Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed AlNehayan

AMEInfo caught up with chairman Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed AlNehayan at the Summit Dubai e-business conference. So how had the DIO helped Vertscape develop? And what were its plans for the future?

'Our prize had a value of $150,000, mainly in services, accommodation in the Dubai Media City and consultancy fees, and that finishes at the end of the month as we graduate from incubation. The DIO was a start-up as well so we sort of learnt together, and they have been very encouraging and supportive.

'Now we have investors on board and are about to sign off on 20 documents, so we will be off on our own. At the moment we have eight staff and a number of pilot schemes with customers testing our product. The reaction is great and the biggest surprise to most of them is the level of service we offer for a modest monthly fee.

'Our aim is to become profitable within one year and to do that we need to sign up a few thousand firms. What we offer is a host platform and an online service that requires no buying of software. This is a straightforward way for small businesses to put their catalogues online and to search for information about the best price for procurement'.

What makes the great-grandson of the UAE's ruler His Highness Sheikh Zayed so confident about Vertscape's prospects is that its platform offers two things: the opportunity to make additional revenue through online catalogues, and a new way of saving costs through online price comparisons. But does online pricing mean an end to traditional bartering?

'Not at all', he says. 'This is a price request system to compare prices, so the final deal is still done in the old fashioned way. We just make sure that people always get the best price. So often with established suppliers people loose track of price changes. This will not happen with our system, and owners can ensure that their purchasing manager always makes a choice based on price transparency.

'But we do not offer a payment gateway. We don't think people want to conclude such transactions online. But anyone can benefit from better information about product prices'.

Sheikh Khaled's message to the Summit Dubai was that the Internet is here to stay like the telephone and that companies should use this technology as a tool to help them.

For Vertscape the challenge now is to convince thousands of small businesses that its platform is the best way to convert to an e-corporation. Perhaps a visit to http://www.vertscape.com would prove illuminating.