solutions to different requirements and we believe the SME market can now advance to the next level.”
Larger businesses will be able to increase the speed of their connection and the number of e-mail accounts they receive for their employees. Smaller companies, meanwhile, will have the opportunity to decrease their spending on the Internet when applying to the package that fits their business.
EIM was able to bring down prices for the smaller business by introducing a download limit for each package, according to a company press release. The single user package allows a download of limit 350MB per month, whilst the multi user package provides a download cap of up to 8GB. These were set following extensive research throughout the market to discover usage patterns. Should a company exceed this limit, an additional fee will be charged.
The packages start from 350 Emirati dirhams for the single user business, and increase to Dh2,000 for larger companies. Previously, companies had to pay the fixed price of Dh1,100 per month, regardless of their size. Any customer that requires all the aspects of the existing package will be able to migrate to an almost identical package, whilst saving Dh205 per month.
“This move was an essential next step in meeting the needs of a developing market,” added Naim. “The SME sector underpins much of the UAE economy and the Internet has become an integral part of its day-to-day business. By increasing the products we offer, we expect to see the number of businesses taking advantage of the Internet’s benefits grow extensively.“
Emirates Internet and Multimedia (EIM) is the Internet service provider arm of Etisalat, launched in March 2000. Today the UAE has more than 945,000 users in total, placing the country in the top 20 most Internet wired countries in the world. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
