Aluminum Al Ahram

Mr. Mohamed El Ashmawy, Aluminum Al Ahram Export Manager, has known Soficom since 1999. He considers Aluminum Al Ahram to be the first company in this industry to launch a website for its products. He declares “ It was a fashion at that time to develop a website. We were lucky to have gone through this fad because we became the pioneer since then and gained a lot of benefits”. Aluminum Al Ahram has profited a lot out of exporting to Canada & France. “We made more than one successful transaction over the net and we hope we can do more than this” Mr. Mohamed confirms. Aluminum Al Ahram assure on the importance of launching e-business sites, specially for industrial products because this will add a lot for the company and will increase as well in the over-all sales revenues. www.alumalahram.com.eg

Electro Cable Egypt (ECE)

Eng. Ahmed Reda Abdel Hafez, ECE Board of Directors Consultant & Member of Board of Directors, is working in one of the major companies in the field of heavy industry, and in cables in specific. Eng. Ahmed has known Soficom since the establishment of SWIS in 1997. He knew Soficom upon recommendations from one of his friends. Eng. Ahmed said, " we started thinking about the site when the company has taken great steps towards privatization; the company was transferred from the public sector to the private sector in 1997. At that time, we made the annual report stating the necessity for launching the company site on the Internet". The main purpose from launching the site was to create e-public relations for the company on the World Wide Web. Eng. Ahmed states that ECE wanted to expand export activities to the Arab World and increase the company's total sales revenue. ECE made a great role for publishing the site. Eng. Ahmed said "we were responsible for providing the content of the site while SWIS was totally responsible for all the technicalities, programming and design of the site". Eng. Ahmed played the role of the intermediary between the company, which wanted to have the site's final a true reflection of the company's activities, and SWIS. " We are currently satisfied with the site, but we need to do some modifications as technology is moving fast as well our products. We want to update the site to reflect always the company image and status" Eng. Ahmed assures this. He also added that ECE has gained well-known certificates for Quality performance and assurance. They think that the site will achieve more target markets after these amendments are complete and launched to the site. After launching the site, ECE has noticed an increase of 5 % in the total revenue. ECE was able to export to the Gulf area, and specially to the United Arab Emirates. This approach drives the company ahead. Eng. Ahmed confirms " We do assert to other companies the importance of launching their own website that reflects the company and the market as well". www.ece.com.eg

King Hotel

Ahmed El Sherif, one of King Hotel's shareholders, was interested in launching a web site for his hotel last year. Soficom was known for its exceptional development and design skills and was recommended to Ahmed by one of his colleges. Mr. El Sherif had based his MBA thesis study on E-commerce and its application in small and medium sized hospitality entities in Egypt. Ahmed said, "After completing the study I was convinced that a small or medium sized hotel in Egypt could greatly benefit from having a web presence." The Hotel's main objective from launching the site was to increase its individual guest sales relative to group guest sales. Management's aim was to target world travelers coming to Egypt in their home countries. The idea was to give potential customers a means to get online, retrieve information about the hotel, its services and facilities, and if they wish, reserve online. Ahmed said, " Soficom played a vital role in creating an online image for the hotel. I provided the literature, and Soficom designed and hosted the site. Soficom was able to facilitate online reservations for accommodations and other activities without any problems." The layout of the site is simple and attractive. The site met its intended objective of attracting individual guest. King hotel achieved very encouraging results over the past 9 months. Ahmed is quoted as saying, " we have had a 10% increase in our individual guest base, all credited to or web site, resulting in an overall increase in Sales Revenue. Due to its successful experience, King Hotel highly recommends companies operating in the Tourism industry to promote and sell their services online as a tool for increasing sales and improving customer service satisfaction. www.king-hotel.com

Hyatt

Hyatt is a leading company operating in the field of tourism. Dr. Fakhry Azzab, the owner and the General Manager, has recognized that they need to launch a website that represents the activity of the company. Dr. Fakhry assured by saying, “it became a critical issue for any company to launch a web site on the net, in addition to this, we have another office in America that strengths this necessity”. Dr. Fakhry said ” we wanted to increase the business, offer good promotions and reserve tour packages; the only way to do all these things was through launching a site in comparison to the cost of acting on direct selling activities”. He added, “ Our main target was to create public awareness and service recognition”. The design of the site was the primary thing that concerned Hyatt. They wanted to be recognized in the market with full and respectable image. Hyatt provided Soficom with the data needed and Soficom fully implemented the site that was launched after 15 days. Dr. Fakhry assured ”the design of the site was excellent and we received a lot of mails from our clients who liked the site”. Hyatt site represented the company in a simple and elegant form that make it succeed in what it is doing. Hyatt recommends to other partners, especially in the field of tourism, the importance of having there own website besides the company sales activities. www.hyatt.com.eg